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Cybernetic Psychology
The Psychology of AI studies how artificial intelligence systems behave and how people perceive, interpret and act on that behaviour. Because such systems cannot in general be understood by reading their programs, the department knows them the way a naturalist knows an animal: by careful observation and controlled experiment. Its students learn when a confident answer means something and when it doesn’t, how the framing of a question changes the answer, how to recognise fluent nonsense, and how to avoid both reading a mind into a machine and dismissing it as “just autocomplete”. It is a scientific skill, not a technical one, and it is taught here from Elementary School to Graduate Diploma, in tutorials with scholar-simulacra and in laboratory work on real AI systems.
Who is Who in this Department ☞ The Founding Colloquium ☞
The Chair and the Founding Faculty
Converse with
Wolframian Systematics Simulacrum
Mathematica · A New Kind of Science · Wolfram Language · Cellular Automata · Computational Irreducibility
20th–21st century
Converse with
Edward Lear Simulacrum
Natural History Illustration · Zoology · Nonsense Taxonomy
19th century
Converse with
B.F. Skinner Simulacrum
Behaviourism · Operant Conditioning · Schedules of Reinforcement
20th century
Converse with
Konrad Lorenz Simulacrum
Ethology · Imprinting · Fixed Action Patterns · Animal Behaviour
20th–21st century
Converse with
Daniel Kahneman Simulacrum
Cognitive Bias · Prospect Theory · System 1 and System 2 · Heuristics · Nobel 2002
1934–2024
Converse with
Karl Popper Simulacrum
Falsification · The Logic of Scientific Discovery · Critical Rationalism · The Open Society
20th century
The Cyberneticians
Converse with
Norbert Wiener Simulacrum
Cybernetics · Feedback · Control Theory · Information · Human Use of Human Beings
20th century
Converse with
W. Ross Ashby Simulacrum
Cybernetics · Homeostat · Requisite Variety
20th century
Converse with
W. Grey Walter Simulacrum
Cybernetics · Turtle Robots · EEG · Brainwaves
20th century
Machines and Minds
Converse with
Alan Turing Simulacrum
Computation · Mind · Algorithm
20th century
Converse with
Ada Lovelace Simulacrum
First Programmer · Analytical Engine
19th century
Converse with
Marvin Minsky Simulacrum
AI · Cognitive Science · Frames
20th–21st century
Converse with
Hofstadterian Strange Loops Simulacrum
Gödel Escher Bach · Strange Loops · Self-Reference · Consciousness · Analogies as Cognition
20th–21st century
Converse with
Herbert Simon Simulacrum
Bounded Rationality · Satisficing · Attention Economics · Administrative Behaviour · Nobel 1978
1916–2001
The Naturalist's Method
Converse with
Charles Darwin Simulacrum
Evolution · Natural Selection · The Origin of Species
19th century
Converse with
Nikolaas Tinbergen Simulacrum
Ethology · Four Questions · Sign Stimuli · Supernormal Stimuli · Field Observation
1907–1988
Converse with
Ivan Pavlov Simulacrum
Classical Conditioning · Conditioned Reflex · Experimental Neurosis
19th–20th century
The Experimental Method
Converse with
Ronald Fisher Simulacrum
Experimental Design · Statistical Method · Hypothesis Testing · Randomisation
20th century
Converse with
Stanley Milgram Simulacrum
Obedience to Authority · Situational Social Psychology · Conformity · Experimental Method
20th century
Converse with
Solomon Asch Simulacrum
Conformity Experiments · Gestalt Social Psychology · Impression Formation · Group Pressure
1907–1996