Episodes

  • From Cybernetics to Neural Networks: Michael Arbib
    Nov 5 2026

    The Cognition Project is an oral history of cognitive science. Created and hosted by Tom Griffiths, the head of Princeton’s AI Lab and a professor of psychology and computer science.


    In this episode, Michael Arbib tells the story of his journey from cybernetics to neural networks and ultimately trying to understand how the brain learns and produces language.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    51 mins
  • Making connections: Jerome Feldman
    Oct 29 2026

    The Cognition Project is an oral history of cognitive science. Created and hosted by Tom Griffiths, the head of Princeton’s AI Lab and a professor of psychology and computer science.


    This episode features Jerome Feldman, who initially pursued symbolic approaches to understanding the mind but ended up somewhere quite different, exploring how artificial neural networks might capture aspects of language.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    26 mins
  • Soaring: John Laird
    Oct 22 2026

    The Cognition Project is an oral history of cognitive science. Created and hosted by Tom Griffiths, the head of Princeton’s AI Lab and a professor of psychology and computer science.


    This episode is with John Laird. Laird’s name is strongly associated with the cognitive architecture he helped to develop, SOAR, which in many ways was one of the most complete efforts at creating what Allen Newell called a “unified theory of cognition.”

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    38 mins
  • Cognitive Architect: Paul Rosenbloom
    Oct 2 2026

    The Cognition Project is an oral history of cognitive science. Created and hosted by Tom Griffiths, the head of Princeton’s AI Lab and a professor of psychology and computer science.


    This episode is with Paul Rosenbloom, who developed several different “cognitive architectures” – structures for supporting intelligent behavior that were inspired by ideas from psychology.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    48 mins
  • Making Space: Barbara Tversky
    Sep 17 2026

    The Cognition Project is an oral history of cognitive science. Created and hosted by Tom Griffiths, the head of Princeton’s AI Lab and a professor of psychology and computer science.


    This episode is with Barbara Tversky, who carried out groundbreaking work studying how we perceive and reason about space. Tversky intertwines her story with that of her husband Amos, who died in 1996 and is known for his work with Daniel Kahneman on decision-making.



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    57 mins
  • Simple Ideas: Daniel Kahneman
    Aug 28 2026

    The Cognition Project is an oral history of cognitive science. Created and hosted by Tom Griffiths, the head of Princeton’s AI Lab and a professor of psychology and computer science.


    This episode is from an interview with Daniel Kahneman from 2015. Kahneman helped to spread the approach cognitive psychologists had developed to other fields, leading to the creation of behavioral economics. Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in Economics for these contributions in 2002.



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    38 mins
  • Mapping Relations: Dedre Gentner
    Aug 14 2026

    The Cognition Project is an oral history of cognitive science. Created and hosted by Tom Griffiths, the head of Princeton’s AI Lab and a professor of psychology and computer science.


    Dedre Gentner’s research has helped us understand how people form analogies, and the broader importance of relations in human cognition. Her story of becoming a cognitive scientist features some of the people we have already met, like Donald Norman, as well as an eyewitness account of the first cognitive science conference.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    42 mins
  • A Strange Loop: Douglas Hofstadter
    Jul 31 2026

    The Cognition Project is an oral history of cognitive science. Created and hosted by Tom Griffiths, the head of Princeton’s AI Lab and a professor of psychology and computer science.


    This episode is about Douglas Hofstadter who wrote the book Godel Escher Bach. The book was responsible for many contemporary cognitive scientists entering the field. His own journey passes through music, physics, mathematics, linguistics, and computer science in a way that really reflects the interdisciplinary nature of cognitive science.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    59 mins