Dr. Anna Leshinskaya's research interests are in relational cognition, learning, and memory. She is especially interested in the neural basis of the learning processes that give rise to our knowledge about the structure of event relations, including temporal and causal relations. She tests theories and computational models of relation learning in different areas of the human brain to understand their specializations, particularly in the formation of long-term memory and its transformation over time. In a complementary direction, she is investigating how relational cognition is implemented in artificial neural networks, especially large language models, and how they may be similar to or different from such processes in the human brain.
Key Research Areas:
Learning Theories, Concept Representation, World Models, Human Behavior, Neural Representation, Semantic Memory, Medial Temporal Lobe, Neural Architecture, Cognition in AI, AI Alignment.