Ansgar Endress
My research focuses on the psychological mechanisms involved in aspects of language acquisition and use. I am particularly interested in basic perceptual mechanisms as the basis of diverse computations in both artificial and natural grammar learning, and the role of perceptual cues in word learning. I normally employ behavioral experiments with humans, and computational modeling when I am bored. Now I will add research with non-human primates to investigate the same mechanisms in a non-human species. Ideally, this research will reveal some computational tools used by the language faculty, and indicate which of these are specific to humans and language.
Bryce Huebner
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My training has primarily been in the philosophy of mind; however, unlike the paradigmatic philosopher, I've always been left cold by the armchair speculation about the mind. So I've decided to engage in systematic empirical research that I hope will allow me to gain a better understanding of the ways in which simpler cognitive mechanisms are integrated in order to solve complex representational tasks. In particular, I am investigating the cognitive mechanisms that allow us to make moral judgments (much of this work takes place through the Moral Sense Test at http://moral.wjh.harvard.edu), as well as on the mechanisms that allow us to ascribe consciousness to others. Building on this empirical research, I am also constructing a theoretical and philosophical account of the conditions under which simple, often distributed, representations can be integrated into more complex representational structures.
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