Dr. John Hummel

Biography

John Hummel is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Illinois University. His research interests focus primarily on representation processing and relational reasoning. He explores the cognitive abilities that distinguish human thinking from that of other animals, investigating how neural architectures, whether biological or artificial neural networks, can generate and manipulate relational structures. His work addresses critical questions about visual perception, such as how we represent relations among an object's parts and features, and how these representations influence our ability to recognize and categorize objects. Hummel has developed the LISA model for analogical mapping and related cognitive processes, contributing significantly to our understanding of cognitive development and the formation of relational concepts. His research employs empirical methods, conducting experiments with human subjects, as well as theoretical approaches, including the development and testing of computational models of perception and reasoning.

Research Interests