Cognitive Science Program

Programme (in EST)

09:00 - 09:10 Welcome and Introduction

09:10 - 10:15 Keynote: Elisabeth Pacherie (institut Jean Nicod; Institute for the Study of Cognition at Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris)
“Motoric Representational Format”

10:20 - 10:50 Emma Otterski
“(In)directly perceiving others’ emotions and the object analogy”

10:55 - 11:25 Iwan Williams (Monash University)
” Proto-asserters?: The case of chatbot speech meets the case of toddler speech “

11:30 - 12:05 Frederik T. Junker (University of Copenhagen)
“From Daydreams to Decisions”

12:10 - 12:40 Georgina Brighouse (University of Liverpool)
“Rethinking aphantasia: A genuine lack of capacity but not a disorder or disability

12:40 - 1:20 Lunch

1:20 - 1:50 Mica Rapstine (University of Michigan)
“Moral Epiphany and Insight in Problem Solving”

1:55 - 2:25 Joachim Nicolodi (University of Cambridge)
“Consciousness in the Creative Process and the Problem for AI”

2:30 - 3:00 Mona Fazeli (University of California, Los Angeles)
“Does Metareasoning Contribute to Epistemic Rationality?”

3:05 - 3:35 Juan Murillo Vargas (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
“How Language-Like is the Language of Thought?”

3:40 - 4:35 Keynote: Cameron Buckner (University of Florida)
“Large Language Models as models of human reasoning”

In 400+ years of history (from early XVII to early XXI centuries) sugar went from being used primarily by the European royalty and their criminal imperial associates to being consumed in large amounts by all inhabitants of the planet. In this talk, I draw from Sidney Mintz’s classic Sweetness and Power to briefly present the history of sugar. Then, I update this history by presenting the incredible growth and profits of the sugary drinks and ultra-processed food industries. By asking what has happened to our human biology as we have replaced real food with more free sugars and processed substances, I develop connections with several diseases, primarily diabetes and obesity that have reached pandemic proportions. I present how the efforts to curb down consumption and enforce regulations have been met with strategies to co-opt and influence policy makers, aggressively market their products to vulnerable populations, and fund and promote biased research. By naming some of the capitalists of the largest transnational “food” industries and their enormous wealth and profit rates, and by connecting their business success with the progressive destruction of our biology, this first chapter of a larger book project intends to test if we can present a material history of our deteriorating human biology for broad audiences; a material history that argues that to understand human biology we need to understand the history of capitalism.

César Abadía-Barrero is a Colombian activist/scholar and associate professor of anthropology and human rights at the University of Connecticut. His research approach is grounded in activist, collaborative, and participatory action research frameworks and integrates critical perspectives to study interconnections among capitalism, human rights, and communities of care. He has been a member of or collaborated with collectives and social movements in Brazil, Colombia, Cameroon, Spain and the United States examining how for-profit interests transform access, continuity, and quality of health care, and how communities resist forms of oppression and create and maintain alternative ways of living and caring.

Join us in the Logic Colloquium for a talk by Tyler Knowlton (Linguistics & Cognitive Science, U Delaware).

Details t.b.a.

https://logic.uconn.edu/calendar/

“ELIN’s Graduate Research Forum: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies”

Saturday, March 1, 2025
9:45am-2:15pm
Ryan Building, Room 204

Join El Instituto’s Graduate Research Forum, where graduate students will share and defend their research! This research forum showcases new interdisciplinary collaboration and academic exchange across multiple departments: valuable feedback and networking opportunities with peers and faculty.

Schedule Overview:

• 3 Sessions with presentations along with Q&A
• Breaks in between sessions
• Lunch provided to conclude event

Please enter through El Instituto’s main entrance on the side of the building passing the (InCHIP) Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy. You can find information for directions in El Instituto’s website.

There is limited space, RSVP today!