Dear Dr. Qwerty:
When a target article or recent book has been accepted for BBS Open Peer Commentary, the editorial office sends out the Call for Commentary Proposals to thousands of people. Commentary proposals help the editors craft a well-balanced commentary invitation list. Please DO NOT submit a commentary article unless you are formally invited.
If this target article interests you as a possible subject for commentary, please download the full un-copyedited preprint to see if you would like to *propose* a commentary.
If you are interested, carefully follow the instructions below the target article information. Please keep in mind that we are not asking you to submit a commentary article -- but rather, a short proposal in order to be considered as an invited author after the proposal deadline. Also be aware that we typically receive far more commentary proposals than we can accommodate with formal invitations.
NOW PROCESSING COMMENTARY PROPOSALS ON:
Target Article: "Why do humans reason? Arguments for an argumentative theory"
Authors: Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber
Deadline for Commentary Proposals: June 28, 2010
Abstract: Reasoning is generally seen as a means to improve knowledge and make better decisions. However, much evidence shows that reasoning often leads to epistemic distortions and poor decisions. This suggests that the function of reasoning should be rethought. Our hypothesis is that the function of reasoning is argumentative. It is to devise and evaluate arguments intended to persuade. Reasoning so conceived is adaptive given the exceptional dependence of humans on communication and their vulnerability to misinformation. A wide range of evidence in the psychology of reasoning and decision making can be reinterpreted and better explained in the light of this hypothesis. Poor performance in standard reasoning tasks is explained by the lack of argumentative context. When the same problems are placed in a proper argumentative setting, people turn out to be skilled arguers. Skilled arguers, however, are not after the truth but after arguments supporting their views. This
explains the notorious confirmation bias. This bias is apparent not only when people are actually arguing but also when they are reasoning proactively from the perspective of having to defend their opinions. Reasoning so motivated can distort evaluations and attitudes and allow erroneous beliefs to persist. Proactively used reasoning also favours decisions that are easy to justify but not necessarily better. In all these instances traditionally described as failures or flaws, reasoning does exactly what can be expected of an argumentative device: look for arguments that support a given conclusion, and favour conclusions for which arguments can be found.
Keywords: Argumentation, Confirmation bias, Decision making, Dual process theory, Evolutionary psychology, Motivated reasoning, Reason-based choice, Reasoning
Download Target Article Preprint:
http://journals.cambridge.org/BBSJournal/Call/Mercier_preprint
COMMENTARY PROPOSALS *MUST* INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING
1. What aspect of the target article or book you would anticipate commenting upon.
2. The relevant expertise you would bring to bear on the target article or book.
Please include names and affiliations of your co-authors if applicable.
SUGGESTING COMMENTATORS AND NOMINATING BBS ASSOCIATES
Commentators must be BBS Associates, or suggested by a BBS Associate. If you are not a BBS Associate, please follow the instructions below. To suggest others as possible Commentators, or to nominate others for BBS Associateship status, please email bbsjournal(a)cambridge.org.
http://journals.cambridge.org/BBSJournal/Inst/Assoc
HOW TO SUBMIT A COMMENTARY PROPOSAL
If you would like to nominate yourself for potential commentary invitation, you must submit a Commentary Proposal via our BBS Editorial Manager site:
1. Log-in as Author
Username: CQwerty-545
Password: Qwerty875632
Log-in to your BBS Editorial Manager account as an author: http://www.editorialmanager.com/bbs.
If you do not have an account, please visit the site and register. You can also submit a request for missing username and password information if you have an existing account.
2. Submit New Manuscript
Within your author main menu please select Submit New Manuscript.
3. Select Article Type
Choose the article type of your manuscript from the pull-down menu. Commentary Proposal article types are temporarily created for each accepted target article or book. Only select the Commentary Proposal article type that you wish to submit a proposal on. For example; "Commentary Proposal (Mercier)"
4. Enter Title
Please title your proposal submission by indicating the relevant first author name of the target article or book. For example: "Commentary Proposal on Mercier"
5. Add Co-Authors
If you are proposing to write a commentary with any co-authors, the system will not allow you to enter their information here. Instead, include their names in the commentary proposal document you upload. These potential co-authors need not contribute to the Commentary Proposal itself.
6. Attach Files
The only required submission Item is your Commentary Proposal in MSWord or RTF format. In the Description field please add the first author name of the target article or book. For example: "Commentary Proposal on Mercier"
7. Approve Your Submission
Editorial Manager will process your Commentary Proposal submission and will create a PDF for your approval. On the "Submissions Waiting for Author's Approval" page, you can view your PDF, edit, approve, or remove the submission. (You might have to wait several minutes for the blue "Action" menu to appear, allowing you to approve. Once you have Approved the Submission, the PDF will be sent to the editorial office.
**It is VERY important that you check and approve your Commentary Proposal manuscript as described above. Otherwise, we cannot process your submission.**
8. Editorial Office Decision
At the conclusion of the Commentary Proposal period, the editors will review all the submitted Commentary Proposals. An undetermined number of Commentary Proposals will be approved and those author names will be added to the final commentary invitation list. At that time you will be notified of the decision. If you are formally invited to submit a commentary, you will be asked to confirm your intention to submit by the commentary deadline.
Note: Before the commentary invitations are sent, the copy-edited and revised target article will be posted for invitees. In the case of Multiple Book Review, invitees will be sent a copy of the book to be commented upon if requested. With Multiple Book Reviews, it is the book, not the précis article that is the target of commentary.
Please do not write a commentary unless you have received an official invitation!
SPECIAL NOTE
Since this is our first year on Editorial Manager, we would like your feedback regarding how the process could be improved. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
BEING REMOVED FROM THE CALL EMAIL LIST
If you DO NOT wish to receive Call for Commentary Proposals in the future, please reply to bbsjournal(a)cambridge.org, and type "remove" in the subject line.
Sincerely,
Ralph DeMarco
Editorial Administrator, BBS
Associate Editor, STM Journals
Cambridge University Press
32 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10013-2473
Tel 001 212.337.5016
bbsjournal(a)cambridge.org
http://journals.cambridge.org/bbshttp://bbs.edmgr.com/
Kedves Kollégák!
Szeretettel meghívom Önöket doktori disszertációm nyilvános védésére.
A disszertáció címe: False belief understanding and language: developmental
relations
A védés időpontja és helyszíne : 2010. június 9., szerda, 14 óra,
1075 Budapest, Kazinczy u. 23-27., Kari Tanácsterem.
Üdvözlettel:
Hahn Noémi
The next talk in the Cognitive Development Center seminar series at
the CEU will be given by:
Luca Suran (Cognitive Science, Trento)
"Developmental continuities and core mechanisms in social and moral
cognition"
Date and time:
Wednesday, June 2, 5.00 pm
Abstract:
In this talk, I will present the results of some recent experiments we
carried out to investigate causal perception, mental state
attribution, and social evaluation skills in infants, children and
adults. We assessed causal perception using the habituation/
dishabituation paradigm by presenting 6-month-olds with simple events
involving two agents that reacted at a distance. Mental state
attribution and early social evaluation skills were assessed using an
eye-tracking apparatus while infants watched animation events
involving the interaction of schematic animals and geometric shapes.
Toddlers’ and preschoolers’ social evaluations and moral
intuitions
have been elicited by presenting the participants with the animation
events used with infants as well as short stories followed by requests
to judge the nicety of the agent that performed a critical action, the
intentionality of the effects of the agents’ actions, and whether a
certain action had to be performed. Overall the results point out
remarkable similarities in children’s and adults responses and provide
support for some recent theoretical models of core social cognition.
Finally, I discuss the implications of these results for a theory of
core mechanisms underlying social and moral evaluations.
venue
CEU Cognitive Development Center
Hattyuhaz, Level 3, Hattyu u. 14., 1015 Budapest
Elnézést kérek, technikai maleur miatt lemaradt a csatolmány. Bocsánatot
kérek mindenkitől, hogy feleslegesen terheltem a postaládáját!
Üdvözlettel:
Bárdos György
--
Dr. Bárdos György
egyetemi tanár, igazgató
ELTE PPK Egészségfejlesztési és
Sporttudományi Intézet
1117 Budapest Bogdánfy Ödön u. 10.
Tel: 372-2500/8373; 2090-619,
Fax: 381-2182
Mobil: 30-269-8900
Üdvözlettel (elnézést kérek, ha valaki kétszer kapta meg!)
Bárdos György
--
Dr. Bárdos György
egyetemi tanár, igazgató
ELTE PPK Egészségfejlesztési és
Sporttudományi Intézet
1117 Budapest Bogdánfy Ödön u. 10.
Tel: 372-2500/8373; 2090-619,
Fax: 381-2182
Mobil: 30-269-8900
__________________________
In the organisation of the Department of Philosophy and the Department
of Medieval Studies
Sir Anthony Kenny F.B.A.
Just War and Just Rebellion
Date: Thursday, 3 June 5pm.
Venue: CEU Faculty Tower fourth floor, 409.
Sir Anthony Kenny, former Warden of Rhodes House, Oxford, is one of
Britain's most distinguished academic figures. He has been
Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Master of Balliol
College, Oxford, Chairman of the Board of the British Library, and
President of the British Academy. He is a much acclaimed expert in
classical philosophy and has a keen interest in the nature of human
action and freewill. He participated in the Glasgow Centenary Gifford
Lectures lecturing on ‘The Kingdom of the Mind’. These Gifford Lectures,
edited by Neil Spurway, were published as Humanity, Environment and
God.
Of Anthony Kenny’s over forty books on matters historical and
philosophical are Action, Emotion and Will (1963), Descartes: A Study of
His Philosophy (1968), Wittgenstein (1973), Freewill and Responsibility
(1978), Faith and Reason (1983), Reason and Religion: Essays in
Philosophical Theology (1987), Aquinas on Mind (1993), The Oxford
History of Western Philosophy (1994) and The Unknown God: Agnostic
Essays (2004).
The next talk in the Cognitive Development Center seminar series at
the CEU will be given by:
Luca Suran (Cognitive Science, Trento)
"Developmental continuities and core mechanisms in social and moral
cognition"
Date and time:
Wednesday, June 2, 5.00 pm
Abstract:
In this talk, I will present the results of some recent experiments we
carried out to investigate causal perception, mental state
attribution, and social evaluation skills in infants, children and
adults. We assessed causal perception using the habituation/
dishabituation paradigm by presenting 6-month-olds with simple events
involving two agents that reacted at a distance. Mental state
attribution and early social evaluation skills were assessed using an
eye-tracking apparatus while infants watched animation events
involving the interaction of schematic animals and geometric shapes.
Toddlers’ and preschoolers’ social evaluations and moral
intuitions
have been elicited by presenting the participants with the animation
events used with infants as well as short stories followed by requests
to judge the nicety of the agent that performed a critical action, the
intentionality of the effects of the agents’ actions, and whether a
certain action had to be performed. Overall the results point out
remarkable similarities in children’s and adults responses and provide
support for some recent theoretical models of core social cognition.
Finally, I discuss the implications of these results for a theory of
core mechanisms underlying social and moral evaluations.
venue
CEU Cognitive Development Center
Hattyuhaz, Level 3, Hattyu u. 14., 1015 Budapest
As the chair of the Awards Committee of the INNS, I am pleased and
proud to announce the recipients of the 2010 INNS Awards:
2009 Hebb Award goes to:
Erkki Oja
2010 Helmholtz Award goes to:
Robert Desimone
2010 Gabor Award goes to:
Shun-ichi Amari
2010 INNS Young Investigator Award goes to:
Kenji Morita
These awards were decided after careful deliberations by the Awards
Committee and the Board of Governors.
Erkki Oja, the Hebb Award recipient, is recognized for his long-
standing contribution and achievements in biological and computational
learning.
Robert Desimone, the Helmholtz Award recipient, is recognized for his
many years of contribution and achievements in understanding sensation/
perception.
Shun-ichi Amari, the Gabor Award recipient, is recognized for his
achievements in engineering/application of neural networks.
Kenji Morita, the Young Investigator Award recipient, is recognized
for significant contributions in the field of Neural Networks by a
young person (with no more than five years postdoctoral experience and
who are under forty years of age).
These awards will be presented at IJCNN 2010 in Barcelona.
Leonid Perlovsky, Ph.D
Chair of the Awards Committee of the INNS
========================================================
Professor Ron Sun
President-Elect, International Neural Network Society
Cognitive Science Department
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
110 Eighth Street, Carnegie 302A
Troy, NY 12180, USA
phone: 518-276-3409
fax: 518-276-3017
email: rsun(a)rpi.edu
web: http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun
=======================================================
MEGHIVÓ
A rekurzió interdiszciplináris vizsgálata a nyelvben című OTKA
konzorcium (az NK 69042, az NK 72465 és az NK 72461 sz. kutatások)
résztvevői és a DAB nyelvészeti Munkabizottsága szeretettel meghivnak
minden érdeklődőt a 2010. május 31-én tartandó workshopjukra:
A rekurzió interdiszciplináris vizsgálata a nyelvben
Időpont: 2010. május 31., hétfőn, 11 órától 18 óráig.
Helye: Debreceni Akadémiai Bizottság Székháza
4015 Debrecen
Thomas Mann u. 49.
Program
25+10 perces prezentációk és vita
Pszichológia:
Csépe Valéria: Perceptuális kulcsok - univerzalitás versus specializáció
Honbolygó Ferenc: Az intonációs kontúr sértésének eseményhez-kötött agyi
potenciál korrelátumai
Ragó Anett: Inherens csoportosítás óvodáskori vizsgálatának módszertani
kérdései
Neurolingvisztika:
Bánréti Zoltán: Szerkezeti rekurzió és mentális modell kapcsolata
agrammatikus afáziában
Mészáros Éva: Agrammatikus afáziás személy rekurziv szerkezetépitő
teljesítményének javulási folyamatai
Kognítív csoportosítás, mondattan, prozódia, fonológia
Biró Éva: Kognitiv csoportositás kisgyermekeknél
Abuczki Ágnes (PhD-hallgató): Kísérletek multimodális csoportosítással
(színek, méretek, mintázatok)
Beregi Bea: Prozódiai vizsgálatok siketeknél
Hunyadi László: A rekuziv beágyazás legkorábbi fonológiai lejegyzése
Minden érdeklődőt szeretettel várunk:
Bánréti Zoltán, Csépe Valéria, Hunyadi László kutatásvezetők
és Csűry István, a DAB Nyelvészeti Munkabizottsága elnöke
--------------------------
*A few places still available*
*Quelques places sont encore disponibles*
(Version française plus bas)
The Cognitive Science Institute of the Université du Québec à Montréal is
pleased to launch the program of its third Summer Institute which will bear
on the Origins of language and will take place at UQAM (Montreal, Canada) in
June 2010.
Some of the issues addressed at this Institute will include: "What is language? "; "What has ape language research taught us about human language?"; "Ontogenetic and polygenetic considerations for the origin of speech"; "Palaeontological foundations of language"; and "What do linguists have to say about the evolution of language?".
Speakers include:
- Ray Jackendoff, Tufts University
- David Sloan Wilson, Binghamton University
- E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Great Ape Trust Research Center, Des Moines, Iowa
- Terrence Deacon, University of California at Berkeley
- Karin Stromswold, Rutgers University
- Maggie Tallerman, University of Newcastle
- Dan Sperber, CNRS, Paris
- Michael Tomasello, MPI EVA, Leipzig
- Stevan Harnad, UQAM
- Michael Arbib, University of Southern California
- Bernard Comrie, MPI EVA, Leipzig
The program is on the web site of the Summer institute at the following address:
http://www.summer10.isc.uqam.ca/
L'Institut des sciences cognitives de l'Université du Québec à Montréal est
heureux d'annoncer la sortie du programme de son troisième Institut d'été
qui portera sur l'origine du langage et qui se tiendra à l'UQAM (Montréal,
Canada) en juin 2010.
Parmi les questions abordées dans le cadre de cet Institut, mentionnons les suivantes: « Qu'est-ce que le langage? », « Qu'est-ce que les recherches sur le langage des primates nous ont appris à propos du notre? », « Réflexion ontogénétique et polygénétique sur l'origine du langage », « Les origines paléontologiques du langage », « Quel est le point de vue des linguistes sur l'évolution du langage? ».
Parmi les conférenciers:
- Ray Jackendoff, Tufts University
- David Sloan Wilson, Binghamton University
- E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Great Ape Trust Research Center, Des Moines, Iowa
- Terrence Deacon, University of California at Berkeley
- Karin Stromswold, Rutgers University
- Maggie Tallerman, University of Newcastle
- Dan Sperber, CNRS, Paris
- Michael Tomasello, MPI EVA, Leipzig
- Stevan Harnad, UQAM
- Michael Arbib, University of Southern California
- Bernard Comrie, MPI EVA, Leipzig
Le programme est sur le site de l'Institut d'été à l'adresse suivante:
http://www.summer10.isc.uqam.ca/
Étant donné le caractère international de l'événement, l'Institut d'été se déroule en anglais.
