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Hello Everyone,</div>
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Just a reminder of our CTN seminar this afternoon at 3:30 in DC 1304.</div>
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Regards,</div>
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Sue Ann</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Title</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">:
</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Why Simplicity Enables Intelligence: Efficient Coding in Human Learning and Generalization</span></div>
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<b>Speaker:</b> Christopher Sims, Rensselaer Polytechic Institute <a data-auth="NotApplicable" class="OWAAutoLink" id="OWA3b164df2-0762-68f8-fd8f-07e1857762a8" href="https://www.adacog.com/">
https://www.adacog.com/</a></div>
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<b>Abstract: </b>Human intelligence depends critically on the ability to learn representations that generalize beyond past experience. While reinforcement learning theory formalizes how agents should act to maximize reward, it provides little guidance on how
internal representations should be structured to support generalization. In this talk, I propose that efficient coding provides a unifying representational principle. When agents are constrained to use the simplest representations compatible with reward maximization,
they are forced to discover abstract structure in the environment and to selectively encode features that matter for behavior. I present a computational framework in which efficient coding augments the classical reinforcement learning objective, leading to
compact internal state spaces that support robust generalization. Behavioral experiments show that this framework accounts for human generalization patterns that standard models struggle to explain. I further demonstrate that the same principle explains long
standing regularities in perceptual generalization, including the universal law of generalization. These results suggest that abstraction, generalization, and perceptual similarity arise from a common normative pressure to efficiently encode information under
resource constraints.</div>
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<p style="direction: ltr; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">_______________________________________________</span></p>
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<p style="direction: ltr; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Dr. Sue Ann Campbell (she/her)</span></p>
<p style="direction: ltr; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Professor and University Research Chair</span></p>
<p style="direction: ltr; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Department of Applied Mathematics &
<a style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" data-auth="NotApplicable" title="https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-theoretical-neuroscience/" class="x_x_x_OWAAutoLink" id="OWA933fecac-709d-c66b-990a-994db0d91cba" href="https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-theoretical-neuroscience/">
Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience</a></span></p>
<p style="direction: ltr; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Associate Dean, Research, Faculty of Mathematics</span></p>
<p style="direction: ltr; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">University of Waterloo</span></p>
<p style="direction: ltr; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Waterloo ON N2L 3G1</span></p>
<p style="direction: ltr; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><a style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" data-auth="NotApplicable" class="x_x_x_x_OWAAutoLink" id="OWA0408ae94-f5fb-b8df-765e-cc89ba46f85e" href="https://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~sacampbe/">https://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~sacampbe/</a></span></p>
<p style="direction: ltr; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Past-President,
<a style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" data-auth="NotApplicable" title="https://caims.ca/" class="x_x_x_OWAAutoLink" id="OWA30fe7844-f2f2-e2e6-0fdc-4bd5353bb302" href="https://caims.ca/">
Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society</a></span></p>
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<p style="direction: ltr; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><i>I acknowledge that I live and work on the traditional territory of the Chonnonton, Anishinaabeg
and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo main campus is located on the Haldimand tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our</i></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><i> active
work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is co-ordinated within the Office of Indigenous Relations.</i></span></p>
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