Connectionists: CCNC Conference Deadline Approaching: June 15

[Randall C. O'Reilly]

                REMINDER AND UPDATES

Updates:
    * Online registration now open: www.ccnconference.org
    * Symposia topics selected --- see below
    * Brain Research has agreed to publish selected papers from this meeting, 
      possibly a special issue. 

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               ~ Call for Abstracts ~

2ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTATIONAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
              www.ccnconference.org

To be held in conjunction with the 2006 PSYCHONOMIC SOCIETY CONFERENCE,
November 16-19, 2006 at the Hilton Americas hotel in Houston, TX.

CONFERENCE DATES: Wed-Thu November 15 & 16, 2006

The inaugural CCNC 2005 meeting held prior to Society for Neuroscience (SfN)
in Washington DC was a great success with approximately 250 attendees 60
presented posters and strongly positive reviews. In future years it will
continue to be held on a rotating basis with other meetings such as (tentative
list): Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS) Organization for Human Brain
Mapping (OHBM) Cognitive Science Society (CogSci) Neural Information
Processing Systems (NIPS) and Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE).
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DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS: June 15, 2006 

Abstracts to be submitted online via the website:
              www.ccnconference.org

Like last year, there will be two categories of submissions: 
     *Poster only
     *Poster, plus short talk (15 min) to highlight the poster

Abstracts should be no more than 500 words. Women and underrepresented
minorities are especially encouraged to apply. Reviewing for posters will be
inclusive and only to ensure appropriateness to the meeting. Short talks will
be selected on the basis of research quality relevance to conference theme and
expected accessibility in a talk format. Abstracts not selected for short
talks will still be accepted as posters as long as they meet appropriateness
criteria.

NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE: July 15, 2005

The journal Brain Research has agreed to publish selected papers from this
meeting as a dedicated section, and possibly special issue of the
journal. Presenting authors can elect to have their work considered for this
purpose. Final selections will be made by the program committee shortly after
the meeting.
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Preliminary Program:
__________________________________________________________________________
* 2006 Keynote Speakers (confirmed):
       Mike Kahana, University of Pennsylvania
       Mark Seidenberg, University of Wisconsin Madison
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* 3 Symposia (2 hours each):

  1) Face/Object Recognition: Are Faces Special, or Just a Special Case? 
     Computational models of face and object processing

      Speakers:
        Gary Cottrell, UCSD (Moderator)
        Kalanit Grill-Spector, Stanford
        Alice O'Toole, UT Dallas
        Maximilian Riesenhuber, Georgetown

      Description: 
      What can computational models tell us about human visual object
      processing? We have excellent models that explain how we may recognize
      objects at multiple scales and orientations, while other models explain
      why faces may or may not be "special," or simply a special case. The
      goal of this symposium is to summarize what we understand with some
      degree of confidence, what is still not understood, and to what degree
      what we understand meshes with data on human and animal visual
      processing, including behavioral, fMRI, neurophysiological, and
      neuropsychological data.

  2) Semantics: Development and Brain Organization of Conceptual Knowledge:
     Computational and Experimental Investigations.

     Speakers: 
        Jay McClelland, Stanford University (Moderator)
        Linda Smith, Indiana University
        Tim Rogers, University of Wisconsin
        Alex Martin, National Institute of Mental Health 

     Description: 
     The symposium is predicated on the assumption that there are links
     between conceptual structure, experience, conceptual development, and
     brain organization of conceptual knowledge. Â Jay McClelland will begin
     with a computational perspective on conceptual development, followed by
     Linda Smith with an empirical perspective. Â We would then switch to the
     subject of brain organization of conceptual knowledge, beginning with a
     computational perspective by Tim Rogers followed by an empirical
     perspective from Alex Martin.

  3) Cognitive Control: Computational and Empirical Investigations

     Speakers:
        Mike Mozer, University of Colorado (Moderator)
        Others not yet confirmed

___________________________________________________________________________
* 12 short talks featuring selected posters

* Poster sessions (2)
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2006 Planning Committee:

Suzanna Becker, McMaster University
Jonathan Cohen, Princeton University
Yuko Munakata, University of Colorado, Boulder
David Noelle, Vanderbilt University
Randall O'Reilly, University of Colorado, Boulder
Maximilian Riesenhuber, Georgetown University Medical Center

Executive Organizer: Thomas Hazy, University of Colorado, Boulder

For more information and to sign up for the mailing list visit:
                     www.ccnconference.org
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