University of Birmingham
Psychology Title

Psychology

BUCS

workshops 2007


Closing the gap between neurophysiology and behaviour:
A computational modelling approach
University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
May 31st-June 2nd 2007

This workshop is part of a series of published colloquia on 'Advances in cognitive neuroscience', held at the Behavioural Brain Sciences Centre, University of Birmingham. The general aim of the workshop was to bring together leading international researchers either using computational models, or collecting data directly relevant to models, to discuss the current state of the art, and to evaluate new directions in the interaction between models and data.
Details of the program and talk abstracts are available here and pictures from the workshop can be seen here.

Powerpoint presentations (as PDFs)
Bruce Graham Dynamical information processing in a neuronal microcircuit
Dietmar Heinke Getting the Selective Attention for Identification model (SAIM) in touch with the neurophysiological side
Emilio Kropff Uninformative memories will prevail: the storage of correlated representations and its consequences
Michael C. Mozer A unified theory of exogenous and endogenous attentional control
Aaron Sloman Architectural and representational requirements for seeing processes and affordances
Thomas Trappenberg Decision making and population decoding with strongly inhibitory:
Neural field models
Li Zhaoping A bottom-up visual saliency map in the primary visual cortex - theory and its experimental tests

Aims and objectives
At present, modelling approaches range from "neurophysiological processes in details and indifferent to whole-system behaviour" to "modelling a broad range of behavioural data but oblivious to neurophysiological details". However, in order to close the gap between neurophysiological process and human behaviour it may be necessary to connect both ends of that spectrum, such as modelling a broad range of behavioural data together with neurophysiological details. This workshop discussed ways of closing the gap, i.e. how to develop an integrative approach, by bringing together computational modelling researchers from different points of the spectrum.
Satellite workshop
To complement this workshop, a satellite workshop for postgraduate students and junior postdocs took place on May 30th. It provided hands-on experience as well a theoretical introduction to computational models. For more details, click here.

Speakers
Gustavo Deco (University of Barcelona), Karl Friston (University College London), Glyn Humphreys (University of Birmingham), Laurent Itti (University of Southern California), Zhaoping Li (University College London), Mike Mozer (University of Colorado), Rob Ward (University of Wales Bangor), Simon Thorpe (Université de Toulouse), Howard Bowman (University of Kent), Bruce Graham (University of Stirling), Aaron Sloman (University of Birmingham), Alessandro Treves (International School for Advanced Studies, (SISSA), Trieste), Kevin Gurney (University of Sheffield), Thomas Trappenberg (Dalhousie University).

Contact details
Dr Dietmar Heinke
Behavioural Brain Sciences Centre, School of Psychology
University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (0)121 414 4920 Fax: +44 (0)212 414 4897
Email: d.g.heinke@bham.ac.uk

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SATELLITE WORKSHOP for postgrads and junior postdocs

The method of computational modelling:
A practical introduction
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham
May 30th 2007

Computational models involve abstract, mathematical concepts. The results of these models are often not intuitive and, therefore, are not easily accessible. One way of tackling this issue is to provide people with hands-on experience with model simulations. This one-day workshop aims to provide this practical experience together with a theoretical introduction to computational models.

Structure and content
The workshop was organised in two parts. In the first part (morning) participants received a general theoretical introduction to computer models and a brief summary of the state-of-the-art with respect to modelling in cognitive psychology. The introduction was given by internationally renown researchers, Howard Bowman and Thomas Trappenberg.
The second part (afternoon) was in a laboratory-based setting where attendees interacted with computer implementations of models covered in the first part. The attendees followed set exercises in which they modified several properties of computer models, e.g. network structures, parameters or input-output relationships, etc. These exercises allowed the attendees to observe the consequences of their modifications and thereby gain a better understanding of the inner workings of computational models. They was loosely based on O'Reilly and Munakata's book Computational Explorations in Cognitive Neuroscience.

Registration
For further inquiries please email Dr. Dietmar Heinke, d.g.heinke@bham.ac.uk.
The workshop was funded by a grant for Postgraduate and Postdoctoral Workshops from the Experimental Psychology Society (EPS). Therefore the meeting was only open to postgraduate students and/or junior postdoctoral researchers (normally within two years of their PhD). The travel expenses will be covered by the organisers.

Please note that the workshop is a satellite event to a BBSRC-funded workshop with the title 'Closing the gap between neurophysiology and behaviour: A computational modelling approach'. It took place from the May 31st 2007 to the June 2nd 2007. This workshop brough together leading international researchers either using computational models, or collecting data directly relevant to models, to discuss the current state of the art, and to evaluate new directions in the interaction between models and data. A number of internationally renowned researchers presented papers at this workshop (click here for details).

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