Description

Fiery Cushman is Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, where he directs the Moral Psychology Research Laboratory. Dr. Cushman's research aims to organize the astonishing complexity of moral judgment around basic functional principles. Much of it is motivated by a simple idea: Because we use punishments and rewards to modify others’ behavior, one function of morality is to teach others how to behave, while another complementary function is to learn appropriate patterns of behavior. His laboratory investigates these issues using a wide range of methods, including surveys, laboratory behavioral studies, psychophysiology, infant and child research, functional neuroimaging, economic games and formal modeling. The ultimate goal is to use the moral domain to understand phenomena of more general importance: the balance between learned and innate contributions to cognition; the human capacity to explain, predict and evaluate others’ behavior; the relationship between automaticity and control; and the architecture of learning and decision-making in a social context. Dr. Cushman's research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and the John Templeton Foundation.

Abstract

As humans, much of what we know, value, and do is learned from others.  How can models of social learning be integrated with models of value-guided decision-making?  I will present a few several case studies of this problem.  In each case, a tradeoff arises between simple heuristic methods of learning, and complex rational methods of learning.  These rational models often involve “hierarchical mentalizing”: A setting in which the teacher models a learner’s psychology, the learner models the teacher modeling the learner, etc.  The studies show that people flexibly trade off the costs and benefits of heuristic versus rational methods of learning.

This lecture will take place at 3:30 pm in Psychology 1312 on the UCSB campus and is free and open to the public. This lecture will also be followed with refreshments and a post-lecture discussion.