POSTPONED: On the Unreasonable Ineffectiveness of Mathematics in Psychology
Tue 1/21/2025 • 1PM - 2:30PM PST
Charles E. Young Research Library
The Marschak talk scheduled for January 21 has been postponed due to the fires in Los Angeles. A new date for the program will be coordinated and announced when possible. Thank you for your understanding and please stay safe.
Presented by the UCLA Library and the Jacob Marschak Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Mathematics in the Behavioral Sciences
Speaker: Colin Allen, Distinguished Professor in the department of philosophy at the University of California, Santa Barbara
Drawing on interviews and other work that is being done for a book about the history and philosophy of "mathematical psychology,” Colin Allen will characterize mathematical psychologists as a self-identified community within psychology, united by their approach to mathematical modeling, mentoring lineages and institutional structures such as a journal, and societies on three continents organizing conferences and summer schools.
Mathematical psychologists have recently been vocal about the need for psychology to move in a more mathematical direction, inspired partly by the so-called “replication crisis” which many of them believe is actually a “theory crisis.” In this talk, Allen will at the arguments of three prominent mathematical psychologists and argue that while mathematical psychology does not lack small “t” theories, it has been arguably less successful in formulating big “T" Theories that have the kind of scope, generality, and predictive power that led Wigner to write of the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in physics.
This talk is offered both in person and online. Light refreshments will be served.