David Lagnado: Causality in Mind: Learning, Reasoning and Blaming 

- Speaker: David Lagnado (UCL)
- Title: Causality in Mind: Learning, Reasoning and Blaming
- Abstract: Knowledge of cause and effect is vital to our ability to predict, control and explain the world. It helps us diagnose diseases, build bridges and decide guilt. How do people learn and reason about causality? This talk will focus on three key areas of cognition: (1) Learning: how we construct causal models by actively exploring the world, using heuristics to overcome cognitive limitations; (2) Reasoning: how we use causal models to explain uncertain evidence, simplifying complex inferences; (3) Attribution: how we rely on causal counterfactuals to assign responsibility and blame.
- Discussant: Neil Bramley (University of Edinburgh)