Nature & Nurture #63: Dr. Mark Ho - Mental Representation & Problem Solving

Dr. Mark Ho is a Cognitive Scientist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University. His research provides insights into human planning and social cognition by developing computational theories (e.g., using probabilistic models, reinforcement learning, neural networks) and testing those theories experimentally with people.

Learn more about Mark’s work at: https://markkho.github.io/

In this episode we discuss Mark’s recent research on value-guided construals (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04743-9), and how the problem of navigation relies not just on devising a path to your destination, but also how detailed to construct your mental map. Value-guided construals refer to dynamically adjusting the detail of our mental representations necessary to achieve our value-guided goals.

We then talk about mental representation more broadly, both in humans and artificial intelligence, and discuss the role of intentionality and agency in humans and machines, using examples such as natural language processing algorithms and autonomous vehicles.

Lastly, we talk about free will and how value-guided construals may also be utilized in social cognition, how our value-guided construals relate to other aspects of cognition such as attention, and Mark’s future research plans.