Collective Behavior: Experiments and Models
Robert Goldstone
Department of Psychological and Brain Science, Program in Cognitive Science
Indiana University
This course will explore research on the cognitive science of collective behavior. The focus will be on laboratory experiments of: collective resource allocation, imitation and exploitation, diffusion of innovations, group coordination, and group decision making. We will discuss agent-based computational models that can explain, organize, and predict the results of the experiments. A tutorial on the programming environment Netlogo will be presented, both as a tool for building computational models of group behavior and for conducting group behavior experiments and demonstrations. The course is intended to give scientists from economics, psychology, computer science, sociology, or anthropology an introduction to collective behavior from a cognitive science perspective.
Day 1. Collective Behavior as a Complex System
Day 2. Introduction to Netlogo as a Language for Building Computational Models in Social Science
Day 3.
Collective Search in Concrete and Abstract Spaces: Foraging, Collective Problem Solving, and Path Formation
Day 4. The Collective Consequences of Exploration and Exploitation, Imitation, Social networks, Spread of Innovations in Social Networks, Experiments on Common Pool Resources
Day 5. Group Decision Making, Distributed Cognition, Group Influence at Societal Scales (Scholarly Citations, Baby Names), Group Selection, Swarm Intelligence
Required readings:
Optional readings:
Additional Resources
Programming exercises
The exercises accompanying this course are designed to give participants exposure to Netlogo for computational modeling, and to the package Hubnet for creating collective behavior experiments and experiences. No programming experience is required. The necessary software can be downloaded from http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/.
Assessment
Students will be given a choice between creating a Netlogo model of a social system, a Netlogo collective behavior experiment, or a written paper describing how a social system would be modeled.
Robert Goldstone
Since 1991 when he received a Ph.D. in psychology from University of Michigan, Robert Goldstone has been a professor in the Psychological and Brain Sciences Department and Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University. His research interests include concept learning and representation, perceptual learning, collective behavior, and computational modeling of human cognition. He was awarded two American Psychological Association (APA) Young Investigator awards in 1995 for articles appearing in Journal of Experimental Psychology, the 1996 Chase Memorial Award for Outstanding Young Researcher in Cognitive Science, a 1997 James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical Award, the 2000 APA Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology in the area of Cognition and Human Learning, and a 2004 Troland research award from the National Academy of Sciences. He was the executive editor of Cognitive Science from 2001-2005, associate editor of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review from 1998-2000, and associate editor of Cognitive Psychology and Topics in Cognitive Science from 2007-2008. He was elected as a fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists in 2004, and a fellow of the Cognitive Science Society in 2006. In 2006 he became a Chancellor's professor and Director of the Indiana University Cognitive Science Program.