ICLR 2026 Workshop

From Human Cognition to AI Reasoning:
Models, Methods, and Applications


Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

April 2026

Overview

The objective of this workshop is to bridge the gap between human cognitive science and artificial intelligence by bringing together researchers working on computational models of human cognition, neurosymbolic AI, human-AI interaction, and cognitively-inspired machine learning. Recent advances in AI have demonstrated remarkable capabilities, yet these systems often lack the interpretability, causal reasoning, and generalization abilities that characterize human intelligence. Meanwhile, cognitive science has made significant progress in understanding human reasoning, learning, and decision-making processes.

We believe that incorporating insights from human cognition into AI systems can lead to more robust, interpretable, and human-aligned artificial intelligence. This workshop aims to facilitate cross-pollination of ideas between cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, and AI researchers to develop the next generation of AI systems that can reason more like humans while maintaining computational efficiency.

The workshop will explore how explicit models of human knowledge, cognitive capabilities, and mental states can be integrated into AI reasoning processes. We will examine approaches that combine neural and symbolic methods inspired by human cognition, incorporate human causal reasoning patterns, and leverage human teaching signals to create more interpretable and aligned AI systems.

The workshop will focus on research related to all aspects of human cognition and AI reasoning. This topic features technical problems that are of interest across multiple fields including cognitive science, machine learning, AI planning, human-robot interaction, and neurosymbolic AI. We welcome submissions that address formal as well as empirical issues on topics such as:


Invited Speakers


Rachid Alami
Rachid Alami
LAAS-CNRS, France


Kimberly Lauren Stachenfeld,
Kimberly Lauren Stachenfeld,
Google DeepMind and Columbia University, USA


Joshua B Tenenbaum
Joshua B Tenenbaum
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA


Elmira Yadollahi
Elmira Yadollahi
Lancaster University, UK




Organizing Committee


Julie A. Shah
Julie A Shah
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA


Sarath Sreedharan
Sarath Sreedharan
Colorado State University, USA


Silvia Tulli
Silvia Tulli
Sorbonne University, France


Pulkit Verma
Pulkit Verma
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India