RICHARDSON, Texas (Sept. 23, 2002) - As part of the Colloquium Lecture Series, Dr. Leslie Cohen, a professor of developmental psychology and director of the Children's Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin, will discuss perception, memory and cognition in infants on Friday, Oct. 4, at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). Cohen will present his lecture, entitled "Constructing Infant Cognition: A Neural Net Model of Infant Cognitive Development," at 9:45 a.m. in the Green Commons area of the Cecil and Ida Green Center.

        In his discussion, Cohen will examine the domains of infant cognitive development. He will provide examples showing the importance of information processing principles and describe a new neural net model called Constructivist Learning Architecture (C.L.A.). Cohen also will demonstrate the applicability of C.L.A. to cognitive tasks and infants' understanding of causal and non-causal events.

        Cohen conducts research into how infants come to understand concepts and categories, the principles that govern infants' early language, how infants process casual information and other visual events and the age at which infants perceive both the form and function of objects.

        The founding editor of the new journal, Infancy, Cohen received his Ph.D. in developmental psychology from UCLA.

        All Colloquium Series lectures are free and open to the public. For additional information about Cohen's lecture, please call (972) 883-2355.

About UTD
The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor, enrolls more than 13,000 students. The school's freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university's Web site at http://www.utdallas.edu.