What is a cognitive map? - Unraveling its mystery using robots

Speaker:        Professor Wai Yeap
                Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research
                Auckland University of Technology
                New Zealand

Title:          "What is a cognitive map? - Unraveling its mystery using
                robots"

Date:           Tuesday, 3 January 2017

Time:           11:00am - 12 noon


Venue:          Rm3530 (via lifts 25-26)


Abstract:

A prominent theory of spatial cognition claims that many species utilize a
map to navigate in their environment. Yet, despite years of empirical
research and a 2014 noble prize being awarded for the neuroscience
research in this area, the idea remains controversial. Some argue that the
theory should be discarded. In this talk, I present a novel process model
for cognitive mapping that has been developed using robots and show how
cognitive mapping could have evolved in different species, from ants to
humans, and that such a process supports the perception of a stable world.
Our model thus offers new directions for empirical researchers to continue
their investigation into the primacy of cognitive mapping as a process for
learning about the environment.


Biography:

Professor Wai Yeap is the Director of the Centre for Artificial
Intelligence Research at the Auckland University of Technology, New
Zealand. His interest in AI is to develop a computational theory of the
mind via researching into how we perceive space and how infants understand
language and learn. His fascination with AI began while he was an
undergraduate student studying computer science at Essex University in
1975 and inspired by Dr Michael Brady (now Sir Michael Brady and retired
as an Emeritus Professor at Oxford University), he joined him to do a PhD
in AI at Essex University.