Josh Rule

I am a postdoctoral scholar with Steven Piantadosi and Alison Gopnik at UC Berkeley. I completed my PhD with Josh Tenenbaum at MIT (thesis · precis).

My research uses behavioral experiments and computational methods to study how people develop conceptual systems and leverage them to accomplish their goals. My work revolves around an idea called the child as hacker—that symbolic programs provide the most compelling account of sophisticated mental representations and that learning is analogous to a particular style of programming called hacking. I want to understand how human programmers write code–the goals, activities, and tools they use to make code better–and apply these insights to better describe learning in children and adults.

Data and code for published and ongoing work is available upon request.

Publications

Under Review

[21] Rule, J. S., Goddu, M. K., Chu, J., Pinter, V., Reagan, E. R., Bonawitz, E., Gopnik, A., & Ullman, T. (under review). Fun isn’t easy: Children choose more difficult options when “playing for fun” vs. “trying to win.” Bib

@article{rulefun,
  title = {Fun isn't easy: {{Children}} choose more difficult options when ``playing for fun'' vs. ``trying to win''},
  author = {Rule, Joshua S. and Goddu, Mariel K. and Chu, Junyi and Pinter, Verity and Reagan, Emily Rose and Bonawitz, Elizabeth and Gopnik, Alison and Ullman, Tomer},
  status = {under review}
}

[20] Rule, J. S., & Piantadosi, S. T. (under review). The end of radical concept nativism. Bib

@article{ruleend,
  title = {The end of radical concept nativism},
  author = {Rule, Joshua S. and Piantadosi, Steven T.},
  status = {under review}
}

[19] Piantadosi, S. T., Muller, D. C. Y., Rule, J. S., Kaushik, K., Gorenstein, M., Leib, E. R., & Sanford, E. (under review). How cognitive science (probably) figured out concepts. Bib

@article{piantadosicognitive,
  title = {How cognitive science (probably) figured out concepts},
  author = {Piantadosi, Steven T. and Muller, Dyana C. Y. and Rule, Joshua S. and Kaushik, Karthikeya and Gorenstein, Mark and Leib, Elena R. and Sanford, Emily},
  status = {under review}
}

[18] Rule, J. S., Piantadosi, S. T., & Tenenbaum, J. B. (under review). Efficient learning of symbolic concepts via metaprogram search. Bib

@article{ruleefficient,
  title = {{{Efficient}} learning of symbolic concepts via metaprogram search},
  author = {Rule, Joshua S. and Piantadosi, Steven T. and Tenenbaum, Joshua B.},
  status = {under review}
}

2023

[17] Rule, J. S., & Piantadosi, S. T. (2023). Algorithmic foundations of mathematical development [Symposium chair]. Proceedings of the Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society. Bib

@inproceedings{rule2023algorithmic,
  title = {Algorithmic foundations of mathematical development},
  author = {Rule, Joshua S. and Piantadosi, Steven T.},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the {{Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society}}},
  year = {2023},
  note = {Symposium chair}
}

[16] Srivastava, A., Rastogi, A., Rao, A., Shoeb, A. A. M., Abid, A., Fisch, A., Brown, A. R., Santoro, A., Gupta, A., Garriga-Alonso, A., Kluska, A., Lewkowycz, A., Agarwal, A., Power, A., Ray, A., Warstadt, A., Kocurek, A. W., Safaya, A., Tazarv, A., … Wu, Z. (2023). Beyond the imitation game: Quantifying and extrapolating the capabilities of language models. Transactions on Machine Learning Research. Bib Paper

@article{srivastava2023beyond,
  title = {Beyond the imitation game: Quantifying and extrapolating the capabilities of language models},
  author = {Srivastava, Aarohi and Rastogi, Abhinav and Rao, Abhishek and Shoeb, Abu Awal Md and Abid, Abubakar and Fisch, Adam and Brown, Adam R. and Santoro, Adam and Gupta, Aditya and Garriga-Alonso, Adri{\`a} and Kluska, Agnieszka and Lewkowycz, Aitor and Agarwal, Akshat and Power, Alethea and Ray, Alex and Warstadt, Alex and Kocurek, Alexander W. and Safaya, Ali and Tazarv, Ali and Xiang, Alice and Parrish, Alicia and Nie, Allen and Hussain, Aman and Askell, Amanda and Dsouza, Amanda and Slone, Ambrose and Rahane, Ameet and Iyer, Anantharaman S. and Andreassen, Anders Johan and Madotto, Andrea and Santilli, Andrea and Stuhlm{\"u}ller, Andreas and Dai, Andrew M. and La, Andrew and Lampinen, Andrew and Zou, Andy and Jiang, Angela and Chen, Angelica and Vuong, Anh and Gupta, Animesh and Gottardi, Anna and Norelli, Antonio and Venkatesh, Anu and Gholamidavoodi, Arash and Tabassum, Arfa and Menezes, Arul and Kirubarajan, Arun and Mullokandov, Asher and Sabharwal, Ashish and Herrick, Austin and Efrat, Avia and Erdem, Aykut and Karaka{\c{s}}, Ayla and Roberts, B. Ryan and Loe, Bao Sheng and Zoph, Barret and Bojanowski, Bart{\l}omiej and {\"O}zyurt, Batuhan and Hedayatnia, Behnam and Neyshabur, Behnam and Inden, Benjamin and Stein, Benno and Ekmekci, Berk and Lin, Bill Yuchen and Howald, Blake and Orinion, Bryan and Diao, Cameron and Dour, Cameron and Stinson, Catherine and Argueta, Cedrick and Ferri, Cesar and Singh, Chandan and Rathkopf, Charles and Meng, Chenlin and Baral, Chitta and Wu, Chiyu and Callison-Burch, Chris and Waites, Christopher and Voigt, Christian and Manning, Christopher D and Potts, Christopher and Ramirez, Cindy and Rivera, Clara E. and Siro, Clemencia and Raffel, Colin and Ashcraft, Courtney and Garbacea, Cristina and Sileo, Damien and Garrette, Dan and Hendrycks, Dan and Kilman, Dan and Roth, Dan and Freeman, C. Daniel and Khashabi, Daniel and Levy, Daniel and Gonz{\'a}lez, Daniel Mosegu{\'\i} and Perszyk, Danielle and Hernandez, Danny and Chen, Danqi and Ippolito, Daphne and Gilboa, Dar and Dohan, David and Drakard, David and Jurgens, David and Datta, Debajyoti and Ganguli, Deep and Emelin, Denis and Kleyko, Denis and Yuret, Deniz and Chen, Derek and Tam, Derek and Hupkes, Dieuwke and Misra, Diganta and Buzan, Dilyar and Mollo, Dimitri Coelho and Yang, Diyi and Lee, Dong-Ho and Schrader, Dylan and Shutova, Ekaterina and Cubuk, Ekin Dogus and Segal, Elad and Hagerman, Eleanor and Barnes, Elizabeth and Donoway, Elizabeth and Pavlick, Ellie and Rodol{\`a}, Emanuele and Lam, Emma and Chu, Eric and Tang, Eric and Erdem, Erkut and Chang, Ernie and Chi, Ethan A and Dyer, Ethan and Jerzak, Ethan and Kim, Ethan and Manyasi, Eunice Engefu and Zheltonozhskii, Evgenii and Xia, Fanyue and Siar, Fatemeh and Mart{\'\i}nez-Plumed, Fernando and Happ{\'e}, Francesca and Chollet, Francois and Rong, Frieda and Mishra, Gaurav and Winata, Genta Indra and de Melo, Gerard and Kruszewski, Germ{\'a}n and Parascandolo, Giambattista and Mariani, Giorgio and Wang, Gloria Xinyue and Jaimovitch-Lopez, Gonzalo and Betz, Gregor and Gur-Ari, Guy and Galijasevic, Hana and Kim, Hannah and Rashkin, Hannah and Hajishirzi, Hannaneh and Mehta, Harsh and Bogar, Hayden and Shevlin, Henry Francis Anthony and Schuetze, Hinrich and Yakura, Hiromu and Zhang, Hongming and Wong, Hugh Mee and Ng, Ian and Noble, Isaac and Jumelet, Jaap and Geissinger, Jack and Kernion, Jackson and Hilton, Jacob and Lee, Jaehoon and Fisac, Jaime Fern{\'a}ndez and Simon, James B and Koppel, James and Zheng, James and Zou, James and Kocon, Jan and Thompson, Jana and Wingfield, Janelle and Kaplan, Jared and Radom, Jarema and Sohl-Dickstein, Jascha and Phang, Jason and Wei, Jason and Yosinski, Jason and Novikova, Jekaterina and Bosscher, Jelle and Marsh, Jennifer and Kim, Jeremy and Taal, Jeroen and Engel, Jesse and Alabi, Jesujoba and Xu, Jiacheng and Song, Jiaming and Tang, Jillian and Waweru, Joan and Burden, John and Miller, John and Balis, John U. and Batchelder, Jonathan and Berant, Jonathan and Frohberg, J{\"o}rg and Rozen, Jos and Hernandez-Orallo, Jose and Boudeman, Joseph and Guerr, Joseph and Jones, Joseph and Tenenbaum, Joshua B. and Rule, Joshua S. and Chua, Joyce and Kanclerz, Kamil and Livescu, Karen and Krauth, Karl and Gopalakrishnan, Karthik and Ignatyeva, Katerina and Markert, Katja and Dhole, Kaustubh and Gimpel, Kevin and Omondi, Kevin and Mathewson, Kory Wallace and Chiafullo, Kristen and Shkaruta, Ksenia and Shridhar, Kumar and McDonell, Kyle and Richardson, Kyle and Reynolds, Laria and Gao, Leo and Zhang, Li and Dugan, Liam and Qin, Lianhui and Contreras-Ochando, Lidia and Morency, Louis-Philippe and Moschella, Luca and Lam, Lucas and Noble, Lucy and Schmidt, Ludwig and He, Luheng and Oliveros-Col{\'o}n, Luis and Metz, Luke and Senel, L{\"u}tfi Kerem and Bosma, Maarten and Sap, Maarten and Hoeve, Maartje Ter and Farooqi, Maheen and Faruqui, Manaal and Mazeika, Mantas and Baturan, Marco and Marelli, Marco and Maru, Marco and Ramirez-Quintana, Maria Jose and Tolkiehn, Marie and Giulianelli, Mario and Lewis, Martha and Potthast, Martin and Leavitt, Matthew L and Hagen, Matthias and Schubert, M{\'a}ty{\'a}s and Baitemirova, Medina Orduna and Arnaud, Melody and McElrath, Melvin and Yee, Michael Andrew and Cohen, Michael and Gu, Michael and Ivanitskiy, Michael and Starritt, Michael and Strube, Michael and Sw{\k{e}}drowski, Micha{\l} and Bevilacqua, Michele and Yasunaga, Michihiro and Kale, Mihir and Cain, Mike and Xu, Mimee and Suzgun, Mirac and Walker, Mitch and Tiwari, Mo and Bansal, Mohit and Aminnaseri, Moin and Geva, Mor and Gheini, Mozhdeh and T, Mukund Varma and Peng, Nanyun and Chi, Nathan Andrew and Lee, Nayeon and Krakover, Neta Gur-Ari and Cameron, Nicholas and Roberts, Nicholas and Doiron, Nick and Martinez, Nicole and Nangia, Nikita and Deckers, Niklas and Muennighoff, Niklas and Keskar, Nitish Shirish and Iyer, Niveditha S. and Constant, Noah and Fiedel, Noah and Wen, Nuan and Zhang, Oliver and Agha, Omar and Elbaghdadi, Omar and Levy, Omer and Evans, Owain and Casares, Pablo Antonio Moreno and Doshi, Parth and Fung, Pascale and Liang, Paul Pu and Vicol, Paul and Alipoormolabashi, Pegah and Liao, Peiyuan and Liang, Percy and Chang, Peter W and Eckersley, Peter and Htut, Phu Mon and Hwang, Pinyu and Mi{\l}kowski, Piotr and Patil, Piyush and Pezeshkpour, Pouya and Oli, Priti and Mei, Qiaozhu and Lyu, Qing and Chen, Qinlang and Banjade, Rabin and Rudolph, Rachel Etta and Gabriel, Raefer and Habacker, Rahel and Risco, Ramon and Milli{\`e}re, Rapha{\"e}l and Garg, Rhythm and Barnes, Richard and Saurous, Rif A. and Arakawa, Riku and Raymaekers, Robbe and Frank, Robert and Sikand, Rohan and Novak, Roman and Sitelew, Roman and Bras, Ronan Le and Liu, Rosanne and Jacobs, Rowan and Zhang, Rui and Salakhutdinov, Russ and Chi, Ryan Andrew and Lee, Seungjae Ryan and Stovall, Ryan and Teehan, Ryan and Yang, Rylan and Singh, Sahib and Mohammad, Saif M. and Anand, Sajant and Dillavou, Sam and Shleifer, Sam and Wiseman, Sam and Gruetter, Samuel and Bowman, Samuel R. and Schoenholz, Samuel Stern and Han, Sanghyun and Kwatra, Sanjeev and Rous, Sarah A. and Ghazarian, Sarik and Ghosh, Sayan and Casey, Sean and Bischoff, Sebastian and Gehrmann, Sebastian and Schuster, Sebastian and Sadeghi, Sepideh and Hamdan, Shadi and Zhou, Sharon and Srivastava, Shashank and Shi, Sherry and Singh, Shikhar and Asaadi, Shima and Gu, Shixiang Shane and Pachchigar, Shubh and Toshniwal, Shubham and Upadhyay, Shyam and Debnath, Shyamolima Shammie and Shakeri, Siamak and Thormeyer, Simon and Melzi, Simone and Reddy, Siva and Makini, Sneha Priscilla and Lee, Soo-Hwan and Torene, Spencer and Hatwar, Sriharsha and Dehaene, Stanislas and Divic, Stefan and Ermon, Stefano and Biderman, Stella and Lin, Stephanie and Prasad, Stephen and Piantadosi, Steven and Shieber, Stuart and Misherghi, Summer and Kiritchenko, Svetlana and Mishra, Swaroop and Linzen, Tal and Schuster, Tal and Li, Tao and Yu, Tao and Ali, Tariq and Hashimoto, Tatsunori and Wu, Te-Lin and Desbordes, Th{\'e}o and Rothschild, Theodore and Phan, Thomas and Wang, Tianle and Nkinyili, Tiberius and Schick, Timo and Kornev, Timofei and Tunduny, Titus and Gerstenberg, Tobias and Chang, Trenton and Neeraj, Trishala and Khot, Tushar and Shultz, Tyler and Shaham, Uri and Misra, Vedant and Demberg, Vera and Nyamai, Victoria and Raunak, Vikas and Ramasesh, Vinay Venkatesh and vinay uday prabhu and Padmakumar, Vishakh and Srikumar, Vivek and Fedus, William and Saunders, William and Zhang, William and Vossen, Wout and Ren, Xiang and Tong, Xiaoyu and Zhao, Xinran and Wu, Xinyi and Shen, Xudong and Yaghoobzadeh, Yadollah and Lakretz, Yair and Song, Yangqiu and Bahri, Yasaman and Choi, Yejin and Yang, Yichi and Hao, Yiding and Chen, Yifu and Belinkov, Yonatan and Hou, Yu and Hou, Yufang and Bai, Yuntao and Seid, Zachary and Zhao, Zhuoye and Wang, Zijian and Wang, Zijie J. and Wang, Zirui and Wu, Ziyi},
  journal = {Transactions on Machine Learning Research},
  year = {2023}
}

2022

[15] Rule, J. S., Piantadosi, S. T., & Tenenbaum, J. B. (2022). Learning as programming: Efficient search in models of human concept learning [Talk and abstract]. Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society. Abstract Bib

@inproceedings{rule2022learning,
  title = {Learning as programming: {{Efficient}} search in models of human concept learning},
  author = {Rule, Joshua S. and Piantadosi, Steven T. and Tenenbaum, Joshua B.},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the {{Cognitive Science Society}}},
  year = {2022},
  note = {Talk and abstract}
}

[14] Goddu, M. K., Rule, J. S., Bonawitz, E., Gonik, A., & Ullman, T. (2022). Fun isn’t easy: Children optimize for difficulty when “playing for fun” vs. “playing to win” in a game design task [Poster and abstract]. Society for Research in Child Development’s Learning through Play and Imagination: Expanding Perspectives. Abstract Bib

@inproceedings{goddu2022learning3,
  title = {Fun isn’t easy: {{C}}hildren optimize for difficulty when ``playing for fun'' vs. ``playing to win'' in a game design task},
  author = {Goddu, Mariel K and Rule, Joshua S and Bonawitz, Elizabeth and Gonik, Alison and Ullman, Tomer},
  year = {2022},
  booktitle = {{{Society for Research in Child Development’s Learning through Play and Imagination: Expanding Perspectives}}},
  note = {Poster and abstract}
}

[13] Goddu, M. K., Rule, J. S., Bonawitz, E., Gonik, A., & Ullman, T. (2022). Fun isn’t easy: Children optimize for difficulty when “playing for fun” vs. “playing to win” in a game design task [Poster and abstract]. Cognitive Development Society Abstract Book. Bib

@inproceedings{goddu2022learning2,
  title = {Fun isn’t easy: {{C}}hildren optimize for difficulty when ``playing for fun'' vs. ``playing to win'' in a game design task},
  author = {Goddu, Mariel K and Rule, Joshua S and Bonawitz, Elizabeth and Gonik, Alison and Ullman, Tomer},
  year = {2022},
  booktitle = {{{Cognitive Development Society}} Abstract Book},
  note = {Poster and abstract}
}

[12] Goddu, M. K., Rule, J. S., Bonawitz, E., Gonik, A., & Ullman, T. (2022). Fun isn’t easy: Children optimize for difficulty when “playing for fun” vs. “playing to win” in a game design task [Talk and abstract]. Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development Programs and Abstracts. Bib

@inproceedings{goddu2022learning,
  title = {Fun isn’t easy: {{C}}hildren optimize for difficulty when ``playing for fun'' vs. ``playing to win'' in a game design task},
  author = {Goddu, Mariel K and Rule, Joshua S and Bonawitz, Elizabeth and Gonik, Alison and Ullman, Tomer},
  year = {2022},
  booktitle = {{{Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development}} Programs and Abstracts},
  note = {Talk and abstract}
}

2021

[11] Rule, J. S., & Riesenhuber, M. (2021). Leveraging prior concept learning improves ability to generalize from few examples in computational models of human object recognition. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience. Bib Paper

@article{rule2021leveraging,
  title = {Leveraging prior concept learning improves ability to generalize from few examples in computational models of human object recognition},
  author = {Rule, Joshua S. and Riesenhuber, Maximilian},
  year = {2021},
  journaltitle = {Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience}
}

2020

[10] Rule, J. S., Piantadosi, S. T., & Tenenbaum, J. B. (2020). The child as hacker. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Bib Paper

@article{rule2020child2,
  title = {The child as hacker},
  author = {Rule, Joshua S. and Piantadosi, Steven T. and Tenenbaum, Joshua B.},
  year = {2020},
  journaltitle = {Trends in Cognitive Sciences}
}

[9] Rule, J. S. (2020). The child as hacker: Building more human-like models of learning [PhD thesis, MIT]. Bib Paper Precis

@phdthesis{rule2020child,
  title = {The child as hacker: {{Building}} more human-like models of learning},
  author = {Rule, Joshua S},
  year = {2020},
  institution = {MIT}
}

2019

[8] Rule, J. S., Piantadosi, S. T., & Tenenbaum, J. B. (2019). Learning a novel rule-based conceptual system [Poster and abstract]. Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society. Abstract Bib Paper

@inproceedings{rule2019learning,
  title = {Learning a novel rule-based conceptual system},
  author = {Rule, Joshua S and Piantadosi, Steven T and Tenenbaum, Joshua B},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the {{Cognitive Science Society}}},
  year = {2019},
  note = {Poster and abstract}
}

2018

[7] Rule, J., Schulz, E., Piantadosi, S. T., & Tenenbaum, J. B. (2018). Learning list concepts through program induction. Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society. Bib Paper

@inproceedings{rule2018learning,
  title = {Learning list concepts through program induction},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the {{Cognitive Science Society}}},
  author = {Rule, Joshua and Schulz, Eric and Piantadosi, Steven T. and Tenenbaum, Joshua B.},
  year = {2018}
}

2015

[6] Rule, J., Dechter, E., & Tenenbaum, J. B. (2015). Representing and learning a large system of number concepts with Latent Predicate Networks. Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society. Bib Paper

@inproceedings{rule2015representing,
  title = {Representing and learning a large system of number concepts with {{Latent Predicate Networks}}},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the {{Cognitive Science Society}}},
  author = {Rule, Joshua and Dechter, Eyal and Tenenbaum, Joshua B},
  year = {2015}
}

[5] Glezer, L. S., Kim, J., Rule, J., Jiang, X., & Riesenhuber, M. (2015). Adding words to the brain’s visual dictionary: Novel word learning selectively sharpens orthographic representations in the VWFA. Journal of Neuroscience, 35(12). Bib Paper

@article{glezer2015adding,
  title = {Adding words to the brain's visual dictionary: {{Novel}} word learning selectively sharpens orthographic representations in the {{VWFA}}},
  author = {Glezer, L. S. and Kim, J. and Rule, Joshua and Jiang, X. and Riesenhuber, M.},
  year = {2015},
  journaltitle = {Journal of Neuroscience},
  volume = {35},
  number = {12}
}

[4] Dechter, E., Rule, J., & Tenenbaum, J. B. (2015). Latent Predicate Networks: Concept learning with probabilistic context-sensitive grammars [Poster and abstract]. Proceedings of the AAAI Spring Symposium Series. Abstract Bib

@inproceedings{dechter2015latent,
  title = {{{Latent Predicate Networks}}: {{Concept}} learning with probabilistic context-sensitive grammars},
  author = {Dechter, Eyal and Rule, Joshua and Tenenbaum, Joshua B},
  year = {2015},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the  AAAI Spring Symposium Series},
  note = {Poster and abstract}
}

2014

[3] Dechter, E., Rule, J., & Tenenbaum, J. B. (2014). Unsupervised learning of probabilistic programs with Latent Predicate Networks [Poster and abstract]. Proceedings of the NIPS Workshop on Probabilistic Programming. Abstract Bib

@inproceedings{dechter2014unsupervised,
  title = {Unsupervised learning of probabilistic programs with {{Latent Predicate Networks}}},
  author = {Dechter, Eyal and Rule, Joshua and Tenenbaum, Joshua B.},
  year = {2014},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the NIPS Workshop on Probabilistic Programming},
  note = {Poster and abstract}
}

2013

[2] Glezer, L. S., Kim, J. S., Rule, J., Jiang, X., & Riesenhuber, M. (2013). Novel word learning selectively sharpens orthographic representations in the VWFA [Poster and abstract]. Neuroscience 2013 Abstracts. Abstract Bib

@inproceedings{glezer2013novel,
  title = {Novel word learning selectively sharpens orthographic representations in the {{VWFA}}},
  author = {Glezer, Laurie S. and Kim, Judy S. and Rule, Joshua and Jiang, Xiong and Riesenhuber, Maximilian},
  year = {2013},
  booktitle = {Neuroscience 2013 Abstracts},
  note = {Poster and abstract}
}

2009

[1] Sammons, M., Vydiswaran, V. G. V., Vieira, T., Johri, N., Chang, M.-W., Goldwasser, D., Srikumar, V., Kundu, G., Tu, Y., Small, K., Rule, J., Do, Q., & Roth, D. (2009). Relation alignment for textual entailment recognition. Proceedings of the Textual Alignment Conference. Bib Paper

@inproceedings{sammons2009relation,
  title = {Relation alignment for textual entailment recognition},
  author = {Sammons, Mark and Vydiswaran, V G Vinod and Vieira, Tim and Johri, Nikhil and Chang, Ming-Wei and Goldwasser, Dan and Srikumar, Vivek and Kundu, Gourab and Tu, Yuancheng and Small, Kevin and Rule, Joshua and Do, Quang and Roth, Dan},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Textual Alignment Conference},
  year = {2009}
}