A neural network walks into a lab: towards using deep nets as models for human behavior

Understand

What might sound like the beginning of a joke has become an attractive prospect for many cognitive scientists: the use of deep neural network models (DNNs) as models of human behavior in perceptual and cognitive tasks.

• Although DNNs have taken over machine learning, attempts to use them as models of human behavior are still in the early stages.
• Can they become a versatile model class in the cognitive scientist's toolbox? We first argue why DNNs have the potential to be interesting models of human behavior.
• We then discuss how that potential can be more fully realized.