Research

How do humans uncover the hidden structure of the world?

The world is complex, yet we manage to group our experiences in a meaningful way so that we can generalize from relevant past experiences. We quantify each component of this inference process with computational modeling. With fMRI, we are investigating how the brain recognizes when a new structure emerges and when an old structure becomes relevant again.

How does the inferred structure shape episodic memories?

Have you ever experienced memories flooding back when you revisit a place you haven’t been for a while — childhood home, alma mater, and such? We retrieve episodic memories when they become relevant again. How do we achieve this? Our research suggests that we can do so by structuring memories based on inferred hidden structures.

How does the inferred structure shape our social cognition?

Arguably, one of the most complex parts of our environment consists of other people, as we are limited in the information we can gather about them. We can see who they are and what they do, but we cannot read their minds. In this line of work, we investigate how our evaluations of other people rely on what we believe is driving their actions, whether it is their intentions or a larger hidden societal structure that constrain actions. We are exploring effective ways to reduce our cognitive biases.

How do these inferences change in psychiatric illnesses?

Inferring the hidden structures has all these downstream consequences. We are investigating what components of inference processes change in psychiatric illnesses.