SSP Forum: Douglas Guilbeault on Discovering Cognitive Structure
Room 126
(See description for Notes on Entry)

Douglas Guilbeault
The
Symbolic Systems Forum
(community sessions of SYMSYS 280 - Symbolic Systems Research Seminar)
presents
Discovering Cognitive Structure using Large-Scale Social Data and Artificial Intelligence
Douglas Guilbeault
Graduate School of Business
Monday, October 21, 2024
12;30-1:20 pm PT
Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg. 460), Room 126
In-person event, not recorded
(see below for entry instructions if you are not an active Stanford affiliate)
Note: Lunch is provided, if pre-ordered, only for members of SYMSYS 280, but others are welcome to bring a lunch and eat during the presentation.
ABSTRACT:
What can we learn about the structure of individual minds, human or artificial, using large-scale social data, such as the textual or visual data flowing through search engines and social media platforms? In this talk, I present a range of studies showing that large-scale social data can reveal striking insights into the mind, ranging from the structure of embodied cognition to the psychological biases that underlie stereotypes. I will give special attention to presenting the results of a study we recently published in Nature which demonstrates how combining large-scale image and text data from online sources, analyzed via artificial intelligence, can reveal the latent multimodal structure of gender stereotypes. I will then share ongoing work that builds on these results by revealing the multimodal structure of intersectional stereotypes (e.g., gendered ageism) not only in human minds, but also in the judgments and associations formed by generative AI. Throughout, I will emphasize that big data and artificial intelligence are useful not only for testing existing theories about cognitive structure, but also for discovering and testing new theories. As an example, I will briefly describe ongoing work that harnesses this suite of algorithmic methodologies to unveil deep connections between the representational structure of gender and the concreteness and abstractness of concepts across domains, using visual and textual data, as well as behavioral outputs from AI. Opportunities for further advancing the integration of computer science, cognitive science, and cultural sociology will be discussed.
NOTES ON ENTRY TO THE MEETING ROOM:
Entry to the building is open to anyone with an active Stanford ID via the card readers next to each door. If you do not have a Stanford ID, you can gain entry between 12:15 and 12:30pm ONLY by knocking on the exterior windows of room 126. These windows are to the left of the west side exterior door on the first floor of Margaret Jacks Hall, which faces the back east side of Building 420. Please do not knock on these windows after 12:30pm when the talk has started. We will not be able to come out and open the door for you at that point.