CogSci95 - 2CFP, fees, and abstracts

2nd International Summer School in Cognitive Science Sofia, July 3-16, 1995 Second Call for Papers and School Brochure Endorsing Organizations: the European Society for Cognitive Psychology and the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence The Summer School features introductory and advanced courses in Cognitive Science, participant symposia, panel discussions, student sessions, and intensive informal discussions. Participants will include university teachers and researchers, graduate and senior undergraduate students. International Advisory Board Elizabeth BATES (University of California at San Diego, USA) Amedeo CAPPELLI (CNR, Pisa, Italy) Cristiano CASTELFRANCHI (CNR, Roma, Italy) Daniel DENNETT (Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA) Ennio De RENZI (University of Modena, Italy) Charles DE WEERT (University of Nijmegen, Holland ) Christian FREKSA (Hamburg University, Germany) Dedre GENTNER (Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA) Christopher HABEL (Hamburg University, Germany) Joachim HOHNSBEIN (Dortmund University, Germany) Douglas HOFSTADTER (Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA) Keith HOLYOAK (University of California at Los Angeles, USA) Mark KEANE (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland) Alan LESGOLD (University of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, USA) Willem LEVELT (Max-Plank Institute of Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Holland) David RUMELHART (Stanford University, California, USA) Richard SHIFFRIN (Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA) Paul SMOLENSKY (University of Colorado, Boulder, USA) Chris THORNTON (University of Sussex, Brighton, England) Carlo UMILTA' (University of Padova, Italy) Courses Computer Models of Emergent Cognition - Robert French (Indiana University, USA) Hemispheric Mechanisms in Cognition - Eran Zaidel (UCLA, USA) Cross-Linguistic Studies of Language Processing - Elizabeth Bates (UCSD, USA) Aphasia Research - Nina Dronkers (UC at Davis, USA) Topics in Cognitive Linguistics - Elena Andonova (NBU, Bulgaria) Parallel Pathways of Visual Information Processing - Angel Vassilev (NBU, Bulgaria) Color Vision - Charles De Weert (University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands) Spatial Attention - Carlo Umilta' (University of Padova, Italy) Integration of Language and Vision - Geoff Simmons (Hamburg University, Germany) Analogical Reasoning: Psychological Data and Computational Models - Boicho Kokinov (NBU, Bulgaria) Philosophy of Mind - Lilia Gurova (NBU, Bulgaria) Emotion and Cognition - Cristiano Castelfranchi (CNR, Italy) Participant Symposia Participants are invited to submit papers reporting completed research which will be presented (30 min) at the participant symposia. Authors should send full papers (8 single spaced pages) in triplicate or electronically (postscript, RTF, or plain ASCII) by April 17. Selected papers will be published in the School's Proceedings. Only papers presented at the School will be eligible for publication. Student Session Graduate students in Cognitive Science are invited to present their work at the student session. Research in progress as well as research plans and proposals for M.Sc. Theses and Ph.D. Theses will be discussed at the student session. Panel Discussions Language Processing: Rules or Constraints? Vision and Attention Integrated Cognition Local Organizers New Bulgarian University, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgarian Cognitive Science Society Endorsing Organizations European Society for Cognitive Psychology, European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence Local Organizing Committee Boicho Kokinov - School Director, Elena Andonova, Lilia Gurova, Vassil Nikolov, Lora Likova Timetable Registration Form: as soon as possible Deadline for paper submission: April 17 Notification for acceptance: May 15 Early registration: May 30 Arrival day and on site registration July 2 Summer School July 3-14 Excursion July 15 Departure day July 16 Paper submission to: Boicho Kokinov Cognitive Science Department New Bulgarian University 21, Montevideo Str. Sofia 1635, Bulgaria e-mail: cogsci95(a)adm.nbu.bg or kokinov(a)bgearn.bitnet Send your Registration Form to: e-mail: cogsci95(a)adm.nbu.bg Course Abstracts Computer Models of Emergent Cognition Robert French (Indiana University, USA) This course starts by first considering why we even think that modeling human cognition on a computer might be possible. This is followed by a general presentation of papers related to Turing's celebrated way of looking at the question, "Can Machines Think?" There will then be a presentation of and discussion of arguments for and against the Physical Symbol System Hypothesis, the basis of traditional computer modeling of intelligence. There will then be a similar treatment of emergent models of cognition, in particular, connectionist models of cognition and classifier systems. This will lead to the conclusion that the future of cognitive modeling lies in the integration of top- down and bottom-up models. We will examine one approach to this, starting from an older top-down perspective, that focuses on a stochastic computer-model of analogy-making. We will see two other approaches to the same endeavor of integrating top-down and bottom-up processing that start from a connectionist framework. Throughout, emphasis will be put on the fundamental inseparability of representation-building and processing. Robert French Robert French received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in mathematics before leaving for France to work as a translator. Upon completion of the translation into French of Douglas Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach, he returned to the U.S. to do his Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Michigan with Hofstadter. The topic of his dissertation as well as his forthcoming book (MIT Press) is the computer modeling of analogy-making. His other major areas of research are the problem of catastrophic interference in connectionist networks and the organization of bilingual memory. He is currently a member of the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition at Indiana University and an honorary fellow in the department of psychology at the University of Wisconsin. Hemispheric Mechanisms in Cognition Eran Zaidel (UCLA, USA) The course will review language and cognitive functioning in commissurotomy patients and will discuss interhemispheric relations in split and normal brains. The problems of hemispheric specialization, independence, and control will be discussed. The disconnection syndrome, partial callosal section and subcallosal transfer will be described. Methods and models of studying interhemispheric relations in normal and split brain will be outlined. Degrees of modularity (hemispheric independence) as well as interhemispheric effects will be discussed. Individual differences will be considered. Eran Zaidel Eran Zaidel received his PhD from Caltech working with Roger Sperry. He is currently a Professor of Psychology at UCLA. He has been a member of the Editorial Boards of Brain and Cognition, Neuropsychologia, Neuropsychology. He has been the Secretary of the Academy of Aphasia and got the NIMH Research Scientist Award. He is interested in interhemispheric relations and cooperation in processing hierarchical patterns, in lexical processing, and in problem solving; in hemispheric control in the normal brain; in split brain research. Cross-Linguistic Studies of Language Processing Elizabeth Bates (UCSD, USA) The course will cover more than 20 years of cross-linguistic research on language learning and language use, in normal individuals and in patients with focal brain injury. We will begin with a general introduction to the Competition Model, a theoretical framework developed by Bates, MacWhinney and colleagues to deal with quantitative as well as qualitative differences in knowledge and performance across structurally distinct language types. This section will stress the contrast between interactive-activation and modular theories in psycholinguistics, and contrasting computer metaphors that underlie each approach (i.e. neural networks vs. serial digital computers). After this theoretical overview, we will review cross-linguistic findings within the Competition Model framework, divided into four areas: (1) sentence processing in normal adults (comprehension, production, grammaticality judgment, morphosyntactic constraints on lexical access), (2) language development in normal children (with a special emphasis on studies of sentence comprehension), (3) bilingualism and second-language learning, and (4) cross- linguistic studies of language processing in aphasia. Elizabeth Bates Elizabeth Bates is a Professor of Cognitive Science and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego. She is the Durector of the UCSD Center for Research in Language and the Director of the UCSD Project in Cognitive and Neural Development. She got her PhD from the University of Chicago. Her basic research interests are in Brain organization for language in children and adults, Psycholinguistics (especially cross-linguistic comparisons), Language and cognitive development. She has been member of the Editorial Boards of many research journals: Developmental Psychology Journal of Memory and Language, JEP: Human Learning & Memory SRCD Monographs, Journal of Speech & Hearing Disorders Discourse Processes, Journal of Speech & Hearing Research, Infant Behavior & Development, Brain and Cognition, Language and Cognitive Processes, Brain and Language, Psychological Review, Rassegna di Psicologia, Journal of Child Language, Cognitive Development. Aphasia Research Nina Dronkers (UC at Davis, USA) This course will present descriptions of the different types of aphasia, the brain regions that underlie them, and the applications of neuroimaging to the study of aphasia. It will begin with a discussion of the history of aphasiology and the characteristics of the different language disorders. Aphasia classifications will be reviewed and, if possible, videotapes of patients exhibiting the various disorders will be shown. The latter part of the course will review the traditional language areas and models of language processing and how these apply to aphasia. Participants will also learn to view CT and MRI scans of patients with aphasia and to apply this knowledge to both their basic understanding of language processing in the brain and to the management of patients with aphasia. Nina Dronkers Nina Dronkers is the Chief of the Audiology and Speech Pathology Service at the VA Northern California System of Clinics. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of California at Davis in the Departments of Neurology and Linguistics. She received her Ph.D. in Neuropsychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Since that time, she has conducted research at the VA Martinez in the areas of aphasia and other cognitive deficits resulting from brain injury, the cerebral localization and lateralization of language, and studies of semantic priming in aphasic and normal individuals. She has received several grants to support this research, primarily from the National Institutes of Health, the VA Department of Medical Research, and the National Science Foundation. Her publications cover several issues in aphasiology and the effects of brain injury on the linguistic system. She is an active member of the Academy of Aphasia and the International Neuropsychological Society. Topics in Cognitive Linguistics Elena Andonova (NBU, Bulgaria) This course is intended as a discussion of selected topics of cognitive linguistics rather than as a survey of the field. Basic notions and principles will be introduced. The connections between cognitive linguistics and another fast- growing field, discourse analysis will be examined. Correspondences between the mechanisms of metaphorization and discourse strategies will be viewed in light of the relationship between cognition and communication. In this connection, the idea of euphemization is introduced both as a development of metaphorization and as a discourse process. Adopting the point of view of critical discourse analysis which shuns the 'consensus' notion of social communication would require us to consider the constructive function of language and diachronic changes. Elena Andonova Elena Andonova is an Assistant Professor in Cognitive Linguistics at the Department of Cognitive Science, New Bulgarian University, in Sofia. She has a B.A. and an M.A. in English from Sofia University and is currently working on the final stages of her Ph.D. with the University of Wales College Cardiff in the United Kingdom. Her main interests in the field of lingustics are in areas concerned with the cognitive and communicative aspects of language, more particularly, cognitive linguistics, metaphorization and euphemization, (critical) discourse analysis, discourse strategies, etc. Parallel Pathways of Visual Information Processing Angel Vassilev (BAS & NBU, Bulgaria) Our unified experience of the visual world is, surprisingly, a result of information processing within multiple parallel retino-cortical and intracortical pathways. Anatomical and neurophysiological data about the existence of such pathways and particularly the methodology of classification will be discussed. The role of separate pathways in the perception of colour, form, motion, and stereopsis will be outlined. Recent data on multiple cortical visual centres, obtained by brain imaging techniques, will be presented. Attempts to selectively test the integrity of separate pathways will be presented. The question of how the information, contained in the separate representations, is brought together to yield unified experience of the visual world will be characterized as a major target of future research. Angel Vassilev Angel Vassilev received his PhD from Pavlov's Institute of Physiology in Sankt Petersburg, and a D.Sc.. degree in Sofia. He received a postdoctoral research grant at the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, USA. Angel Vassilev is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Physiology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and a Professor of Neurosciences at the Cognitive Science Department of the New Bulgarian University. He is the Head of the Visual Information Processing Laboratory. His research interests are in the field of visual psychophysics and electrophysiology. Colour Vision Charles De Weert (University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands) In a short course of 8 hours some basic aspects of colour vision will be dealt with. The first two hours will be spent on the technical descriptions of colour (the CIE System) such that a proper stimulus description is ensured. A very simple zone theoretical model of colour vision will be taken to explain baisc colour vision phenomena. Next the discussion will be opened on the possibly modular character of colour vision, and special attention will be paid to a series of isoluminance experiments. In the next two hours color constancy will be dealt with and the final two hours will be used to deal with the use of colour for displaying information. Charles De Weert Charles M.M.de Weert, Master's degree in Experimental Physics at the Utrecht State University, The Netherlands in 1968, PhD thesis on 'Binocular Colour and Brightness Combination' in Cognitive Science in 1976 (University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Supervisor Professor dr.W.Levelt). Since 1987 he is Director of the Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information (NICI), a Graduate School in Cognitive Sciences, with about 50 senior research fellows and about 50 PhD students. He is a full professor in Psychophysics at the Nijmegen University and his main lines of research are (still) in Colour Vision and in Binocular Vision. Visuo-Spatial Attention Carlo Umilta' (University of Padova, Italy) Even in the restricted sense of a selective process, attention refers to different phenomena. An individual may selectively attend to information presented in a particular modality, to information originating from a particular position in space, to stimuli possessing a particular color or shape, or to items belonging to a particular class or category. The feature common to all these phenomena is that information to which attention is selectively allocated is processed more efficiently than non-attended information. The course is exclusively concerned with the spatial aspects of selective attention, i.e., with the selective allocation of attention to a particular position in space. The first part deals with the hypotheses of how attention shifts from one position to another in visual space and with the relations between attention and eye movements. In the second part, the analogies of focal attention are illustrated and their implications are discussed. Particular emphasis is given to the operations that allow the control of size and shape of attentional focus. Carlo Umilta' Carlo Umilta' is currently a Professor of Psychology at the University of Padova. He is a former Director of the Institute of Human Physiology of the University of Parma, 1983/9. He is a member of the editorial Boards of several scientific journals: Brain and Cognition, Cognitive Neuropsychology, Cortex, European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Psychological Research/Psychologische Forschung. He is an ex-President of the Italian Neuropsychological Society as well as of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology. He is currently the Chair of the Executive Committee of the International Society for the Study of Attention and Performance. His main research interests are in the field of visual attention. Integration of Language and Vision Geoff Simmons (Hamburg University, Germany) In the past two years or so, there has been a revival of interest in the relationships between lexical meanings and visual perception. Analyses of both of these cognitive modalities have yielded very revealing accounts of human con- ceptual structures and cognitive architecture, and these accounts are expected to comple-ment and mutually constrain each other. In this course we consider some of the evidence and theories that have been proposed. Spatial knowledge _ knowledge of the relative locations of objects, and knowledge of the shapes of the objects themselves _ is the conceptual domain where the relationships between language and vision are most commonly sought. This has been made possible by in-depth linguistic studies of spatial prepositions, dimensional adjectives and other lexical fields; and by investigations of the perception of locations and shapes in experimental psychology and neuro- science. We will also consider the classic work of Berlin and Kay on color vision and color terms in the world's languages. In the course we will examine some of the relevant empirical evidence, and consider computa-tional models that have been put forth in explanation. This will bring us to some deeper questions concerning cognitive architecture: Is there a central store of conceptual structures to which both the linguistic and visual systems have common access? Is the linguistic system "piggybacking" on the visual system _ i.e. are the conceptual structures underlying linguistic meanings formed from mental resources whose "original" function is perceptual? Or are there instances of "perceiving for speaking" _ i.e. is the visual system in some cases attending to certain information solely because the linguistic system requires it (as Annette Herskovits has suggested)? Geoff Simmons Geoff Simmons received a Master's degree in Computer Science and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg in 1992. He is presently completing a dissertation entitled "Knowledge of Shape in Object Concepts" at the Doctoral Program in Cognitive Science, University of Hamburg. Analogical Reasoning: Psychological Data and Computational Models Boicho Kokinov (NBU, Bulgaria) The course will focus on analogical reasoning in problem solving. All main aspects of problem solving will be considered: problem representation, base retrieval, mapping, transfer, evaluation, and learning. A brief review of psychological data on all those subprocesses will be presented. Several models of analogy-making will be discussed in more detail: Gentner's Structure-Mapping Engine; Holyoak and Thagard's ACME and ARCS; Hofstadter, Mitchell and French's Copycat and Tabletop; and the lecturer's model - AMBR. The course will focus on the integration of various constraints (structural, semantic, and pragmatic) on analogy- making; on the integration and interaction of various subprocesses (representation, retrieval, mapping, and transfer) in analogy; on the relations between analogy and perception, memory, reasoning, and learning; on the dynamic context-sensitive nature of the analogy-making process. Boicho Kokinov Boicho Kokinov graduated in Mathematics and Computer Science at Sofia University. He works in the field of cognitive modeling. His main interests are in modeling human memory and reasoning (especially analogical and diagrammatic reasoning). He has proposed an emergent hybrid cognitive architecture, DUAL, and several models on its basis. He is interested also in running psychological experiments and comparing their results with the data obtained from simulation experiments. He leads a research project on Context effects on High-level Cognition. He is the Director of the Cognitive Science Program at the New Bulgarian University and a research fellow at the Institute of Mathematics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He is the President of the Bulgarian Cognitive Science Society. Philosophy of Mind Lilia Gurova (NBU, Bulgaria) The aim of the course is to present classical philosophical problems and their relation to cognitive science. The mind- body problem, the problem of intentionality and so called qualia (also known as secondary properties or qualities) will be discussed both in a historical perspective and from the standpoint of the contemporary cognitive science methodology.It is not to be expected that cognitive scientists will solve all these problems once and forever,probably they will not be able even to propose any principally new solution. Philosophical problems are not the kind of problems cognitive science must deal with. Their role for cognitive science as well as for the other scientific disciplines is different. Philosophical problems, taken with their possible solutions must be regarded as patterns of typical and important problem situations which all scientific research may be faced with. Knowledge about these typical situations could be useful for making optimal decisions in every concrete problem situation. Lilia Gurova Lilia Gurova has a Master's degree in Electronics (Technical University of Sofia, 1981) and Ph.D. in Philosophy of Science (Institute of Philosophy - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1988). Her Ph.D. thesis is devoted to the frame problem of AI methodology. Now the role of problems (and/or questions) in the organisation of human thinking is the major theme of her scientific investigations. This theme is the point of converging of her interests in history, philosophy and the methodology of science, logic, philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Lilia Gurova is a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophical Sciences of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and a lecturer at NBU for the courses "Philosophy of Mind" and "Thinking and Computation: A History of Ideas". Emotion and Cognition Cristiano Castelfranchi (CNR, Italy) After 15 years of debate about the cognitive or pre-cognitive nature of Emotions (see also the birth of a journal on Cognition and Emotion), after other studies in Cognitive Science (philosophy, linguistics, etc.) about emotions analysis and categorisation, after new studies about emotional development, expression, cultural relativity, biological and social functions, and after the emergence of computational approaches to Emotions, both to model emotional process and the impact of emotions on action and motivation, and after the introduction of emotional features in H-C interaction, some of the main problems of the relationship between Emotion and Cognition and of the model of emotional mental states and process, are relatively clearer. The course will review the contributions of Psychology and AI to the understanding of emotions (especially the debate on Cognition and Emotion). In particular, the course will focus on the cognitive structure of emotions: a) which kind of beliefs are necessary ingredients of emotion and determine its activation and its character (intentionality, appropriateness, subjective appraisal, social evaluation, etc.); how they are organised; how are they related with emotional goals and behaviours. b) which kind of goals are necessary ingredients of emotional states; how they are related with the "conative/motivational" aspect of Emotions; how they are related with the biological or social functions of Emotion. This structural analysis will be carefully applied to the "anatomy" of some very relevant social emotions: envy, shame, guilt, etc., trying to precisely identify a typical structure of beliefs and goals, and trying to justify such a structure also in terms of moves to induce a specific emotion or moves to inhibit or avoid it. Cristiano Castelfranchi Cristiano Castelfranchi took a degree in Letters, with a dissertation on the representation of meaning. He is a researcher at the Institute of Psychology of the National Research Council of Italy. From 1966 to 1976 his main interests included generative semantics, speech acts, and conversation. He subsequently moved on to a computational and A.I. approach to language, developing, together with O. Stock and D. Parisi, models of parsers with a semantic output, and models of hybrid knowledge representation. During the same period he developed, together with D. Parisi, M. Miceli and R. Conte, a model of communicative and social behavior in terms of goals. His analysis has addressed in particular: power, dependence, interest, and exchange relationships; influencing behavior, goal adoption, and deception; the role played by image and self-image in social interactions, and emotions such as envy, shame, guilt, pity, and ridicule. He is the head of the Project for the Simulation of Social Behavior at IP-CNR that is aimed at constructing a model of an autonomous agent capable of social interaction by merging both AI and cognitive studies. He has been the Head of the Social Psychology Division and the "AI & Social Interaction" Division of IP/CNR. Castelfranchi is the author of 9 books on topics in Language, Emotion and Multi-Agent Modelling. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Italian journal of AI and Cognitive Science "Sistemi Intelligenti". Housing and Fees Housing possibilities The Organizing Committee has been able to sign contracts with a hotel and two student hostels/dormitories and is able to provide accommodation at very favorable prices. However, the participants have to pay the whole sum in advance to the organizing committee. This fee includes accommodation and full board for the period July 2 - 16, as well as participation in all courses, participant symposia, panel discussions, student sessions. We have the following possibilities for accommodation all of them within walking distance from the School venue. Residence Full fee - 3* hotel(single room)+full board+registration fee USD 740 - 3* hotel (double room)+full board+registration fee USD 470 - student hostels + full board + registration fee USD 290 Financial Support The Organizing committee has some VERY limited possibilities for partial financial support of participants from Eastern and Central Europe. We strongly advise potential participants to look for other funding possibilities. Methods of Payment Bank transfer to: New Bulgarian University - CogSci95, Bank account 940-110-929-6711, Bulgarian Post Bank, 1, Bulgaria Blvd., Sofia, Bulgaria. (transfer fees prepaid). Check made payable to New Bulgarian University (add USD10 processing fees) Pay in cash (in USD only) at on site registration, in this case add USD50 for late registration. Cancellations and Reimbursement If you cancel your registration before June 15 you will be refunded with a 15% reduction, afterwards no refunding will be possible. Timetable As we have received a huge number of inquiries about the Summer School and the number of participants in the Summer School is limited, the applications will be served on a first-come-first-served basis. So, please register (and make the due payments) as soon as possible. Send your Registration Form as soon as possible to: CogSci95 Cognitive Science Department New Bulgarian University 21, Montevideo Str. Sofia 1635, Bulgaria e-mail: cogsci95(a)adm.nbu.bg ------------------------------------------------------------- International Summer School in Cognitive Science Sofia, July 3-14, 1995 Registration Form Last Name: First Name: Status: Professor / Academic Researcher / Applied Researcher / Graduate Student / Undergraduate Student Affiliation: University: Department: Country: Mailing address: e-mail address: fax: I intend to submit a paper: (yes/no/title) I am registering for the following courses: I am registering for the following housing option: - 3* hotel(single room)+full board+registration fee USD 740 - 3* hotel (double room)+full board+registration fee USD 470 - student hostels + full board + registration fee USD 290 Method of payment: - I have made a bank transfer (transfer fees should be prepaid) - I am enclosing a check payable to New Bulgarian University (add USD10 to cover the processing fee) - I will pay in cash on site (add USD50 for late registration) - I am from Eastern/Central Europe and I would like to apply for partial financial support Signature: