James McClelland

Research in my lab addresses a broad range of cognitive neuroscience issues in learning, memory, language and cognitive development. We view cognitive functions as emerging from the parallel, distributed processing activity of neural populations, with learning occurring through the adaptation of connections among participating neurons, as discussed in Parallel Distributed Processing (Rumelhart, McClelland, and the PDP Research Group, 1986). Research opportunities in my lab revolve around efforts to develop explicit computational models based on these ideas; to test, refine, and extend the principles embodied in the models; and then to apply the models to substantive research questions through behavioral experiment, computer simulation, functional brain imaging, and mathematical analysis.