Carnegie Symposium on Mechanisms of Cognitive Development, Oct 9-11, 1998

[Mary Anne Cowden]

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                          CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

                 The 29th Carnegie Symposium on Cognition

  Mechanisms of Cognitive Development: Behavioral and Neural Perspectives

                           October 9 - 11, 1998

          James L. McClelland and Robert S. Siegler, Organizers

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The 29th Carnegie Symposium on Cognition is sponsored by the Department of
Psychology and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition. The symposium
is supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of
Mental Heatlh, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development.
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This post contains the following entries relevant to the symposium:

   * Overview
   * Schedule of Events
   * Attending the Symposium
   * Travel Fellowships

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Overview

This symposium will consider how children's thinking evolves during
development, with a focus on the role of experience in causing change.
Speakers will examine the processes by which children learn and those that
make children ready and able to learn at particular points in development,
using both behavioral and neural approaches.

Behavioral approaches will include research on the 'microgenesis' of
cognitive change over short time periods (e.g., several hour-long
sessions) in specific task situations. Research on cognitive change over
longer time scales (months and years) will also be presented, as will
research that uses computational modeling and dynamical systems approaches
to understand learning and development.

Neural approaches will include the study of how neuronal activity and
connectivity change during acquisition of cognitive skills in children
and adults. Other studies will consider the possible emergence of
cognitive abilities through the maturation of brain structures and the
effects of experience on the organization of functions in the brain.
Developmental anomalies such as autism and attention deficit disorder
will also be examined, as windows on normal development.

Four questions will be examined throughout the symposium: 1) Why do
cognitive abilities emerge when they do during development? 2) What
are the sources of developmental and individual differences, and of
developmental anomalies in learning? 3) What happens in the brain when
people learn? 4) How can experiences be ordered and timed so as to
optimize learning?

The answers to these questions have strong implications for how we
educate children and remediate deficits that impede development of
thinking abilities. These implications will be explored in discussions
among the participants.

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The 29th Carnegie Symposium on Cognition: Schedule
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Friday, October 9th: Studies of the Microgenesis of Cognitive Development

8:30 - 9:00 Continental Breakfast

9:00        Welcome

BEHAVIORAL APPROACHES

9:20        Susan Goldin-Meadow,  University of Chicago
            Giving the mind a hand: The role of gesture in cognitive change

10:20       Break

10:40       Robert Siegler, Carnegie Mellon University 
            Microgenetic studies of learning in children and in
            brain-damaged adults

11:40       Lunch

NEUROSCIENCE APPROACHES

1:00        Michael Merzenich, University of California, San Francisco
            Cortical plasticity phenomenology and mechanisms:
            Implications for neurorehabilitation

2:00        James L. McClelland,  Carnegie Mellon University/CNBC  
            Revisiting the critical period: Interventions that
            enhance adaptation to non-native phonological contrasts 
            in Japanese adults

3:00        Break

3:20        Richard Haier, University of California, Irvine         
            PET studies of learning and individual differences

4:20        Discussant: James Stigler, UCLA

Saturday, October 10th: Studies of Change Over Long Time Scales

8:30 - 9:00 Continental Breakfast

BEHAVIORAL APPROACHES

9:00        Esther Thelen, Indiana University
            Dynamic mechanisms of change in early perceptual motor
            development
                                           
10:00       Robbie Case, University of Toronto
            Differentiation and integration as the mechanisms in
            cognitive and neurological development

11:00       Break

11:20       Deanna Kuhn, Teacher's College, Columbia University
            Why development does (and doesn't) occur: Evidence
            from the domain of inductive reasoning

12:20       Lunch

NEUROSCIENCE APPROACHES

2:00        Mark Johnson, Birkbeck College/University College London    
            Cortical specialization for cognitive functions

3:00        Helen Neville, University of Oregon 
            Specificity and plasticity in human brain development

4:00        Break

4:20        Discussant: David Klahr, Carnegie Mellon University

Sunday, October 11th: Developmental Disorders

8:30 - 9:00 Continental Breakfast

DYSLEXIA

9:00        Albert Galaburda, Harvard Medical School     
            Toxicity of neural plasticity as seen through a model of
            learning disability

AUTISM

10:00       Patricia Carpenter, Marcel Just, Carnegie Mellon University
            Cognitive load distribution in normal and autistic individuals
 
11:00       Break
 
ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER

11:20       B. J. Casey, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center     
            Disruption and inhibitory control in developmental
            disorders: A mechanistic model of implicated
            frontostriatal circuitry
 
12:20       Concluding discussant: Michael I. Posner, University of Oregon
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Attending the Symposium

Sessions on Friday, October 9 will be held in McConomy Auditorium,
University Center, Carnegie Mellon. Sessions on Saturday, October 10 and
Sunday, October 11 will be held in the Adamson Wing, Room 135 Baker Hall.
Admission is free, and everyone is welcome to attend. Out of town visitors
can contact Mary Anne Cowden, (412) 268-3151, mac+ at cmu.edu, for additional
information.

Travel Fellowships

Fellowships are available for junior scientists for travel and lodging
expenses associated with attending the symposium. Interested applicants
should send a brief statement of interest, a curriculum vitae, and one
letter of recommendation by August 15, 1998 to Mary Anne Cowden, Department
of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.

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This material is based on the symposium web-page:

http://www.cnbc.cmu.edu/carnegie-symposium

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Mary Anne Cowden, Administrative Coord.          
  Psychology Dept, Carnegie Mellon University       
   Phone:  412/268-3151   Fax:  412/268-3464
    http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~mac/
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