EDUCATION
- MIT Department of Brain and
Cognitive Sciences (BCS), 2003-present (expected PhD: May/June 2008);
GPA ~ 4.9 (5.0 scale)
- I work with Josh Tenenbaum in
the Computational Cognitive
Science Lab
- I also spent about 6 months working in the infant lab of Fei Xu, UBC
(Vancouver, Canada)
- Proposed thesis title: Learnability, representation, and
language: A Bayesian approach
- Santa Fe Institute, Complex Systems Summer School 2002
- Coursework in the mathematics of nonlinear dynamical systems, complex
automata, computer theory, and applications of complexity theory to
economic, social, and biological systems. Included independent research
work.
- M.A., Stanford University Department of Linguistics (2000); GPA ~ 3.93
(4.0 scale)
- Thesis title: Simulated evolution of language: The emergence of
meaning
- Advisor: David Beaver
- B.S., Stanford University (1999); GPA 3.84 (4.0 scale)
- Major: Symbolic Systems
(with distinction, with honors); Minor: Physics
- Thesis title: Slow and steady doesn't win the race: The relation
between infant information processing skills and language
comprehension
- Advisor: Anne Fernald
- Montrose High School (Montrose, Colorado), 1991-1995; GPA: 4.16 (4.0
scale, with weighted classes)
- Class valedictorian, National Merit Scholar
RESEARCH INTERESTS - Language and conceptual development;
computational approaches to these issues; learnability; language
evolution; language processing; the nature of conceptual representation;
early word learning, induction, and categorization
HONORS AND AWARDS
PUBLICATIONS
- Foraker, S., Regier, T., Khetarpal, N., Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J.B.
(2007) Indirect evidence and the poverty of the stimulus: The case of
anaphoric one. Cognitive Science.
- Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J.B., Regier, T. (under review)
The learnability of abstract syntactic principles. Cognition.
- Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J.B., Gibson, E., Regier, T. (under review)
How recursive is language? A Bayesian exploration. Linguistic Review.
- Foraker, S., Regier, T., Khetarpal, N., Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J.B.
(2007) Indirect evidence and the poverty of the stimulus: The case of
anaphoric one. Proceedings
of the 29th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. [pdf]
- Kemp, C., Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J.B. (2007) Learning
overhypotheses with hierarchical Bayesian models. Developmental
Science 10:3. 307-321 [pdf]
- Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J.,
Regier, T. (2006) Poverty of the Stimulus? A rational approach.
28th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Vancouver,
British Columbia. [pdf]
- Fernald, A., Perfors, A., Marchman, V. (2006) Picking
Up Speed in Understanding: Speech Processing Efficiency and Vocabulary
Growth Across the 2nd Year. Developmental Psychology 42:1. 98-116
[pdf]
- Kemp, C., Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J. (2006) Learning
overhypotheses. 28th
Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Vancouver,
British Columbia. [pdf]
- Perfors, A., Kemp, C., Tenenbaum, J. (2005) Modeling the
acquisition of domain structure and feature understanding. 27th
Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Stresa, Italy. [pdf]
- Wasow, T., Perfors, A., Beaver, D. (2005) The Puzzle of
Ambiguity.
O. Orgun and P. Sells (eds) Morphology and the Web of Grammar: Essays
in Memory of Steven G. Lapointe. CSLI Publications [pdf]
- Kemp, C., Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J. (2004) Learning domain
structures. 26th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science
Society. Chicago, Illinois [pdf]
- Perfors, A. (2002) Simulated Evolution of Language: A Review of the
Field. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation. ed.
Nigel Gilbert 5,2. [link]
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
- Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J. (2008) Word learning: Bayes, labels, and
inductive constraints. New Directions in Word Learning. York
University, UK.
- Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J., Regier, T. (2007) Indirect evidence and
the poverty of the stimulus. Proceedings of the 29th Annual Conference
of the Cognitive Science Society. Nashville, TN.
- Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J., Regier, T. (2007) Representation and
learnability: A rational approach. 40th Annual Meeting of the Society
for Mathematical Psychology. Irvine, CA.
- Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J., Regier, T. (2007) A Bayesian approach
to the poverty of the stimulus. Machine Learning and Cognitive Science
of Language Acquisition Workshop. University College London.
- Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J., Regier, T. (2007) Hierarchical phrase
structure and recursion: A Bayesian exploration of learnability.
Recursion in Human
Languages Conference. Normal, IL
- Perfors, A., Kemp, C., Xu, F., Tenenbaum, J. (2007) Learning
inductive constraints. Symposium at Biennial Meeting for Society for
Research in Child Development (SRCD); Boston, MA
- Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J., Regier, T. (2006) Poverty of the Stimulus? A Rational
Approach Talk presented at the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Society for
Philosophy and Psychology. St. Louis, Missouri.
CONFERENCE POSTERS
- Perfors, A., Kemp, C., Tenenbaum, J., Wonnacott, E. (2007) Learning
inductive constraints: The acquisition of verb argument constructions.
Proceedings of the 29th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society
[poster][pdf writeup]
- Perfors, A., Kemp, C., Tenenbaum, J., Wonnacott, E. (2007) Learning
inductive constraints: The acquisition of verb argument constructions.
Machine Learning and Cognitive Science of Language Acquisition Workshop.
University College London.[poster]
[pdf writeup]
- Perfors,
A. (2004) What's in a Name? The effect of sound symbolism on
perception of facial attractiveness. Poster presented at the 26th
Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Chicago,
Illinois. [pdf]
- Perfors, A., Magnani, K., Fernald, A. (2002) Speed and Accuracy in
On-Line Comprehension are Related to Vocabulary Growth in 15- to 25-month
old Children. Poster presented at 15th Annual CUNY Conference on
Human Sentence Processing, New York, NY
- Perfors, A., Beaver, D., Bergman, A., Brants, T., Wasow, T. (2002)
Why Does Ambiguity Exist? Paper presented at Second Annual Semantics
Fest, Stanford, California
- Perfors, A., Magnani, K., Fernald, A., Pinto, J. (1999). How
Do Infant Information Processing Skills Relate to Later Linguistic
Performance? Poster presented at Society for Research in Child
Development Conference, Albuquerque, NM
- Magnani, K., Perfors, A., Fernald, A. (1999). Are developmental
changes in the speed and accuracy of word recognition related to
vocabulary growth in the second year? Poster presented at Society for
Research in Child Development Conference, Albuquerque, NM
- Fernald, Anne, Pinto, J., Swingley, D., Perfors, A., Magnani,
K., & Bradley, A. (1998) Infants Can Recognize Words Using Partial
Phonetic Information. Poster presented at the 11th
International Conference on Infant Studies, Atlanta, GA. 1998
TEACHING/EDUCATION EXPERIENCE
- IPAM Graduate
Summer School: Probabilistic Models of Cognition, 2007: Lecture:
Grammar induction in language; and several tutorials
- MIT BCS Department, 2007: TA
for 9.012, Cognitive Science (the graduate core class in cognitive
science); responsibilities included guest lecturing, coordinating among
the professors, organizing, and grading. Earned Walle Nauta Award for
Continuing Dedication to Teaching
- MIT BCS Department, 2005: TA
for 9.66, Computational Cognitive Science (a graduate-level
class); responsibilities included guest
lecturing, designing problem sets, grading, and running sections. Earned
Walle Nauta Award for Continuing Dedication to Teaching
- MIT Teaching & Learning
Laboratory, 2005: Assisted with the TA
training for new TAs university-wide, as well as a special three-day
program for BCS students in particular
- MIT BCS Department,
2005-present:
Guest lecturer for 9.98, Language and Mind; 9.59/24.905,
Psycholinguistics; 9.63, Lab in Cognitive Science
- MIT BCS Department, 2004: TA
for 9.00, Introduction to Psychology. Earned Angus McDonald Award for
Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
- Stanford Department
of Human Biology, 2002 to 2003: Head course
assistant and curriculum designer, Human Biology Core course (year-long).
Earned Centennial TA Award
- Peace
Corps (Mozambique), 2000 to 2001: Secondary School Biology and
English Teacher
- Stanford Symbolic Systems
Department, Summer
2000: Curriculum
designer for Symbolic Systems core class
- Stanford Department
of Human Biology, 1999 to 2000: Course assistant,
Human Biology core course (year-long). Earned CTL Award for Excellence in Teaching.
- ACE Computer Camp (MIT), Summer 1997: Academic director
- ACE Computer Camp (Stanford), Summer 1996: Computer teacher
ADVISING/ADMINISTRATIVE/DEPARTMENTAL EXPERIENCE
ADDITIONAL RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
RANDOM OTHER JOBS THAT WERE JUST KINDA INTERESTING
- Bachelor/Syracuse
Mine, Summer 1999: Line Cook and Gold Panner (Ouray, Colorado)
- Tire House Builder, Summer 1999: Manual labor (Ridgway, Colorado)
- Stanford Dining Services, 1995 to 1997: Food service worker
- Bray and Company Real Estate, 1993 to 1995: Desktop publishing and
advertisement design (Montrose, Colorado)
- Howard Hughes High School Scholars Program, Summer 1994: Biomedical
research assistant, Colorado State University
- Math & Science Upward
Bound Program, Summer 1993: Trinidad
State Junior College
EXTRACURRICULARS
- Captain (2005) and member (2003-2006) of MIT Women's
Rugby Club
- Licensed Emergency Medical Technician (2004)
- I wrote a novel. (2003)
- Co-captain of San Francisco Rugby Club, Women's Side (2000, 2002)
- Select side player for PCNRFU, Spring 2003
- Member of Stanford Women's Rugby National Championship
(1999) and National Championship Runner-Up (1998) Teams
STRENGTHS - Proficient (i.e., once fluent, but
somewhat out of practice) in Portuguese and Spanish.
- Strong
programmer in Visual Basic, C, C++, and Matlab. Some familiarity with
Perl, Basic, R, Java,
HTML, and SQL database programming, as well as Unix.
- Significant
coursework/knowledge of evolutionary systems, physics, game theory,
anthropology, philosophy, and complex systems.
- High motivation, initiative, resourcefulness, and energy.
-
Excellent leadership skills and ability to work well in a team
environment.
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