In this talk, I will argue that the computer metaphor is the wrong one for understanding cognition and behavior. I will show how to construct alternative explanations using dynamical systems theory and the PyData stack. Finally, I will demonstrate some applications of behavioral dynamics in sports medicine and sports analytics.
You may have heard that the mind is like a computer. Computational theory of mind has come to dominate psychology and neuroscience to the point that most people, even many researchers in the mind and brain sciences, are not aware of any alternative approaches. In this talk, I will show that it is possible to understand behavior without recourse to mental computation or representation. I will focus on one theoretical and mathematical tool of such an approach: behavioral dynamics.
With this conceptual backdrop, I will use interactive visualizations to build intuitions about dynamics, construct a dynamical model on the fly using SymPy, compile it with SymPy and simulate it with SciPy, and visualize the results of thousands of simulations with Bokeh. Finally, I will show how this research is being used to understand sports performance and improve sports injury outcomes.
This talk is a simulation and visualization demo disguised as a research talk wrapped in a philosophy debate. It has some philosophy, some science, some math, and some Python. Specifically, the audience will learn:
No specific background is necessary to learn from this talk. A basic knowledge of algebra would be helpful, but equations will be limited.