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The Cognition Project

The Cognition Project

Tom Griffiths 19 Episodes Jul 16, 2026

This podcast tells the story of how psychologists, neuroscientists, computer scientists, linguists, and philosophers worked together to create a new science of the mind. Each episode is an interview with one of the people who played a role in this process, providing an oral history of cognitive science. Created and hosted by Tom Griffiths, professor of psychology and computer science at Princeton University.

Episodes

The Power of Metaphor: George Lakoff
The Power of Metaphor: George Lakoff Jul 16, 2026 1:32:42 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 George Lakoff, who was excited and then disappointed by Chomsky’s approach to linguistics. Lakoff ended up taking a new approach to understanding language: cognitive linguistics. Hosted on Acast.
Centers and Peripheries: Eleanor Rosch
Centers and Peripheries: Eleanor Rosch Jul 10, 2026 44:22 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.One of the central questions of cognitive science is how we represent the world around us, organizing it into categories. Eleanor Rosch offered a new perspective on this question, providing clear evidence that categori
Applied Cognitive Science: Donald Norman
Applied Cognitive Science: Donald Norman Jul 2, 2026 56:57 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 Donald Norman, who had a rich career that crossed from the East to the West Coast, from engineering to psychology, and from academia to industry. Norman also played a key role in the creation of t
Learning About Reasoning: Phil Johnson-Laird
Learning About Reasoning: Phil Johnson-Laird Jun 27, 2026 32:40 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.Our story of the origins of cognitive science has so far been focused in the United States, but a similar awareness of new ways to study the mind was growing on the other side of the Atlantic, in the United Kingdom. In
Models Without Dogma: Ewart Thomas
Models Without Dogma: Ewart Thomas Jun 18, 2026 47:55 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 Ewart Thomas, who offers a final perspective on the mathematical psychology scene at Stanford as well as a bridge to the early days of cognitive psychology in England. Hosted on Acast. See aca
More to Memory: Elizabeth Loftus
More to Memory: Elizabeth Loftus Jun 12, 2026 17:08 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 Elizabeth Loftus, who grew disenchanted with mathematical psychology and went on to create a new field, studying the psychology of eyewitness testimony. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for
A Student of Memory: Richard Shiffrin
A Student of Memory: Richard Shiffrin Apr 8, 2026 21:22 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 Richard Shiffrin, who offers a student’s perspective on the cognitive psychology scene at Stanford in the 1960s. He worked with Gordon Bower and Richard Atkinson and went on to become one of the mo
Seeking Universal Laws: Roger Shepard
Seeking Universal Laws: Roger Shepard Apr 1, 2026 1:16:58 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 Roger Shepard, who created innovative methods to let us peek inside people’s heads. He ultimately used those tools to propose psychology’s first universal law. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv
From Rats to Hypotheses: Gordon Bower
From Rats to Hypotheses: Gordon Bower Mar 27, 2026 48:23 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.Continuing to trace the development of cognitive psychology, this episode tells the story of Gordon Bower. At a time when psychologists still had to demonstrate that this new approach to their science could offer insig
Computers and Memory: Richard Atkinson
Computers and Memory: Richard Atkinson Mar 18, 2026 18:13 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 Richard Atkinson, who did groundbreaking work exploring the structure of human memory before going on to be the Director of the National Science Foundation, Chancellor of UC San Diego, and ultimate
Heading West: Dan Slobin
Heading West: Dan Slobin Mar 11, 2026 1:07:19 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 the story of Dan Slobin, who offers both a perspective on the East Coast origins of cognitive science and how it evolved on the West Coast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chomsky, Chimpsky, and Beyond: Tom Bever
Chomsky, Chimpsky, and Beyond: Tom Bever Mar 6, 2026 1:24:25 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 Tom Bever, who took a circuitous path that led him through several important events in the cognitive revolution. Bever ultimately became an influential psycholinguist in his own right.  Hosted

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