Prof Ulrike Hahn - MSc Edin DPhil Oxon
My current research falls into four broad areas, several of which are interlinked:
1. argumentation--- what makes a good argument, in the sense of an argument that will convince a rational critic?
2. similarity--- Key issues here are cognitive constraints on similarity and a new theoretical account of similarity based on transformations between mental representations.
3. concepts and concept acquisition--- I am currently particularly interested in spontaneous categorization, and the question of what makes a good category.
4. language and language acquisition--- work here has tended to involve both experiments and modeling. My current research in language acquisition is mainly concerned with the relationship between comprehension and production in children, and the role of imitative learning in acquisition.
Selected Publications
Hahn, U. & Oaksford, M. (2007) The Rationality of Informal Argumentation: A Bayesian Approach to Reasoning Fallacies. Psychological Review, 114, 704-732.
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Hahn, U. & Bailey, T.M. (2005) What makes words sound similar. Cognition, 97, 227-267.
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Hahn, U., Chater, N., & Richardson, L.B.C. (2003). Similarity as Transformation. Cognition, 87, 1-32.
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Heit, E. & Hahn, U. (2001). Diversity based reasoning in children. Cognitive Psychology, 43, 243-273.
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Research Projects
Carpenter, M., Gattis, M., Hahn, U., & Want, S. (2007-2010). Infant imitation in natural contexts: characteristics, development, and functions. Funded by Leverhulme Foundation (£252,343).
Mareschal, D. et al. (2005): 36 month STREP EU grant to study "From associations to rules in the development of concepts". Five partner collaboration, total value: ca. £880,535; contributing node Cardiff: Hahn, U., Pothos, E.M. & Bailey, T.M., ca. £94,825.