5 Questions for Tom Griffiths, Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science.
1. You’re a psychologist who uses mathematical models and “big data” to understand how people think. Why not use traditional methods, such as lab experiments?
I think these methods are the future of psychology. As more sources of data about human behavior become available, we need to figure out how to leverage them to better understand the human mind. There are many things people still do better than computers—learning languages, figuring out causal relationships, inferring a new concept from a few examples. My collaborators and I have tried to come up with mathematical theories for how people do these things. We can test them outside of a lab experiment by making predictions about how people will behave in different settings like playing games, learning in online classes, and shopping online. This approach will not only help us understand people, but also make computers smarter.