Cognitive Science Travel Award Program

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The Cognitive Science Program is excited to announce the continuation of the Cognitive Science Travel Award Program!  The application is now open to be used during the Fall 2025, Spring 2026, and Summer 2026 periods.

Students can use this award to either cover their flights to/from a relevant study abroad program or to travel domestically or internationally to present at conferences, workshops, and meetings. Students are eligible to apply for up to $1,000 for international and $500 for domestic travel. Any travel costs in excess of the allotment would be responsibility of the recipient. Other experiences requiring travel that are intended to further student’s education or experience relevant to cognitive science will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Deadline: This award program operates with a rolling deadline. Once funds are exhausted, the application will close.

You can view all of the details, including eligibility requirements and the application, on the travel award webpage.

Questions regarding the Cognitive Science Travel Award Program may be sent to cogsci@uconn.edu.

If you are applying because you plan to study abroad: Priority will be given to students attending the Interdisciplinary Ethnography Field Summer School in Mauritius (not offered in summer 2026), the Neuroscience Study Abroad Summer Program in Salamanca, Spain, and UConn Brain & Behavior in Tel Aviv, Israel. The COGS Program will consider other study abroad programs on a case-by-case basis. All program details can be found on the Experiential Global Learning webpage. Note that most courses taken through these summer programs can be counted as elective credits towards the Cognitive Science degree.

COGS Colloquium: Dr. Cat Hobaiter on 11/14

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Talk Co-hosted by COGS & ECOM: Dr. Cat Hobaiter from the University of St Andrews

Date/Time: Friday, 11/14/25 from 4:00pm – 5:30pm EST

Location: McHugh Hall 205

Bio: Cat is a field primatologist who has spent the past 20 years studying wild primates across Africa. She is a Professor in Origins of Mind at the University of St Andrews where she leads the Wild Minds Lab. The main focus of her research is the communication and cognition of wild apes. Through long-term field studies she explores what the behaviour of modern apes living in their natural environment tells us about their minds, as well as about the evolutionary origins of our own behaviour. She is the director of three long-term chimpanzee field-sites in Uganda and Guinea.

Talk Title: Storytelling apes: ape gesture and the evolution of human language

Abstract: Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. Three years ago, I was on a remote expedition with a small group of people with whom I had essentially no language in common. Over the weeks we found built huts, mapped the area, cooked, ate, and laughed together. We started to swap a few phrases, but most of our daily life was managed without language. A long list of human behaviours has been proposed as the reason we have language. But decades of research with other apes have shown us that 1) they have rich systems of flexible, intentional, meaningful, communication, and also that 2) apes and other species do not need language to learn from each other, to organize where and when to forage, to learn cultural knowledge about tools and songs, to co-ordinate hunting, or navigate social politics. It starts to look like human language didn’t evolve for anything useful. But could we simply have been looking in the wrong place? Ten years ago, anthropologist Polly Wiessner made the provocative suggestion that fire was the fundamental driver of human social behaviour. While the day-to-day conversations of the forager peoples she worked with were about mundane practicalities and gossip, fireside conversations are different: they are used for telling stories. I will review what we have learned about other apes’ rich systems of communication so far, and ask—at the end of the day—are we the storytelling ape?

Meetings: Dr. Hobaiter will be available for meetings at UConn from 11/12 – 11/14. If you are interested in meeting with her on any of these days or attending dinner in the evening on Friday, please email crystal.mills@uconn.edu. 

Attached is the talk flyer for posting. Please email Crystal if you have questions.

Call for proposals: COGS student-faculty research collaboration

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The Cognitive Science Program is pleased to announce a call for proposals to promote collaboration between Cognitive Science undergraduate students and faculty on student-led projects. These grants are intended to support new ideas, pilot studies, and exploratory projects that bring together our community of scholars across disciplines. Priority will be given to projects that provide clear opportunities for student mentorship and training.
Funding details:
  • Awards of up to $2,000 each.
  • Funds may be used for research expenses such as participant recruitment, software, materials, travel for data collection, or other justifiable research-related costs.
  • Funds must be spent within 12 months of the award date.
Eligibility:
  • Applications must involve at least one UConn COGS student (graduate or undergraduate) and one UConn faculty member.
  • Proposals should clearly demonstrate how the project will foster collaboration and contribute to the mission of the Cognitive Science Program.
  • Proposals emphasizing student training will be prioritized.
Application details:
  • Project title and team members.
  • Research proposal (no more than 2 pages, single-spaced), and include:
    • A project description. Define research goals, hypotheses, and methods precisely.
    • A brief description of the individual participant roles in the project design and execution.
    • Plan for collaboration between student(s) and faculty.
    • Anticipated outcomes (e.g., pilot data, conference presentation, publication, future grant submission, presentation at IBACS end of year event) including undergraduate-specific departmental poster nights.
    • Project timeline (not included in page maximum).
    • Budget and justification (not included in page maximum).
    • References (not included in page maximum).
  • CVs for all applicants
Conditions:
  • If awarded, necessary safety and protocol materials (e.g. IRB, IBC, SCRO, Safety Training, etc.) must be provided before funds can be disbursed.
  • The Cognitive Science students should be active students for the duration of the project.
Deadline:
December 1, 2025
Funding decisions will be made by December 15, 2025
Visit the award webpage to apply!
If you have any questions about this award, please email cogsci@uconn.edu.

28th Annual Neuroscience at Storrs symposium on Nov 6th, 2025

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Dear Members of the UConn Neuro Community,

 

On behalf of the Neuroscience Steering Committee, you are cordially invited to the 28th ANNUAL NEUROSCIENCE AT STORRS SYMPOSIUM on Thursday, November 6th, 2025, from 3:30pm – 8:30pm in The Dodd Center / Bousfield Building on the Storrs campus.

 

This annual event is sponsored by IBACS and brings together the brain science community at UConn/UConn HEALTH from across diverse departments, schools, and colleges. The event is supported by the BME department (this year’s host), and the departments of PNB, Psychological Sciences, and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The 28th Annual NEUROSCIENCE AT STORRS is packed with an inspiring keynote lecture, exciting short-format research talks, and poster presentations. All events are open to interested undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, staff, and faculty from across UConn departments and schools.

 

This year’s Keynote Speaker is Dr. Nima Mesgarani, PhD, Associate Professor at the Zuckerman Mind, Brain, and Behavior Institute at Columbia University. Dr. Mesgarani is an internationally recognized scholar and leader in neural engineering and auditory neuroscience. He is a pioneer in the study of neural circuits underlying speech processing and made several key contributions to the development of AI models for automatic speech processing and brain computer interfaces for speech recognition. For information, please visit: https://naplab.ee.columbia.edu/

 

This is a GENERAL CALL for:

 

•                     POSTERS: Poster presentations from trainees (graduate students and postdocs) from UConn, UConn HEALTH or other local institutions (DEADLINE for submission: Tuesday, Nov. 4th)

•                     DATA BLITZ TALKS: Each talk is 3 mins and 3-4 PPT slides, 2 mins for questions, and limited to trainees (graduate students or postdocs) from UConn or UConn HEALTH (DEADLINE for submission: Monday, Nov. 3rd)

•                     REGISTRATION: Everyone is welcome, please register as soon as possible!

 

Please submit your applications for giving a poster presentation or Data blitz talk, as well as registration, at the bottom of the website: https://neuroscience.uconn.edu/28th-annual-neuroscience-at-storrs-2/

 

Neuroscience at Storrs has always been a fun and interactive showcase for our vibrant brain science community here at UConn, please spread the word and participate!

 

For general questions, please contact Sabato Santaniello (sabato.santaniello@uconn.edu) in the Biomedical Engineering Department.

 

Thanks!

 

The Neuroscience Steering Committee:

 

Alexander Jackson (PNB)

John Salamone and Heather Read (Psych)

Gregory Sartor (Pharm)

Sabato Santaniello (BME)

Tenure track faculty positions open to grad students at Boise

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Boise State University is currently searching for a pair of tenure-track faculty positions in our Department of Psychology. We have two searches currently open, one with a broad area call and one focused on cognitive, biological, learning, or sensation and perception. Intended start dates for both positions are Fall (August) 2026.  More details about the positions and application instructions can be found here:
 
 
We are reaching out in hopes that you might be willing to share this open opportunity with your graduate students, and alumni who might be a good match. 

We sincerely appreciate any assistance you can provide in getting this opportunity in front of your students. If you have any questions or require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me at kristenmartin@boisestate.edu.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Kristen

KRISTEN MARTIN
Senior Recruiter
 
Human Resources and Workforce Strategy
Phone: 208-426-1657
Mail: 960 S. Broadway Ave., Suite 100, Boise, ID 83706

COGS Colloquium on 10/3: Dr. Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda from New York University

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Cognitive Science Program Colloquium Series: Dr. Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda from New York University

Date/Time: Friday, 10/3/25 from 4:00pm – 5:30pm EST

Location: McHugh Hall 302

Meetings: If you are interested in meeting with Dr. Tamis-LeMonda during the day or attending dinner in the evening on Friday, please email crystal.mills@uconn.edu. 

Talk Title: Word learning in context: Disambiguating the ambiguous

Abstract: The pace and breadth of early vocabulary development is impressive to say the least. Infants grow from producing their first words around 12 months to using over 500 words by 2 ½ years. How do infants crack the code to acquire so many words in a relatively short period of time? Our theoretical framework emphasizes the embodied and embedded nature of learning: Infants actively engage with their environments in the presence of socially responsive partners who provide semantically relevant input within a tight time window during highly specific activity contexts. The tight temporal connection between infant action, caregiver speech, and activity context cuts across word classes—nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions—thereby functioning to ‘disambiguate the ambiguous’.

To illustrate the embodied and embedded nature of infant learning, I present several studies from our lab on infants’ exposure to different word classes in the ecologically-valid home environment. We videorecorded infants (12-24 months) and mothers during natural home activities (1 to 2 hours per visit, Ns=30-100). We transcribed interactions and identified all concrete nouns in mothers’ speech. We also marked mothers’ use of verbs and ‘math words’— adjectives and prepositions that refer to numbers, quantities (more, less), spatial relations (under, on top of), shapes, and magnitudes (big, long).
Annotations of the timing, behaviors, and contexts of infants’ speech exposure revealed several impactful characteristics: (1) Words in mothers’ speech contained high regularity in temporal structure. For example, mothers used the same word in a bout of repetition (e.g., dog, dog, dog; up, up, up) and they referenced objects from the same taxonomic category (e.g., animals) within a tight time window (e.g., dog, cat, horse); (2) Mothers provided multimodal input (speech with gesture/touch) that functioned to highlight word meaning; (3) Infants’ own actions were a reliable impetus for word exposure (e.g., verbs and spatial terms like walk, jump, down referred to infants’ movements through space), and (4) High regularity characterized the activity and location contexts of infants’ exposure to particular words (e.g., food nouns and words for magnitudes were frequent during snack time). Notably, characteristics of infants’ home experiences and language interactions predicted individual differences in skills across domains—including sustained attention, vocabulary growth, the production of words during interactions, school readiness and academic achievement years later. We discuss implications for theories of word learning and language interventions.

Asst Professor position at Vassar

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The Department of Cognitive Science at Vassar College is hiring an Assistant Professor to begin in Fall 2026. They are seeking someone with expertise in either (1) qualitative approaches focusing on the experience of agents in context, or (2) computational modeling and AI. This is not my department, but is my building — I would be delighted if another cognitive developmentalist joined Vassar’s faculty! See the job ad here.

COGS Director Dimitris Xygalatas Featured in UConn Publications!

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Our very own COGS Program Director, Dimitris Xygalatas, has been featured not once, but twice recently in major UConn publications!
Check out these fascinating pieces that spotlight his latest research on the powerful social bonds formed through rituals—especially in the world of sports fandom:
“It’s Not the Game, It’s the Group: Sports Fans Connect the Most Over Rituals”
The study, by a UConn team of scientists, shows that levels of emotional connection and euphoria are on average higher during intense pre-game rituals than they are during the game itself.
“All Together Now”
That connection you feel with fellow fans at the game? It’s even more powerful than you think.

LangFest 2025 – Save the Date!

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We are excited to announce that Language Fest 2025 will be held on the late afternoon and early evening of Wednesday, April 16th in Konover Auditorium (spoken program) and Bousfield Psychology Building Atrium (poster sessions).   

Language Fest is a university-wide research conference that welcomes the full cross-disciplinary community of language researchers at UConn for a day of sharing results, ideas, methodologies, and fostering future interdisciplinary collaborations. Researchers from all disciplines of the language sciences and at all career stages are welcome and encouraged to submit their work. The event is made possible with the support of the Institute for Brain and Cognitive Sciences (IBACS). 

This year’s program will feature a graduate student symposium showcasing the diversity of methodologies used to study language, a data blitz session, an undergraduate commencement speaker, and poster sessions. Further details about submission and registration forms will be provided soon.

For any questions about Language Fest, please e-mail: langfest@uconn.edu and visit our website https://languagefest.uconn.edu/.

We look forward to your attendance and participation! 

UConn LangFest Organizing Committee

Emma Wing

Jiabao Fan

Kaya LeGrand

Menghan Yang

Portia Washington

Briana Ashton

Mikayla Robinson

Melanie Stroud

Dr. Umay Suanda

COGS Colloquia on 3/7: Dr. Brian Boyd

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COGS Colloquia Talk on 3/7: Dr. Brian Boyd

Date/Time: Friday, 3/7/25 from 4:00pm – 5:30pm EST

Location: McHugh Hall 201

Bio: Brian Boyd, Ph.D., is the William C. Friday Distinguished Professor in the UNC School of Education and interim director of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was previously the director of the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project at the University of Kansas. Boyd is quite engaged in research that involves the most vulnerable, and often marginalized, populations. As a special educator by training, much of his research has involved the development and evaluation of evidence-based practices that could be implemented within school and home contexts. His more recent work has focused on how issues of implicit bias and race affect the outcomes of children with and without disabilities. Boyd’s research has been continuously funded by federal agencies such as the Institute of Education Sciences and National Institutes of Health. He is past vice president of the International Society for Autism Research. He also serves on multiple national boards that are dedicated to improving the outcomes of autistic persons and those from historically underserved communities.

Talk Title: Community-Engaged Research in Autism: Centering Marginalized Communities

Abstract: Community-engaged research (CER) is essential for addressing disparities in autism research by prioritizing the voices and experiences of marginalized communities. This presentation examines CER principles, challenges, and ethical considerations in working with diverse populations. It concludes with a discussion of how my research applies CER to foster meaningful partnerships, amplify community perspectives, and promote equity in autism services and outcomes.

Meetings: If you are interested in meeting with Dr. Boyd or attending dinner on Friday, please email crystal.mills@uconn.edu

Flyer is attached for posting. Please email Crystal if you have questions.