Cognitive Basis of Reasoning (in Minds and AI)

This workshop will focus on reasoning at the cognitive/behavioral level, in both cognitive science and AI. Topics will include discussions about whether current AI systems have certain capacities, whether they are capable of carrying out symbolic reasoning or whether explicit symbolic methods are needed, whether the term ‘reasoning’ is even appropriately applied to AI reasoning models, and other topics that address phenomena at the behavioral level and incorporate insights from cognitive theories.

Noah D. Goodman (Stanford University), Alison Gopnik (UC Berkeley), Andrew Granville (Université de Montréal), Karim Jerbi (IVADO, Université de Montréal), Subbarao Kambhampati (Arizona State University), Najoung Kim (Boston University), Sari Kisilevsky (CUNY Queens College), Andrew Lampinen (Google DeepMind), Steven Piantadosi (UC Berkeley), Eva Portelance (HEC Montréal), Ben Prystawski (Stanford University), Laura Ruis (MIT), Claire Stevenson (University of Amsterdam), Ivan Titov (University of Edinburgh, University of Amsterdam), Taylor Webb (IVADO, Mila, Université de Montréal), Jieyu Zhao (USC).

TUESDAY, JANUARY 27th, 2026

9:30 – 9.50 a.m.: Welcome and Registration

9:50 – 10 a.m.: Welcome Address

10 – 10:45 a.m.: Causal Learning and Empowerment in Cognitive Science and AI
Alison Gopnik (UC Berkeley)

10:45 – 11:30 a.m.: Are the Reasoning Skills Being Developed by AI Producers Actually Reasoning Skills?
Andrew Granville (Université de Montréal)

11:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.: Recap. Discussion Audience/ G. Speakers

12 – 1.45 p.m.: Lunch on your own

1:45 – 2.30 p.m.: Anthropomorphization Sins in Modern AI (Or The Perils of Premature Application of the Lens of Cognition to LLMs)
Subbarao Kambhampati (Arizona State University) – Remote

2.30 – 3.15 p.m.: Emergent Symbol Processing in Transformer Language Models
Taylor Webb (IVADO, Mila, Université de Montréal)

3.15 – 3.45 p.pm. : Coffee Break

3.45 – 4.30 p.m.: Cognition, Neuroscience, and What’s In-Between
Steven Piantadosi (UC Berkeley) – Remote

4.30 – 5 p.m.: Recap. Discussion Audience/ G. Speakers

5 – 6 p.m.: Social Hour/Mixer

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28th, 2026

9:30 – 10 a.m.: Welcome and Coffee

10 – 10:45 a.m.: Learning to Reason
Noah D. Goodman (Stanford University) – Remote, Ben Prystawski (Stanford University)

10:45 – 11:30 a.m.: Human Creativity vs. Language Models: New Insights from a Large-Scale Benchmarking Study in 100,000 Individuals
Karim Jerbi (IVADO, Université de Montréal)

11:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.: Recap. Discussion Audience/ G. Speakers

12 – 1.45 p.m.: Lunch on your own

1:45 – 2.30 p.m.: Reason and Freedom
Sari Kisilevsky (CUNY Queens College)

2.30 – 3.15 p.m.: What If AI Models Learned More Like Kids Do?
Eva Portelance (HEC Montréal)

3.15 – 3.45 p.pm. : Coffee Break

3.45 – 4.30 p.m.: Hidden Computations: Planning and Reasoning in the Forward Pass
Laura Ruis (MIT)

4.30 – 5 p.m.: Recap. Discussion Audience/ G. Speakers

THURSDAY, JANUARY 29th, 2026

9:30 – 10 a.m.: Welcome and Coffee

10 – 10:45 a.m.: Evaluating the Social Intelligence of LLMs through Social Interactions
Jieyu Zhao (USC)

10:45 – 11:30 a.m.: Classical Computation in Connectionist Models
Najoung Kim (Boston University) – Remote

11:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.:  Recap. Discussion Audience/ G. Speakers

12 – 1.15 p.m.: Lunch on your own

1:15 – 2 p.m.: Learning to Solve Analogies: The Paths Children and LLMs Take
Claire Stevenson (University of Amsterdam)

2 – 2.45 p.m.: Post-Training for Reasoning in Large Language Models: Learning vs Reshaping, Generalization and Failure Modes
Ivan Titov (University of Edinburgh, University of Amsterdam)

2.45 – 3.15 p.pm. : Coffee Break

3.15 – 4 p.m.: How Do Language Models Reason About Information From Parameters and Context? Lessons for Complementary Learning Systems
Andrew Lampinen (Google DeepMind)

4 – 5 p.m.: Panel discussion “Reasoning in AI and Human Cognition”+ Audience Questions
Alison Gopnik (UC Berkeley), Andrew Granville (Université de Montréal) Andrew Lampinen (Google DeepMind) and Laura Ruis (MIT), moderated by Guillaume Lajoie (IVADO, Université de Montréal, Mila)

5 – 5.10 p.m.: Closing Remarks