CogSci98 - Sofia Summer School

Rejected message: sent to koglist(a)cogpsyphy.hu by SCHOOL(a)COGS.NBU.ACAD.BG follows. Reason for rejection: sender not subscribed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Appologises if you receive multiple copies. 5th International Summer School in Cognitive Science Sofia, NBU, July 13 - 25, 1998 Call for Participation and Papers and School Brochure The Summer School features advanced courses in Cognitive Science, workshop, participant symposia, panel discussions, and intensive informal discussions. Participants will include university teachers and researchers, and graduate students. Working language is English. 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) William HIRST (New School for Social Sciences, NY, USA) 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) Eran ZAIDEL (University of California at Los Angeles, USA) Courses Mappings in Thought and Language - Gilles Fauconnier (U of California San Diego, USA) Coherence in Thought and Action - Paul Thagard (U. of Waterloo, Canada) Analogy-Making - Dedre Gentner (Northwestern University, USA), Boicho Kokinov (New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria) Concepts and Categorization - James Hampton (City University London, UK) The Psychology of Decision Making - Arthur Markman (Columbia University, USA) Brain Organization of Human Memory and Thought - John Gabrieli (Stanford, USA) Creative Cognition - Thomas Ward (Texas A&M University, USA) Cognitive Development - Graeme Halford (University of Queensland, Australia) Animal Cognition - Roger Thompson (Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, USA) Connectionist Models of High-Level Cognition - John Barnden (University of Birmingham, UK) Workshop: Advances in Analogy Research: Integration of Theory and Data from the Cognitive, Computational, and Neural Sciences In parallel to the Summer School a workshop on analogy will take place (July 17-20). For a description of the workshop see workshop announcement. Plenary Talks Douglas Hofstadter (Indiana University, USA) Analogy as the Core of Cognition Gilles Fauconnier (UCSD, USA) Analogy and Conceptual Integration James Hampton (City Univ. London, UK) The role of similarity in how we categorize the world Jaime Carbonell (CMU, USA) Analogy in Problem Solving, from the Routine to the Creative Ken Forbus (Northwestern University, USA) Qualitative Mental Models: Simulations or Memories? Graeme Halford (U. of Queensland, Australia) The Problem of Structural Complexity in Cognitive Processes: A Metric Based on Representational Rank Paul Thagard (U. of Waterloo, Canada) Emotional Analogies Usha Goswami (U. College London, UK) Analogical Reasoning in Children Mark Keane (Trinity College, Ireland) Why Conceptual Combination is Seldom Analogy Adam Biela (Catholic University of Lublin, Poland) Analogical Resoning as a Base for Structuring Cognitive Schemata in New Situations: A Case of Economic Transformation in Post-Communist Countries Dedre Gentner (NWU, USA) Comparison and Cognition Keith Holyoak (UCLA, USA) The Place of Analogy in a Physical Symbol System Boicho Kokinov (NBU, Bulgaria) Analogy is like Cognition: Complex, Emergent, Context-Sensitive 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 (RTF format) by May 1. Selected papers will be published in the School's Proceedings. Only papers presented at the School will be eligible for publication. Local Organizers New Bulgarian University, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgarian Cognitive Science Society Local Organizing Committee Boicho Kokinov - School Director, Elena Andonova, Gergana Yancheva, Iliana Haralanova Sponsors Open Society Institute - Budapest, Open Society Fund - Sofia, Cognitive Science Society (USA) Application Submissions Applicants for participation should send the registration form, their CV, statement of purpose, list of publications (if any) and short summary of up to three of them, letter of recommendation (if they don't have publications). There will be up to 70 participants in the Summer School, so applications will be processed on a "first come first processed" bases. Financial Support Applicants from all Central and Eastern European as well as from the former Soviet Union countries are eligible for grant application. Up to 30 grants provided by the Open Society Institute in Budapest will be assigned by the selection committee on the basis of the above application documents. Participants from the rest of the world will have to find their own sources for participation, but their number will be up to 30 as well. Methods of Payment Bank transfer to: New Bulgarian University - CogSci97, Bank account 1100-13-111-4, ING Bank, Bank code: 145-91-458, Sofia, Bulgaria. (transfer fees prepaid). Check made payable to New Bulgarian University (add USD 10 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 30 you will be refunded with a 15% reduction, afterwards no refunding will be possible. Send your Registration Form as soon as possible to: CogSci98 Central and Easter European Center for Cognitive Science New Bulgarian University 21, Montevideo Str. Sofia 1635, Bulgaria e-mail: school(a)cogs.nbu.acad.bg (If you don't receive an aknowledgement within 3 days, send a message to kokinov(a)bgearn.acad.bg) 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. Deadline for application submission: May 31 Deadline for paper submission: May 31 Notification for acceptance: June 15 Early registration: June 30 Arrival date and on site registration July 12 Summer School July 13-25 Excursion July 19 Departure date July 26 International Summer School in Cognitive Science Sofia, July 12 - 25, 1997 Registration Form Last Name: First Name: Status: Professor / Academic Researcher / Applied Researcher / Graduate Student / Undergraduate Student Sex: Female / Male (to be used for accommodation) Affiliation: University: Department: Country: Mailing address: e-mail address: fax: I intend to submit a paper for the symposium: (title) I am registering for the following courses (you can register for all courses if you are interested, there will be no parallel sessions): Special Food Requirements: (e.g. vegetarian) I am registering for the following housing option: * single room in a 3 star hotel + full board + registration fee USD 995 * single room in a 2 star hotel + full board + registration fee USD 670 * shared room in student hostels + full board + registration fee USD 400 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 USD 10 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: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- Course Abstracts Mappings in Thought and Language - Gilles Fauconnier (U of California San Diego, USA) The course will deal with some of the general cognitive operations that underlie the construction of meaning and the use of language. We will focus on mental space mappings, conceptual blending, analogy, metaphor and framing. We will examine some important linguistic and non-linguistic phenomena: counterfactual reasoning, tense and mood, reference and viewpoint in spoken and signed languages, blending with material anchors, fictive motion, grammatical constructions, interface design, conceptual underpinnings of mathematics and other forms of creative thought. Gilles Fauconnier is the author of a recent book with the same title as well as of Mental Spaces. He is a professor of Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego and one of the leading cognitive linguists in the world. Coherence in Thought and Action - Paul Thagard (U. of Waterloo, Canada) This course concerns how people make sense of each other and the world they live in and presents a new theory how coherence play an important role in thinking, actions, emotions, and in cognition in general.. Making sense is the activity of fitting something puzzling into a coherent pattern of mental representations that include concepts, beliefs, goals, and actions. Much of human cognition can be understood in terms of coherence as constraint satisfaction, and many of the central problems of philosophy can be given coherence-based solutions. Paul Thagard is a Prof. of Philosophy and the author of Conceptual Revolutions, Computational Philosophy of Science, Mental Leaps, and a number of other books. He is currently the President-elect of the Cognitive Science Society. Analogy-Making - Dedre Gentner (Northwestern University, USA), Boicho Kokinov (New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria) This course presents the psychological data and theories about how human beings make analogies: how they retrieve appropriate bases from memory, how they map the two domains, how they transfer knowledge from one domain to the other, etc. The role of structural isomorphism between the two domains and the systematicy principle will be outlined. Other factors as the role of semantic and pragmatic constraints on mapping and retrieval, as well as of the representation building process will be discussed. Various theories and models will be presented and all these models will be compared with the data from psychological experiments. The developmenta of analogolical reasoning in children and infants will be discussed. Dedre Gentner is a Prof. of Psychology and past Chair of the Governing Board of the Cognitive Science Society. She is on the editorial boards of Cognitive Science, Psychological Review, Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, Journal of Learning Sciences, Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence. She is one of the leading persons and the founders of the field of analogy research. Concepts and Categorization - James Hampton (City University London, UK) Summary: The course will review current psychological models of how conceptual categories are represented in memory. Each model will be presented together with a critique of its range of applicability, and an evaluation in terms of (a) empirical evidence and (b) philosophical arguments about the role that concepts must play in thought and language. The course will combine a tutorial presentation of current models and theory with a review of recent empirical work in the field. Decision Making - Arthur Markman (Columbia University, USA) This course presents psychological theories and data about how people make decisions, how they make choices, what are the structures, attributes and relations they are basing their decisions on, models of choice that borrow heavily from work in economics, the heuristics and biases approach to choice first championed by Kahneman and Tversky, a variety of process models of choice including Payne, Bettman and Johnson's effort-accuracy model, and the dynamics of choice. Research both in psychology and in consumer behavior suggests that preferences are often constructed at the time a choice is made. This construction involves formation of the choice set, comparison of options, and evaluation of options relative to active goals. Arthur Markman is a Prof. of Psychology and the author of many publications on similarity, decision-making, analogy. Creative Cognition - Thomas Ward (Texas A&M Univ, USA) This course is concerned with the cognitive processes and structures that underlie creative or generative thought. It will begin with a brief examination of traditional approaches to creativity, but will shift quickly to concentrate primarily on recent developments in cognitive science that hold the promise of achieving a more complete understanding of creative functioning. We will cover laboratory and applied research studies, and we will consider the extent to which research findings support or contradict more anecdotal reports of the processes involved in real-world instances of creativity. The recent cognitive science advances will be considered within the organizing framework of the creative cognition approach. That approach seeks to understand creative functioning in terms of the application of fundamental cognitive processes to existing knowledge structures. It seeks to understand when and how otherwise similar processes and structures sometimes produce creative outcomes and sometime produce noncreative outcomes. Thomas Ward is Professor of Psychology and the author of many publications and books on creative processes. Cognitive Development - Graeme Halford (U. of Queensland, Australia) This course will present psychological theories and data on the development that infants and children undergo in their cognitive abilities. Questions like what is innate and what is acquired will be in the focus of attention. Graeme Halford is Prof. of Psychology and author of many books on Cognitive Development. Comparative Animal Cognition - Roger Thompson (Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, USA) A comparative overview of recent advances in the study of animal cognition and their implications for theory and method in cognitive science. Under what circumstances - and why - are we willing to attribute purpose, intelligence, intentionality, mental states, reasoning, language and personal autonomy to other animals? Are we humans alone in these and other cognitive capacities such as self-awareness? How might we know? Brain Organization of Human Memory and Thought - John Gabrieli (Stanford, USA) This course surveys current theory and findings about the functional neural architecture of human learning, memory, and thought. Specific topics are the brain bases of (1) explicit or declarative long-term memory; (2) implicit or procedural long-term memory; (3) short-term and working memory; and (4) problem-solving and reasoning capacities. The consequences of focal (stroke, resection) and degenerative (Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, aging) lesions upon specific components of learning, memory, and thought are reviewed. Also reviewed are recent findings with functional neuroimaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). These findings are related to cognitive research to provide a cognitive neuroscience perspective on human learning, memory, and thought. Connectionist Models of High-Level Cognition - John Barnden (U of Birmingham, UK) The course will cover the system requirements imposed by high-level cognitive tasks such as commonsense reasoning, natural language discourse understanding, and scene understanding, and will consider possibilities for meeting those requirements in connectionist models. The course will present the considerable difficulties involved in doing so, and will outline a number of connectionist models and approaches that have been developed in the direction of meeting the requirements. It will also address some types of high-level task that have largely been ignored in discussions between connectionist and non-connectionists, such as reasoning about other agents' mental states. John Barnden in Professor in Artificial Intelligence and the author of many books and papers on beliefs and intentions, connectionist systems for reasoning, including analogy/case-based reasoning, etc.