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Background

We use concepts constantly all day, every day. Waking up and perceiving the world activates a series of concepts (alarm, sunlight, bus, cat, coffee) and we use these concepts to communicate with others (“Coffee and croissant, please”), make decisions (Should I take the train or bus?), and understand our world (This animal has wings so it can probably fly). Each concept is like a tool that we use to refer to a specific slice of the world, and understanding a concept’s structure — what it contains, and how it is organized — is crucial for understanding how concepts are learned, represented, and flexibly used.

Sarah Solomon completed her PhD and postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania, and now leads the Semantic Plasticity in Neural Systems (SPiNS) Lab at ������Ƶ. The SPiNS Lab uses behavioral, neuroimaging and computational methods to work at the intersection of category learning and language use, discovering and examining how concepts are learned and used flexibly in language and thought.

Education

• Postdoctoral researcher, University of Pennsylvania
• PhD, University of Pennsylvania
• BA/BS/MA, University of Delaware

Research Interests

• Semantic plasticity
• Category learning and concept use
• Structure learning and representation
• Semantic generalization
• Neural mechanisms underlying flexible
  semantic cognition in humans
• Neuroimaging (fMRI)
• Computational modeling

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