Alberto Testolin

I am a cognitive scientist with a strong interdisciplinary background: I obtained an M.Sc. in Computer Science (curriculum Artificial Intelligence) and a Ph.D. in Psychological Sciences, both from the University of Padova. During my Ph.D. I had the pleasure to spend a research period at Stanford University, where I returned a few years later as a Visiting Scholar.
I am fascinated by human thinking, the mind/brain relationship and the possibility of reproducing cognitive processes within artificial systems. In my research I use computer simulations based on artificial neural networks that interact with their environment to investigate how “simple” learning mechanisms might give rise to sophisticated cognitive abilities. In particular, I am interested in visual perception, statistical learning, numerical cognition, symbolic reasoning and more generally in connectionist modeling and deep learning. I also apply artificial intelligence models to a variety of engineering problems, such as the development of advanced signal processing techniques or the optimization of communication systems. I think that in order to understand complex phenomena such as human cognition we need to combine knowledge from many disciplines; this is why besides computer science and psychology I also like to study physics, biology, neuroscience and philosophy of mind.