[CTN] Jan Lauwereyns second talk, Wed Oct 24, 10:00 in PAS 2464

[Matthijs van der Meer]

In addition to his Tuesday afternoon CTN seminar, Jan Lauwereyns has
kindly agreed to give a different talk on Wednesday Oct 24 at 10 AM in
PAS 2464.

The title is: <<Gaze dynamics and the intrinsic attraction of
information>>. The abstract follows. I hope to see you there. -- Britt
Anderson

Abstract:

Eye movements are a type of observer behavior intrinsically devoted to
the acquisition of real-world information. Yet, our eye movements
perform the task of information gathering in a decidedly biased fashion:
not random, not systematic or machine-like, but chaotic, exhibiting a
form of “bounded unpredictability.” I will introduce the concept of
informativeness as a key player in the attractor dynamics of perception.
The brain is organized in such a way as to optimize the effort, speed,
and accuracy of information processing. This economy of perception
revolves around the critical currency of information value, implying
different levels of priority for different types of information.
Curiosity and exploration are oriented to value-rich information as a
goal in itself. In line with this view, I will present empirical
evidence from neurophysiological and eye-movement studies on the
intrinsic attraction of certain types of information that are irrelevant
to the task at hand. The data call for a unifying framework that
connects the concept of informativeness and its intrinsic attraction to
formal models of the observer’s knowledge of “things as they are.”