Dr Bradley Franks

Page contents > Biography | Research interests and selected publications

Biography

Lecturer in Psychology
Tutor to Research Students; Admissions Tutor, Research Students

After a first degree in Social Psychology at the LSE, I went to Edinburgh to study cognitive science at the Centre for Cognitive Science. There, I obtained a Masters degree and PhD in cognitive science, specialising in cognitive scientific approaches to word meaning and concepts. Since returning to the LSE as a lecturer, my research has developed to include a range of topics whilst retaining a focus on the way in which people represent knowledge of the social and natural world. These interests include the relationship between cognition and culture, and their connection with evolutionary pressures. A major focus is the way in which these factors are reflected in the impact of communication and pragmatics on concepts and categorisation.

My other interests include philosophical issues in psychology and computational modelling of cognitive theories. I am also a member of the Groupement de Recherche, 'Dévelopement Cognitif and Diversité Culturelle', CNRS, Paris.

I teach on a variety of courses including Self, Others and Society: Perspectives on Social and Applied Psychology (PS102), Social Psychology (PS200), Cognitive Psychology (PS201), Evolutionary Psychology (PS321) and Social Psychology and Society (PS303), Cognition and Culture (PS451) as well as organising the Current Research in Social Psychology seminar (PS950) for research students.

Research interests and selected publications

Franks, B. (1999). Idealizations, competence and explanation: a response to Patterson. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 50, 735-746.

Franks, B., & Braisby, N. (1997). Concepts in action: the evolutionary role of concepts and similarity. In Ramscar, M., Hahn, U., Cambouropolos, E., & Pain, H. (Eds.), Proceedings of SimCat 97: Interdisciplinary Workshop on Similarity and Categorisation, Edinburgh. pps. 91-98.

Braisby, N. R., Franks, B., & Hampton, J. A. (1996). Essentialism, word use, and concepts. Cognition, 59, 247-274.

Franks, B. (1995). Sense Generation: a 'quasi-classical' approach to concepts and concept combination. Cognitive Science, 19 (4), 441-506