How do we form past tense forms? Do we memorize them or is there a rule based processing involved? Can we model this aspect of language processing?

This is my review of a recent paper from Prof. Rebecca Saxe’s lab at MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. The authors (Tomova et al. 2020) present a study investigating if forced isolation makes people crave social interactions similar to how a hungry person craves food. This study is extremely relevant in the current scenario, where millions of people worldwide have been forced to self-isolate.

[This article is under process.] What do you think are the differences between tool use by humans and our close relatives?

How do you think empathy comes about in humans? Can simple shapes arouse empathy? How does it relate to autistic people?

What was so interesting about Poggio’s proposal for revised “Levels of Understanding” framework in place of the old Marr & Poggio’s tri-level framework? Why was there a need for revision?