Developing Intelligence: Insights from Spatial and Social Cognition

Join us for a talk by Moira Dillon, Assistant Professor of Psychology, New York University. This talk is part of the Kempner Seminar Series, a research-level seminar series that covers topics related to the basis of intelligence in natural and artificial systems.

Humans are the best knowers and learners of the natural world. We are the only creatures on earth who build cities, make art, and formalize our knowledge and learning into systems that are passed on through pedagogy. What makes human intelligence so unique? I will address this broad question by investigating the cognitive origins of two quintessential domains of human intelligence: spatial intelligence and social intelligence.

The origins of our spatial and social knowledge and learning have fascinated great thinkers from at least antiquity, and our untutored intuitions in both domains support our creation of formal systems, like geometry and ethics. Through experiments with infants, children, adults, and formal and computational models, I will characterize the cognitive origins of our spatial and social knowledge as well as the mechanisms by which these origins support learning through development. Overall, the work I will discuss will intervene on foundational debates in psychology and cognitive science, including: the relation between language and thought; empiricism vs. nativism; and the difference between natural and artificial intelligences.