Theoretical Modeling Workshop

Cognitive and/or psychological theories often start as verbal descriptions of observed regularities in human behavior and some intuitive ideas about their causal origins. Such informal verbal theories are a good place to start explanations of cognition, but are also limited. For example, it is difficult to test if an informal theory is internally consistent, if the theory explains observed phenomena, and if the processes assumed by the theory are computationally and physically realizable. To make verbal theories more precise, scientists engage in theoretical modeling.

A theoretical model describes, in a precise (formal) language, how we think that (a part of) cognition or behavior may work. In this workshop, you will learn to build such formal models. Afterwards, you can use the acquired formal modeling skills to develop your own theoretical models in your domain of interest in cognitive science or psychology.

The Theoretical Modeling Workshop is open to interested master’s students and PhD candidates. Check out the full schedule below. Please note that all times for the contact sessions listed below are CEST.

The workshop will take place between September 11 and October 30. Physical presence in Nijmegen is not required in order to participate, as all of the contact sessions will be held online.

Opening lecture

Schedule

Week	Date and time	Activity
1		Read Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of the Theoretical Modeling textbook, read van Rooij & Baggio (2021) and watch the video of the opening lecture (optional: Cummins (2000) )
	Thursday, September 11, 13.30–15.30	Welcome meeting
2		Read Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 (optional: van Rooij and Blokpoel (2020) )
3	Thursday, September 25, 13.30–16.30	Formalization Practice I
4		Read feedback on the first formalisation practice exercise
5	Thursday, October 2, 13.30–16.30	Formalization Practice II
6		Select and read a paper for the assessment exercise (optional: Hahn et al. 2003 or a different paper in your domain of interest)
		Start working on the assessment exercise
7		Finish working on the assessment exercise
8	October 30, 13.30–15.30	Closing session with QA, reflections, discussion, feedback

Organizers

Natalia Scharfenberg is a PhD candidate working on meta-theory in the Computational Cognitive Science group, and a junior lecturer at the Cognitive Science and AI department at Radboud University. She coordinates this workshop.

Mark Blokpoel is a computer scientist and computational cognitive scientist. He is an assistant professor at the Cognitive Science and AI department and a senior researcher in the Computational Cognitive Science group. He coordinates the Radboud-Aarhus Computational Cognitive Science collaboration.

Iris van Rooij is a psychologist and computational cognitive scientist. She is a professor and PI of the Computational Cognitive Science group and Head of the Cognitive Science and AI department. She is also a guest professor at Aarhus University.

Joshua Skewes is an associate professor in Cognitive Science. He is Head of Department for Linguistics, Cognitive Science, and Semiotics, and Head of Department of Culture, Cognition, and Computation at Aarhus University, Denmark.

Moulshree Rana is a PhD candidate at the Donders Center for Cognition with the Cognition of Multilingualism lab. Her background is in cognitive science and psychology and her research focuses on how people learn the grammar of a new language.

License

The workshop materials are released under the CC BY 4.0 license. The workshop website is made with Jekyll using the Minimal Mistakes theme.
The artwork by Danielle Navarro is released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, and used with permission.