Psychonomic Society's One World Series presents Gregory Cox (April 24, 2024)

As part of the Psychonomic Society's One World Seminar Series, Gregory Cox, University at Albany -SUNY, USA, presents "Integrated representations in perception and memory illuminated by neural and behavioral dynamics."
Much of cognition depends on the ability to form representations that integrate information, whether from our external environment, via perception, or our internal environment, via memory. In this talk, I describe empirical results and computational modeling that shed light on the mechanisms by which these kinds of integrated representations are formed. I focus on visual search on the one hand and associative memory on the other. A unifying theme is the importance of dynamics, whether neural or behavioral, for revealing the structure of integrated representations and the types of processes involved in their formation. In visual search, firing rate dynamics of single neurons show how the integration of object identity and object location is driven by recurrent interactions and competition between representations. In associative memory, response times and speed-accuracy tradeoff data show how integrated representations of associations are encoded and retrieved in parallel with representations of the associated objects themselves. A deeper understanding of these cognitive dynamics puts us in a better position to forge connections between neural and behavioral dynamics. Simulated neural activity in visual search predicts behavioral response time distributions that closely match those observed in a variety of conditions. Meanwhile, models of associative encoding and retrieval processes connect cognitive theory with emerging understanding of the hierarchical organization of the hippocampus and related brain regions.