The Whitehead Lectures are funded and organised by the Departments of Computing and Psychology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, with the aim of stimulating interest and debate in the area of cognition, computation and creativity. All are welcome to attend.

The meetings for Autumn Semester 2006 [October .. December] are listed below. All seminars to be held at 4pm in the Pimlott Lecture Theatre, (Ben Pimlott Building), unless otherwise stated.

For directions to Goldsmiths College see: http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/find-us/

To be added to the seminar mailing list, please contact Mark Bishop by email: m.bishop@gold.ac.uk

Wednesday, 11^th October, 16.00

Is Language Built on Song

Prof Bob Turner
- Welcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, FIL UCL, UK

Abstract: Recent experimental findings suggest that during child development musical communication precedes language, and language areas in the brain have been shown to form a subset of those concerned with music. For music, areas in both cerebral hemispheres are often engaged, while language tasks usually activate predominantly left-hemisphere regions. A recent fMRI study compares brain responses to hearing familiar songs with those to hearing spoken versions of the same songs by the same speakers. This confirms the extensive overlap between song and speech, and reveals auditory-motor template areas involved in detecting consonance. Tonal sequences of notes appear to have a special importance, both for infant music perception and for brain activation in adult hearers. It will be argued that the structures of tonal music, the prerequisite of musical harmony, which have an intrinsic connection to how we hear and produce sound, shape our brains and provide templates within our brains for structuring sound so that it can become meaningful for us in the form of language.

Robert Turner, a physicist, anthropologist and mathematician by training, worked as a Lecturer in Physics at Nottingham University from 1984-88, collaborating with the Nobel Prize winning Sir Peter Mansfield on the development of ultra-fast echo planar MRI (EPI) and design of MRI gradient coils. Pursuing his interest in using MRI to study brain function, he took a position as Visiting Scientist, NIH, in the USA in 1988, and pioneered Diffusion Weighted EPI, now used widely in stroke research, and Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) functional MRI at the high magnetic field of 4 T in humans. He returned to England in 1994 to help establish in London the world's first purpose-built lab for the study of human brain function with MRI. He is now a research professor in the Functional Imaging Laboratory and the High Field MR Research Laboratory, University College London, optimizing BOLD fMRI and other MRI techniques for neuroscience. His interest in music is personal as well as professional, and he has established a Music and Brain Club that meets several times per term in his laboratory in Queen Square, London.

Wednesday, 18^th October, 16.00 ***** VENUE TO BE CONFIRMED *****

Learning and consciousness

Prof Axel Cleeremans
- Université Libre de Bruxelles CP 191

Abstract: One way to approach the problem of consciousness involves exploring the differences between conscious and unconscious cognition. Striking dissociations between subjective experience and behavior have now been reported in various domains from memory to learning, from perception to action. Yet, the extent to which information processing can take place without consciousness remains controversial, in part because of the substantial methodological challenges associated with demonstrating unconscious cognition, in part because of conceptual differences in the manner in which such dissociations are interpreted. In this talk, I overview recent relevant findings, and sketch a novel conceptual framework that takes it as a starting point that conscious and unconscious cognition are rooted in the same set of learning and processing mechanisms. On this view, the extent to which a representation is conscious depends in a graded manner on properties such as its stability in time or its strength. Crucially, these properties are accrued as a result of learning, which is in turn viewed as a mandatory process that always accompanies information processing. In this light, I will report on several recent experiments in which we manipulated the temporal relationships between events and show that such manipulations influence the extent to which learning is conscious or not. A first implication of these ideas is that consciousness takes time. A second is that the main function of consciousness is to make flexible adaptive control over behavior possible. A third, much more speculative implication, is that we learn to be conscious. The conscious self, from this perspective, involves a ‘virtual other’ simulated by your brain as a result of having learned about the consequences of actions directed towards other agents over life-long interactions with them. I conclude that while learning without consciousness is definitely possible, consciousness without learning is not.


Axel Cleeremans, Ph.D. (1991), is a Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and a Research Director with the National Fund for Scientific Research (Belgium). Cleeremans currently heads the Cognitive Science Research Unit at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and coordinates an advanced degree in Cognitive Science. Trained in neural network modeling at Carnegie Mellon University under the supervision of J.L. McClelland, Cleeremans' main research interests are in understanding the differences between learning with and without consciousness, and, more generally, in the mechanisms that underpin consciousness itself. Cleeremans currently acts as president of the Belgian Association for Psychological Science, and is also a member of the executive committee of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness and of the board of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology.

Wednesday, 25^th October, 16.00

Walking Here & There

Simon Pope and Vaughan Bell
- Institute of Psychiatry, Cardiff School of Art and Design and Goldsmiths College

Abstract: : In ‘Walking Here & There’, artist Simon Pope and psychologist Vaughan Bell investigate the interaction of place and memory in psychosis, and particularly in reduplicative paramnesia, the delusional belief that a place exists in two or more locations simultaneously. The project's immediate aims are to develop an experimental framework through which to explore this otherwise exceptional condition, and through this to investigate relationships between space, place, mobility, delusion and memory. These themes are further developed in Pope's solo-exhibition, 'Gallery Space Recall' at Chapter in Cardiff, (6th-7th November 2006). ‘Walking Here And There’ is a research & development project supported by the Wellcome Trust's SciArt Fund.

Vaughan Bell is a clinical psychologist in training and researcher studying the neuropsychology of delusions. He currently works between the Institute of Psychiatry and the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. Simon Pope is an artist researching walking as a contemporary visual art practice. He is a Research Associate at Goldsmiths’ Digital Studios and Transmedia Brussels, a Senior Lecturer at Cardiff School of Art & Design, and former NESTA Fellow.

Wednesday, 1^st November, 16.00

Exemplifying learning, memory and creativity in a prodigious musical savant

Dr Adam Ockelford
- Director of Education, Royal National Institute of the Blind

Abstract: This presentation offers preliminary findings and analysis from the work with a single case study - Derek Paravicini - who despite having severe learning difficulties (verbal IQ = 58) has achieved international recognition as a pianist specialising in early jazz. The work with Derek is part of the 'REMUS' Project - ('Researching Exceptional Musical Skill') - a joint initiative of the Royal National Institute of the Blind and the Psychology Department of Goldsmiths College. In the study presented, I will report on how Derek learnt a specially composed piece over a period of two years, with his responses being recorded through MIDI-based software and analysed using music-theoretical procedures. The findings offer both qualitative and quantitative insights into the workings of an exceptional musical mind, as well as having potential implications for our understanding of learning, memory and creativity more generally.

Dr Adam Ockelford is currently Director of Education at the Royal National Institute of the Blind, Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Education, University of London, the University of Roehampton, and secretary of SEMPRE - the Society for Education, Music and Psychology research. His wide-ranging research interests include the cognition of musical structure, the derivation of musical meaning, and, in recent years, a focus on special musical abilities and special musical needs, culminating in a series of studies on 'musical savants' in collaboration with Professor Linda Pring at Goldsmiths College. He has published and lectured widely inall these fields.

Wednesday, 8^th November, 16.00

Embodied simulation: From mirror neurones to social cognition

Prof Vittorio Gallese MD
- Universita Degli Studi Di Parma: Dept. Neuroscience

Abstract: : Our seemingly effortless capacity to conceive of the acting bodies inhabiting our social world as goal-oriented persons like us depends on the constitution of a “we-centric” shared meaningful interpersonal space. I have proposed that this shared manifold space can be characterized at the functional level as embodied simulation, a specific mechanism, likely constituting a basic functional feature by means of which our brain/body system models its interactions with the world. The mirror neuron systems and the other non-motor mirroring neural clusters in our brain represent one particular sub-personal instantiation of embodied simulation. With this mechanism we do not just “see” an action, an emotion, or a sensation. Side by side with the sensory description of the observed social stimuli, internal representations of the body states associated with these actions, emotions, and sensations are evoked in the observer, ‘as if’ he/she would be doing a similar action or experiencing a similar emotion or sensation. Social cognition is not only explicitly reasoning about the contents of someone else’s mind. Our brains, and those of other primates, appear to have developed a basic functional mechanism, embodied simulation, which gives us an experiential insight of other minds. This proposal opens new perspectives on the study of the neural underpinnings of psychopathological states and psychotherapeutic relations, and of other aspects of intersubjectivity like aesthetic experience and ethics.

Vittorio Gallese, MD and Neurologist, is Professor of Physiology at the Dept. of Neuroscience of the University of Parma, Italy. As cognitive neuroscientist he focuses his research interests on the relationship between the sensory-motor system and cognition, both in non-human primates and humans using a variety of neurophysiologycal and neuroimaging techniques. Among his major contributions is the discovery, together with colleagues in Parma, of mirror neurons, and the elaboration of a theoretical model of basic aspects of social cognition. He is actively developing an interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of intersubjectivity and social cognition in collaboration with psychologists, psycholinguists and philosophers. He has been George Miller visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

Wednesday, 15^th November, 16.00

Pictorial space

Prof Jan Koenderink DSc
- Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University

Abstract: : When you look AT a picture you see a planar object covered with pigments in a certain simultaneous order; when you look INTO a picture you experience "pictorial space". Pictorial space is filled with "pictorial objects" that appear to have positions, spatial attitudes, shapes and material properties. "Pictorial shape" is a geometrical property that is a purely mental entity based on "pictorial cues" but contains a significant "beholder's share". In many cases human observers exploit the cue structure completely, then the beholder's share coincides with the ambiguity left by the cues. The beholder's share may be identified with the group of proper movements or congruences of pictorial space, thus defining its (non-Euclidian) structure. "Pictorial shapes" are invariants under these congruences.

Jan Koenderink graduated in Physics and Mathematics in 1967 at Utrecht University. He was associate professor in Experimental Psychology at the Universiteit Groningen, then in 1974 returned to the Universiteit Utrecht where he presently holds a chair in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He founded the Helmholtz Instituut in which multidisciplinary work in biology, medicine, physics and computer science is coordinated.He has received an honorary degree (D.Sc.) in Medicine from the University of Leuven and is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. His current interests include the mathematics and psychophysics of space and form in vision and active touch, the structure of perceptual spaces, and ecological physics, including applications in art and design.

Thursday, 16^th November, 12.00 (noon)

Ostwald colour science

Prof Jan Koenderink DSc
- Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University

Abstract: : Wilhelm Ostwald's contributions to colorimetry dominated colour science of continental Europe in the first half of the 20th century yet have almost totally vanished from the textbooks of today. It remains virtually unknown that Ostwald's color atlas is a conceptual entity, based on formal colorimetry, as opposed to the Munsell atlas (in current use) that is based upon eye measures. The key ideas can easily be formalized and are remarkably elegant and useful if only a few minor issues are dealt with. The result is a happy synthesis between two (apparently) mutually exclusive threads, one the Newton-Maxwell-Helmholtz-Schroedinger, the other the Goethe-Schopenhauer-Hering-Ostwald tradition.

Jan Koenderink graduated in Physics and Mathematics in 1967 at Utrecht University. He was associate professor in Experimental Psychology at the Universiteit Groningen, then in 1974 returned to the Universiteit Utrecht where he presently holds a chair in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He founded the Helmholtz Instituut in which multidisciplinary work in biology, medicine, physics and computer science is coordinated.He has received an honorary degree (D.Sc.) in Medicine from the University of Leuven and is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. His current interests include the mathematics and psychophysics of space and form in vision and active touch, the structure of perceptual spaces, and ecological physics, including applications in art and design.

Wednesday, 22^nd November, 16.00

Seeing through a Bayes window

Prof Richard Gregory FRS
- University of Bristol, UK.

Abstract: How do we recognise shadows? A dark region might be a shadow, or it might be a patch of paint. Probabilities come into play, which may be described and explained with Bayesian concepts. The Revered Thomas Bayes considered probabilities from gambling, in the 18th Century. Now these concepts are tools and insights into perceptual brain function.

Richard Gregory went to Cambridge just after the war, and stayed on as a Lecturer and a Fellow of Downing and Corpus Christi Colleges, running the Special Senses Laboratory. He then went to Edinburgh to start, with two colleagues, the first department of Artificial Intelligence in Europe. After this, he became Professor of Neuropsychology and Director of the Brain and Perception Laboratory in the Medical School in the University of Bristol. He has written about 20 books on perception and philosophy of science and has done a large variety of research, much of it on illusions. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a CBE.

Wednesday, 29^st November, 16.00

The Human in the Loop - Challenges of Human-Robot Interaction Experiments

Prof Kerstin Dautenhahn
- University of Hertfordshire

Abstract: : This talk will address challenges of experiments involving robots and people. The field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) in a growing multi- and interdisciplinary domain that requires a synthesis of concepts, models and methods from a variety of disciplines including psychology, robotics, ethology, social sciences and computer science. After introducing basic concepts used in the field I will survey two projects that emphasize the “human in the loop” of interaction experiments. First, within the Cogniron project (www.cogniron.org) the team at University of Hertfordshire studies a cognitive robot companion. Such a companion should a) be able to carry out useful tasks in a home scenario, and b) perform these tasks in a manner that is socially acceptable for people. Results from recent studies in the “Robot House”, a domestic environment where people can interact with robots in a more naturalistic setting, will be presented. Next, I will describe our research goals and results in the Aurora project (www.aurora-project.com) which investigates the potential use of robots as therapeutic toys for children with autism. I will describe several studies that emphasize how the robot may encourage social interaction skills, imitation and joint attention in children with autism. Importantly, the primary goal of this project is to help children with autism to make contact with other children and adults, i.e. the robot serves the role as a social mediator.


Prof. Dr. Kerstin Dautenhahn received her Ph.D. degree from the Biological Cybernetics Department of the University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany, in 1993. She is Professor of Artificial Intelligence in the School of Computer Science and coordinator of the Adaptive Systems Research Group at the University of Hertfordshire in England. She has published more than 100 research articles on social robotics, robot learning, human-robot interaction and assistive technology. Prof. Dautenhahn has edited several books and frequently organises international research workshops and conferences. For example, she hosted the AISB’05 convention at was general Chair of IEEE RO-MAN 2006. She is involved in several European projects and is Editor in Chief of the journal Interaction Studies: Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems.