How do we name things? Why is this question interesting? Let’s make an experiment. Look at the two images below: If you had to give a name to the animals in the red frames, which names would you choose? We have asked this question to many people, and found out that the image on the left is called “bird” more often than “duck”, while the image on the right is called “duck” more often than “bird”. Still, both names are produced by a number of speakers (see counts in parentheses, below the images). Then, why is the duck on the right, in some sense, more of a duck than the one on the left? This k ..read more

We formed the Neurodiversity Discussion Group (NDG) in response to CogSci 2022’s theme: Cognitive Diversity. During the conference, we discussed our experiences in academia and the problems with the current state of cognitive science. In this blog post, we will outline some of the points raised during the NDG session. We end by outlining some proactive steps against ableism* (i.e., implicit and explicit practices of discrimination against disabled people).  What is neurodiversity? In the not-so-distant past, left-handedness was seen as something in need of “correction”, often through corp ..read more

Update: CogSci ‘23 will offer a modified hybrid format for the 2023 Conference Presentations from the main-session room will be live-streamed every day for all events. This will include all invited talks and award sessions. Recordings of all CogSci 2023 sessions will be made available for on-demand viewing after the conference. Presenters who are unable to travel to Sydney will have the option of presenting live virtually. Given the time zone difference for many in our international society, virtual presenters must also submit a pre-recorded video of their presentation to be played in case o ..read more

Susan Trickett was a cognitive scientist whose contributions included research on spatial cognition and mental simulation, as well as applications of cognitive science in understanding scientific discovery and improving education. Susan served as the Executive Officer of the Cognitive Science Society for two consecutive terms in the years 2010-2016. She was a capable and calming presence on the Governing Board during challenging years of ongoing growth and organizational evolution. In recognition of her outstanding, sustained contributions to the advancement of cognitive science, and in partic ..read more

As an early-career researcher, you may be dubious just thinking about the responsibility and the workload that being in an association involves. To navigate your own decisions about contributing to a research organization, I’ve gathered a brief guide with six paramount points based on my own experience and knowing how other similar associations focused on linguistics work. So, who am I and what is my experience based on? In 2019, as my PhD scholarship by the government of Catalonia was granted, I applied to be part of the board of a researchers’ association, specifically, the Association of Yo ..read more

Anne Cutler, a Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society, was a truly international, interdisciplinary, and innovative scientist. Her pioneering work on how humans recognize spoken language was recognized by accolades from the Royal Society and British Academy in the UK, American Philosophical Society and National Academy of Sciences in the US, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Academy of Humanities and Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, among others.  She used the inherent diversity of the world’s languages to investigate how speech was segmented into units, the ..read more

Roger Shepard, a pioneering cognitive scientist, passed away on May 30, 2022. He is perhaps best known for his classic experiments on mental rotation, but also made foundational contributions across a broad range of topics including visual and auditory perception, mental representation, music cognition, learning, categorization and generalization. His work is characterized by a playful curiosity, and is consistently both rigorous and elegant. More detailed accounts of his life and work are available in his obituary and in citations for his National Medal of Science and Rumelhart Prize. Below ..read more

The Cognitive Science Society would like to honor the next generation of cognitive scientists by highlighting this year’s Robert J. Glushko award winners. Each year, undergraduate students across many universities are selected for Robert J. Glushko awards for academic excellence in Cognitive Science. The purpose of these awards is to recognize students’ accomplishments and to encourage their pursuit of interdisciplinary questions about the mind. We asked a sample of award winners to share their research interests, and how they got into Cognitive Science. We invite you to learn about these grea ..read more

The B-17 Bomber, also known as “the flying fortress,” was a four-engine heavy bomber plane used in World War II that became famous for being able to return to base even after sustaining heavy damage. Despite their effectiveness, B-17s had an unfortunate tendency: They unexpectedly crashed on the runway. Any single crash could be attributed to pilot error; in wartime, pilots may have had less training than would be optimal or may have needed to fly even in difficult conditions. However, close inspection of the cockpits suggested another explanation (Chapanis, 1953; Fitts & Jones, 1947). In ..read more

I have just received the revisions of a colleague on my PhD dissertation, and among all her insightful remarks, one in particular struck me. She wrote that the first person singular pronoun I is very frequent in my text, and suggested that I used more passive or impersonal constructions. My colleague is a German native speaker who speaks French and English perfectly. Yet on a day-to-day basis, she works in a Franco-German environment. Why do I give you so much background information? Being a French native speaker writing my thesis in English (see this article for the reasons of my choice), I h ..read more