25.02.2019

Workshop with Gregory Scontras

On October 23, 2018, Gregory Scontras invited the members oft he RTG and those oft he SFB 833 to attend his workshop on “Probabilistic Language Understanding” in which he introduced them to his web-based programming class “An Introduction to the Rational Speech Act Framework” (http://www.problang.org/).

On October 23, 2018, Gregory Scontras invited the members oft he RTG and those oft he SFB 833 to attend his workshop on “Probabilistic Language Understanding” in which he introduced them to his web-based programming class “An Introduction to the Rational Speech Act Framework” (http://www.problang.org/):
“Recent advances in computational cognitive science (i.e., simulation-based probabilistic programs) have paved the way for significant progress in formal, implementable models of pragmatic reasoning: how it is that we understand language in context. Rather than describing a pragmatic reasoning process, these models articulate and implement one, deriving both qualitative and quantitative predictions of human behavior—predictions that consistently prove correct. The present workshop provides a practical introduction to the Bayesian Rational Speech Act modeling framework. Through hands-on practice deconstructing web-based language models at problang.org, participants will learn the basics of the modeling framework. Little is presupposed beyond a willingness to explore recent progress in computational models of language understanding. Participants should expect to leave the workshop having gained the ability to 1) digest the primary modeling literature and 2) independently construct models of their own using the probabilistic programming language WebPPL.”