New Behavioral Paradigms for Characterizing Representations
As large-scale online experiments are becoming increasingly configurable and adaptive, they blur the line between behavioral paradigms and computer algorithms. This perspective (sometimes referred to as Algorithms with People) inspires a new class of paradigms for characterizing representations. By treating representations as subjective probabilities we can design behavioral experiments that instantiate sampling algorithms from those representations. I have been involved in multiple projects that develop and leverage such paradigms for studying semantic and perceptual representations in humans and machines, including (i) Gibbs Sampling with People (Harrison* et al., 2020; Marjieh et al., 2024; Kumar et al., 2022), (ii) STEP-Tag (Marjieh et al., 2023; Marjieh et al., 2025), and (iii) Multimodal serial reproduction (Marjieh et al., 2023; Kumar* et al., 2024). For a recent summary of this approach, check out this book chapter that we recently wrote (Griffiths et al., 2024).
References
2025
Characterizing the Large-Scale Structure of Multimodal Semantic Networks
Raja Marjieh, Pol Rijn, Ilia Sucholutsky, and 3 more authors
@article{PPR:PPR831252,title={Characterizing the Large-Scale Structure of Multimodal Semantic Networks},author={Marjieh, Raja and van Rijn, Pol and Sucholutsky, Ilia and Lee, Harin and Jacoby, Nori and Griffiths, Thomas},journal={Cognitive Science},volume={49},number={10},pages={e70131},year={2025},url={https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/cogs.70131},}
2024
Timbral effects on consonance disentangle psychoacoustic mechanisms and suggest perceptual origins for musical scales
Raja Marjieh, Peter MC Harrison, Harin Lee, and 2 more authors
Nature Communications. Listen to the experiments here , 2024
@article{marjieh2024timbral,title={Timbral effects on consonance disentangle psychoacoustic mechanisms and suggest perceptual origins for musical scales},author={Marjieh, Raja and Harrison, Peter MC and Lee, Harin and Deligiannaki, Fotini and Jacoby, Nori},journal={Nature Communications},volume={15},number={1},pages={1482},year={2024},publisher={Nature Publishing Group UK London},url={https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-45812-z},}
Comparing Abstraction in Humans and Machines Using Multimodal Serial Reproduction
Sreejan Kumar*, Raja Marjieh*, Byron Zhang, and 5 more authors
In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 2024
@inproceedings{kumar2024comparing,title={Comparing Abstraction in Humans and Machines Using Multimodal Serial Reproduction},author={Kumar, Sreejan and Marjieh, Raja and Zhang, Byron and Campbell, Declan and Hu, Michael Y and Bhatt, Umang and Lake, Brenden and Griffiths, Tom},booktitle={Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society},volume={46},year={2024},}
Estimating Subjective Probability Distributions
Thomas L Griffiths, Adam N Sanborn, Raja Marjieh, and 3 more authors
In Bayesian Models of Cognition: Reverse Engineering the Mind, 2024
@incollection{warwick180242,year={2024},editor={Griffiths, T. L. and Chater, Nick and Tenenbaum, Joshua B.},address={Boston, MA},publisher={MIT Press},title={Estimating Subjective Probability Distributions},booktitle={Bayesian Models of Cognition: Reverse Engineering the Mind},author={Griffiths, Thomas L and Sanborn, Adam N and Marjieh, Raja and Langlois, Thomas and Xu, Jing and Jacoby, Nori},}
2023
Words are all you need? Language as an approximation for human similarity judgments
Raja Marjieh, Pol Van Rijn, Ilia Sucholutsky, and 4 more authors
In The Eleventh International Conference on Learning Representations, 2023
@inproceedings{marjieh2023words,title={Words are all you need? Language as an approximation for human similarity judgments},author={Marjieh, Raja and Rijn, Pol Van and Sucholutsky, Ilia and Sumers, Theodore and Lee, Harin and Griffiths, Thomas L. and Jacoby, Nori},booktitle={The Eleventh International Conference on Learning Representations},year={2023},}
Analyzing Diffusion as Serial Reproduction
Raja Marjieh, Ilia Sucholutsky, Thomas A Langlois, and 2 more authors
In Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Machine Learning, 2023
@inproceedings{pmlr-v202-marjieh23a,title={Analyzing Diffusion as Serial Reproduction},author={Marjieh, Raja and Sucholutsky, Ilia and Langlois, Thomas A and Jacoby, Nori and Griffiths, Thomas L.},booktitle={Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Machine Learning},pages={24005--24019},year={2023},volume={202},series={Proceedings of Machine Learning Research},publisher={PMLR},}
2022
Using natural language and program abstractions to instill human inductive biases in machines
Sreejan Kumar, Carlos G Correa, Ishita Dasgupta, and 7 more authors
Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems. Outstanding Paper Award , 2022
@article{kumar2022using,title={Using natural language and program abstractions to instill human inductive biases in machines},author={Kumar, Sreejan and Correa, Carlos G and Dasgupta, Ishita and Marjieh, Raja and Hu, Michael Y and Hawkins, Robert and Cohen, Jonathan D and Narasimhan, Karthik and Griffiths, Tom and others},journal={Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems},volume={35},pages={167--180},year={2022},}
2020
Gibbs Sampling with People
Peter Harrison*, Raja Marjieh*, Federico Adolfi, and 5 more authors
In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems. Oral Presentation , 2020
@inproceedings{NEURIPS2020_7880d722,author={Harrison, Peter and Marjieh, Raja and Adolfi, Federico and van Rijn, Pol and Anglada-Tort, Manuel and Tchernichovski, Ofer and Larrouy-Maestri, Pauline and Jacoby, Nori},booktitle={Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems},title={Gibbs Sampling with People},volume={33},year={2020},}
