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We use computation to make mind and behavior explainable—and mind and behavior to make new forms of computation possible.

Computational Mind & Behavior

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Mission Statement

Human behavior is extraordinarily complex. It emerges from computations within the brain, unfolds through interactions with others, and scales to shape groups, cultures, and societies. At the same time, artificial intelligence is creating new forms of intelligence that increasingly perceive, decide, communicate and act alongside us.

The Computational Mind & Behavior Area seeks to understand these interconnected systems across scales. We combine computation with behavioral and brain sciences to discover the principles that generate intelligence and behavior—from individuals to interacting agents to populations—and to understand what happens as human and artificial intelligence become increasingly intertwined.

Our ambition is not only to use computation to understand humans, but to use what we learn about humans to rethink computation itself, train the next generation of interdisciplinary scientists, and help shape technologies that enhance human capabilities and contribute positively to society.

People

Scientific Frontiers

  • How does intelligence emerge and adapt?

    We investigate how biological and artificial systems perceive, learn, feel, reason, pursue goals, make decisions, and adapt—and how the principles of biological intelligence can inspire new forms of computation.

  • How do minds connect?

    We investigate how information and meaning are communicated and understood across modalities, people, contexts, and cultures—and increasingly between and among human and artificial agents.

  • How does behavior emerge across scales?

    We investigate how behavior emerges and transforms across scales—from brains and individuals to interactions, groups, networks, cultures, and populations—and the mechanisms that connect these levels.

  • What happens when human and artificial intelligence meet?

    We investigate how humans and intelligent systems understand, influence, learn from, and adapt to one another—cognitively, emotionally, and socially—and what new forms of individual and collective intelligence emerge through their interaction.

How We Work

These frontiers are connected rather than separate. Understanding intelligence requires studying how it operates within individuals, between interacting agents, and across larger systems—and increasingly across the boundary between humans and machines.

We therefore work across traditional disciplinary and methodological boundaries, developing and advancing computational models, methods, and tools, and combining artificial intelligence and machine learning, mathematical approaches, behavioral experiments, neuroscience, natural language and multimodal data, and large-scale observations of real-world behavior.