This proposal requests NSF funding to support a summer school on Dynamic Field Theory and its applications to cognitive science, to be held in June 7-11, 2010 at the University of Iowa. Dynamic Field Theory provides a formal framework for thinking about embodied cognitive dynamics. The Summer School is organized so that students receive hands-on experience working with specific dynamic neural field models within their own area of expertise. The Summer School begins with an introduction to the central concepts of dynamical systems theory, and the mathematical and neurophysiological bases of dynamic field theory. Next, students will learn how activation dynamics in neural fields provide critical links to two central challenges in cognitive and developmental science: the integration of processes over multiple time scales and the origin of behavioral flexibility. The final lectures will focus on applications of the theory in different domains, from lower-level examples in the domains of motor control and robotics to higher-level domains including working memory and word learning. Lectures and course materials are freely available at the Summer School website: www.uiowa.edu/~icdls/dft-school/. In addition, students participate in an outreach program which brings an activity called "Overhead 'Bots" to 5-12 year old children from the local community. The activity is a fun way to illustrate the concepts of dynamics, embodied cognition, and robotics.
This grant provided funding for the 2010 Dynamic Field Theory Summer School. The school was held in Iowa City, IA from June 7-11. The goal of the school is to explain the core concepts of Dynamic Field Theory—a new theoretical approach that provides a mathematical framework for thinking about how the brain and the body work together to create smart, flexible behavior. This theoretical approach is nearly 20 years old and has been applied to a host of issues in cognitive and developmental science, including how people plan reaching and eye movements, how they perceive motion, how they encode objects and store objects in "working" memory, how people flexibly shift their behaviors as, for instance, the rules of a game change, and how people learn new skills over practice and over the course of development. Fifteen PhD students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty attended the school. Each morning, students attended lectures from 9am – 12:30pm. From 1:30-6pm students attended a hands-on session where they learned how to use and develop dynamic neural field models—neural networks programmed on a computer to artificially simulate thinking. From Wednesday – Friday, these afternoon sessions were devoted to students’ own projects which were developed in concert with the school organizers and tutors. Students presented the results of their projects at a Friday "data blitz" where they were given five minutes to highlight what they learned. The final projects were quite impressive—many of the students made headway on real research projects that have continued since they returned to their home institutions. On Wednesday evening, we hosted a special event at the Iowa Children’s Museum. At this event, students built small, solar-powered robots. The robots had a motor and were decorated with embellishments. When placed on an overhead projector, they came to life and "danced" on the projector. The students at the summer school said the evening at the Children’s Museum was fantastic, and really helped them understand the delicate interplay between the brain and the body as well as the interplay among art, science, and creativity. The evening event was part of the "Overhead ‘Bots" workshops Dr. Spencer hosted at the Children’s Museum in the month of June, at the 2010 and 2011 Iowa Arts Festivals, at the Iowa City Public Library as part of their "ICPL Teens" program in 2010, and at the 2011 Hoover Festival. In all, these events served over 150 5- to 12-year-old children in the Iowa City community.
