Connectionists: Call for participation; speakers and papers: CogSci2010 Workshop - Cognitive Social Sciences

[Professor Ron Sun]

CogSci2010 Workshop:
Cognitive Social Sciences: Grounding the Social Sciences in the  
Cognitive Sciences

Portland, Oregon, USA.
11 August, 2010
http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun/wsp2010

This workshop is aimed at exploring the cognitive (psychological)  
basis of the social sciences and the possibilities of grounding the  
social sciences in cognition (psychology).

The cognitive sciences have made tremendous strides in recent  
decades. In particular, computational cognitive modeling (i.e.,  
computational psychology; Sun, 2008; Thagard, 1996) has changed the  
ways in which cognition/psychology is explored and understood in many  
profound respects. There have been many models of cognition/ 
psychology proposed in the cognitive sciences (broadly defined),  
leading to detailed understanding of many cognitive/psychological  
domains and functionalities. Empirical psychological research has  
also progressed to provide us with much better understanding of many  
psychological phenomena.

Given the advances in the cognitive sciences, can we leverage the  
successes for the sake of better understanding social processes and  
phenomena? More fundamentally, can the cognitive sciences (including  
experimental cognitive psychology, computational psychology, social- 
personality psychology, developmental psychology, cultural  
psychology, psycholinguistics, philosophy of mind, cognitive  
neuroscience, and so on) provide a better foundation for important  
disciplines of the social sciences (sociology, anthropology,  
economics, political science, as well as some "humanity" fields:  
religious studies, history, legal studies, literary studies,  
communication, and so on)?

Thus far, although very much a neglected topic, there nevertheless  
have been various efforts at exploring this topic. Some of the  
efforts were computationally motivated (see, e.g., Sun, 2006:  
"Cognition and multi-agent interaction", published by Cambridge  
University Press). Some other efforts were more empirical or  
theoretical in nature (see, e.g, Turner, 2001: "Cognitive Dimensions  
of Social Science", published by Oxford University Press).

There are both theoretical and practical rationales for developing  
"cognitive social sciences" (see Turner, 2001; Sun, 2006; DiMaggio,  
1997; Camerer, 2003; Tetlock and Goldgeier, 2000). We contend that  
the social sciences may find their future in the cognitive sciences  
(at least in part), which may well lead to a powerful and productive  
combined intellectual enterprise. This combination or grounding may  
provide the social sciences with imaginative scientific research  
programs, hybridization/integration, new syntheses, novel paradigms/ 
frameworks, and so on, beside providing the cognitive sciences with  
new data sources and problems to address.


PROGRAM

The speakers and papers have been selected, including, among others,
Paul Thagard, Mark Turner, Pascal Boyer, Selmer Bringsjord, Jun Zhang,
Christian Lebiere, Cleotilde Gonzalez, Rosaria Conte, etc.

The full schedule/papers/abstracts are available at
http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun/wsp2010


REGISTRATION

The workshop is open to all registered attendees of the CogSci  
conference.
Registration is now open and details are available at
http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2010/registration.html
(A late fee of US$100 applies after 7 July, 2010.)

Please indicate clearly on the registration form that you intend to  
attend
this workshop.

DATES

7 July, 2010:       Last day before registration late fee applies
11 August, 2010:    Workshop
12-14 August, 2020: CogSci 2010 conference