Online Seminars



Seminars take place on Thursdays from 11:00 am - 12:30 pm US Central Time (Chicago) unless otherwise stated. Zoom links for the seminars are sent via the mailing list each week. Information about joining the mailing list can be found here. Recordings of previous seminars can be viewed here. For enquires, please contact the seminar organisers Matt Slocombe (msloco01@mail.bbk.ac.uk) and Margarita Pavlova (margarita.velinova@gmail.com).

Summer 2021 Schedule coming soon



Autumn 2021 Schedule

Seminars take place over Zoom from 11.00 am – 12.30 pm US Central Time unless otherwise stated below.


Sept 23 - Prof Patricia Alexander (University of Maryland) - Analogical Reasoning Plus: Why Dissimilarities Matter

Sept 30 - Prof John Hummel (University of Illinois) - Beyond the binding problem: From basic affordances to symbolic thought

Oct 07 - Prof Jeffrey Loewenstein (University of Illinois) - Analogy and ethics: opportunities at the intersection

Oct 14 (a) - Ekaterina Shurkova (University of Edinburgh) - A Theory of Human Visual Reasoning

Oct 14 (b) - Eleanor Stansbury (Université de Bourgogne) - Children's relational noun generalization strategies

Oct 21 - Dr Yafeng Shan (University of Kent) - A Functional Approach to Analogical Reasoning in Scientific Practice

Three-week break

Nov 18 - Dr Micah Goldwater (University of Sydney) - Abstraction doesn't happen all at once (despite what some models of concept learning suggest) Change of time – seminar will take place from 4.00 pm – 5.30 pm US Central Time

Nov 23 - Prof Jean-Pierre Thibaut (Université de Bourgogne) - Novel word generalization in comparison designs: How do young children align stimuli when they learn object nouns and relational nouns? Change of day – seminar will take place on Tuesday from 11.00 am – 12.30 pm US Central Time

Dec 02 - Dr Nina Simms (Northwestern University) - Spatial alignment supports visual comparisons

Dec 09 - Dr Sarah Gerson (Cardiff University) - Scaffolding up from Social Interactions: A proposal of how social interactions might shape learning across development

Dec 16 - Rob Cortes and Rich Daker (Georgetown University) - Exploring the Creativity Analogy Matrix: Task Development, Performance Enhancement via Conscious Augmentation and Brain Stimulation, and Real-World Implications in College STEM Education



Autumn 2021 Schedule

Times are displayed in US Central Time


Analogical Reasoning Plus: Why Dissimilarities Matter

Prof Patricia Alexander (University of Maryland)

23 September, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm


Beyond the binding problem: From basic affordances to symbolic thought

Prof John Hummel (University of Illinois)

30 September, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm


Analogy and ethics: opportunities at the intersection

Prof Jeffrey Loewenstein (University of Illinois)

07 October, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm


Children's relational noun generalization strategies

Eleanor Stansbury (Université de Bourgogne)

14 October, 11:00 am – 11.45 am


A Theory of Human Visual Reasoning

Ekaterina Shurkova (University of Edinburgh)

14 October, 11:45 am – 12:30 pm


A Functional Approach to Analogical Reasoning in Scientific Practice

Dr Yafeng Shan (University of Kent)

21 October, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm


Three-week break


Abstraction doesn't happen all at once (despite what some models of concept learning suggest)

Dr Micah Goldwater (University of Sydney)

18 November, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm - Change of time


Novel word generalization in comparison designs: How do young children align stimuli when they learn object nouns and relational nouns?

Prof Jean-Pierre Thibaut (Université de Bourgogne)

23 November, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm - Change of day to Tuesday


Spatial alignment supports visual comparisons

Dr Nina Simms (Northwestern University)

02 December, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm


Scaffolding up from Social Interactions: A proposal of how social interactions might shape learning across development

Dr Sarah Gerson (Cardiff University)

09 December, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm


Exploring the Creativity Analogy Matrix: Task Development, Performance Enhancement via Conscious Augmentation and Brain Stimulation, and Real-World Implications in College STEM Education

Rob Cortes and Rich Daker (Georgetown University)

16 December, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm




Autumn 2020 Schedule

Abstract Semantic Relations in Mind, Brain, and Machines

Prof Keith Holyoak (UCLA)

01 October, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm

Abstraction and Analogy in Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Prof Melanie Mitchell (Santa Fe Institute)

08 October, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm

Priming, Pressure, and Learning by Analogy

Dr Lindsey Richland (University of California Irvine)

15 October, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm

Using Developmental Trajectories to Understand Change in Children’s Analogical Reasoning Ability

Matthew Slocombe (Birkbeck, University of London)

22 October, 11:00 am – 11:45 am

Analogies, Games and the Learning of Mathematics

Dr Jairo A. Navarrete (O'Higgins University)

22 October, 11:45 am – 12:30 pm

A New Spin on the Day/Night Cycle: Relational Scaffolding Enhances Children’s Understanding of Scientific Models

Dr Florencia Anggoro (College of the Holy Cross) & Dr Benjamin Jee (Worcester State University)

29 October, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm

A Connectionist Account of Analogy-Making

Dr Ivan Vankov (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)

05 November, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm

The Structural Anchoring of Spontaneous Analogies

Lucas Raynal (Cergy-Pontoise University) & Dr Katarina Gvozdic (University of Geneva)

12 November, 11:00 am – 11:45 am

The Internal Structure of Semantic Relations: Effects of Relational Similarity and Typicality

Dr Vencislav Popov (University of Zurich)

12 November, 11:45 am – 12:30 am

Making Neural Nets Simple Enough to Succeed at Universal Relational Generalization

Prof Kenneth Kurtz (Binghamton University)

17 November, 11:00 am – 11.45 am

Toward a Remedy for Inert Knowledge: Evaluating Different Facets of Category Status for Promoting Spontaneous Transfer

Sean Snoddy (Binghamton University)

17 November, 11:45 am – 12:30 pm

Infant Relational Learning: Interactions With Visual and Linguistic Factors

Dr Erin Anderson (Indiana University, Bloomington)

03 December, 11:00 – 12:30 pm

Preschoolers' Comprehension of Functional Metaphors

Rebecca Zhu (University of California, Berkeley)

10 December, 11:00 am – 11:45 am

Space for Thinking: Spatial Reference Frames and Abstract Concepts

Dr Ariel Starr (University of Washington)

10 December, 11:45 am – 12:30 pm

Summer 2020 Schedule


Relational Reasoning in Curricular Knowledge Components

Dr Priya Kalra (University of Wisconsin–Madison)

04 June, 12:00 13:00


Analogy in Cognitive Architecture

Prof Kenneth D. Forbus (Northwestern University)

11 June, 12:00 13:00


Relational Reasoning and the Behavioural and Neural Correlates of Science and Maths Reasoning in Adolescence

Dr Iroise Dumontheil (Birkbeck, University of London)

18 June, 12:00 13:00


Higher-Order Cognition Depends on Mutual Bootstrapping between Analogical Processing and Language

Prof Dedre Gentner (Northwestern University)

25 June, 12:00 13:00


Anecdotal thinking in health and business: analogies to avoid?

Dr Micah Goldwater (The University of Sydney)

02 July, 17:00 16:00


Predicting Patterns of Similarity Among Abstract Semantic Relations

Nick Ichien (UCLA)

09 July, 12:00 12:30


Analogical Reasoning and Executive Functions: A Life Span Approach

Prof Jean-Pierre Thibaut (University of Burgundy)

09 July, 12:30 13:00


Examining Memory Accessibility to Relevant Information During Analogical Problem Solving

Dr Tania M. Valle (University of Granada)

16 July, 12:00 12:30


Is Rule Learning Like Analogy?

Dr Stella Christie (Tsinghua University)

16 July, 12:30 13:00