I’m Mark Blokpoel, and I am an assistant professor in the School of Artificial Intelligence at the Radboud University and member of the Computational Cognitive Science group at the Donders Institute.
I am a theoretical cognitive scientist, which means I work at the intersection of computer science, artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology and language. I have a background in (theoretical) computer science, but ultimately I became enthralled by cognitive science. Many capacities we take for granted in our daily lives such as communication or social inference defy computational explanation. Their true workings remain a mystery and this fascinates me endlessly.
Despite the challenge, I aim to develop computational explanations of cognition. Mostly, I focus on human communication and interaction, which seem to rely on particularly hard-to-explain inferential capacities. In my work, I often highlight what computational cognitive science does not (yet) explain, because I believe that knowing the boundaries of understanding is a precondition for expanding it in meaningful ways.
I also develop methodology for theory such mathematical, formal tools, critical reflection and analyses. Further, I have developed a coding framework for implementing interpretable, provably correct simulations of computational-level models to contribute to robust and sustainable computational cognitive science.
Contact
Maria Montessori Building, Room 03.373
Email: mark.blokpoel [at] donders.ru.nl
Postal address
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour
Centre for Cognition
Radboud University Nijmegen
Postbus 9104
6500 HE NIJMEGEN
Visit address
Thomas van Aquinostraat 4
6525 GD Nijmegen
The Netherlands