The Cognitive Science Colloquium series presents:

 

David Rand

Associate Professor of Psychology, Economics, Cognitive Science and Management 

Yale University

 

Title: The cognitive science of fake news

 

November 3^rd  at 4pm, OAK 109

 

Why do people believe patently false news headlines, and what can be done to undermine belief in “fake news”? In this talk I will describe a number of recent findings from my collaboration with Gord Pennycook exploring these issues. For example, what is the role of rational deliberation in belief in fake news? Many have argued that people use rationalization to convince themselves of the truth of stories which fit their political worldview (a form of “motivated reasoning” or “cultural cognition”). On the contrary, in a recent set of studies, we found that people who engaged in more deliberative thinking were better at discerning fake from real news, even for headlines that aligned with their political ideology – suggesting that low-level cognitive processes motivate belief in fake news, and deliberation can override such automatic responses. Illustrating one such automatic process – a fluency heuristic – another set of studies we ran showed that just reading a fake news headline made people subsequently more likely to believe it – even if the headline was flagged as “Disputed by 3rd party fact-checkers,” ran counter to the subject’s political orientation, or was not even explicitly remembered by the subject. In a third set of studies, we have also examined the impact of Disputed warnings more generally, and found an “implied truth” effect – if only some fake stories are tagged with a warning, it increases the perceived accuracy of fake stories without warnings. This is worrying, given that it is much easier to produce fake news than to fact check it (such that only a small subset of all fake news stories will ever be successfully tagged with warnings). Furthermore, this implied truth effect was largest among two sub-populations particularly vulnerable to fake news: Trump supporters and young people. This paper also found that, surprisingly, increasing the salience of headlines’ sources by showing the publisher’s logo in a banner beneath each headline had no impact on perceptions of accuracy. We hope that the results of these studies, as well as others I will discuss, will help guide policy makers in their efforts to reduce belief in blatantly false information.

 

Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting 

Boston, March 24-27, 2018

This 4 day event is filled with invited symposia, symposia, posters, awards, a keynote speaker,  and most importantly the opportunity to connect with colleagues.

There is a full schedule of events slated for this year’s meeting such as:

• Invited Symposia
• Symposia
• Poster Sessions
• Keynote Speaker
• George A. Miller Award winner
• The Fred Kavli Distinguished Career Contributions Award winner
• Young Investigators Award winners

Call for abstracts and posters is open now.  More information can be found on the CNS website.

Assistant Professor, Computation/Open Area, Department of Psychology

Academic Title: Assistant Professor

COMPUTATION/OPEN AREA SEARCH, DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO. The Psychology Department
within the Division of Social Sciences at UC, San Diego is committed to
academic excellence and diversity within the faculty, staff and student
body. The Department invites applications for a tenure track Assistant
Professor position from candidates who take a computational approach to
study any of the areas represented in the department (Cognitive Psychology,
Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, Developmental Psychology, and Social
Psychology). Candidates must have a Ph.D., advancement to Ph.D. or ABD, and
have a record of publishable research demonstrating a computational
approach to understanding behavior or links between the brain and behavior.
Candidates with a track record of interdisciplinary and collaborative work
and excellence in teaching will be given preference. We are especially
interested in candidates who can demonstrably contribute to diversity,
inclusion, and equity within an academic setting.

Salary is commensurate with qualifications and based on University of
California pay scales.

Review of applications will begin November 1, 2017 and will continue until
the position is filled.

To Apply:

Candidates should submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, research
statement, teaching statement, up to 4 selected reprints, names of 3 to 5
referees, and a personal statement that summarizes their past or potential
contributions to diversity .

Please apply electronically via UCSD’s AP On-Line RECRUIT :
Assistant Professor (JPF01542) – Computation/Open Area, Department of Psychology.

 

COGNITIVE OR AFFECTIVE SCIENCE – DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

The Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania intends to make multiple appointments in the areas of Cognitive Science and Affective Science over the next several years. Our primary focus is at the junior, Assistant Professor level, but in exceptional circumstances a more senior hire may be considered.

We are interested in candidates with research interests in the areas, broadly defined, of cognitive science (e.g., learning and memory, perception, attention, language, or decision making) or affective science (e.g., clinical or health psychology; social, moral, or political psychology; positive psychology; or the psychology of individual differences), and who use any number of approaches, including but not limited to computational, neuroscientific (behavioral, systems, or cognitive), or developmental.

Interested candidates should submit materials online  and include a curriculum vitae, statements of research and teaching interests, and the names and contact information of three references. Candidates will contribute to the teaching mission of the university with introductory courses such as Introduction to Psychology, Introduction to Brain and Behavior, Cognitive Psychology, or Abnormal Psychology, as well as advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in specific areas of interest. References will be contacted by the University with instructions on how to submit a recommendation letter to the website.
Review of applications will begin on September 18, 2017 and continue until the position is filled.

The Department of Psychology is strongly committed to Penn’s Action Plan for Faculty Diversity and Excellence and to creating a more diverse faculty (for more information, see our Diversity Plan). The University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity employer. Minorities, women, individuals with disabilities, and protected veterans are encouraged to apply.

Assistant Professor in Psycholinguistics, Brown University

Location: Providence, R.I. 02912

The Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences at Brown University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position beginning July 1, 2018, from individuals focusing on psycholinguistics at or above the word level in adults or children. Approaches could include – but are not limited to – computational modeling, laboratory experimentation, and/or neuroscientific methods. Candidates whose research and teaching addresses variation across individuals or communities, within or across languages are especially welcome. We seek applicants whose research informs and is informed by allied areas in cognitive science, linguistics, or psychology. Successful candidates are expected to have (1) a track record of excellence in research, (2) a well-specified research plan that is likely to lead to research funding, and (3) a readiness to contribute to teaching and mentoring at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Brown has a highly interdisciplinary research environment in the study of mind, brain, behavior, and language; the Department is located in a recently renovated state-of-the-art building in the heart of campus.

QUALIFICATIONS All Ph.D. requirements must be completed before July 1, 2018.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS Curriculum vitae, reprints and preprints of publications, statements of research and teaching interests noting potential contributions to diversity and inclusion, and three letters of reference should be submitted on-line as PDFs.

Applications received by November 1, 2017 are assured of full review.

Brown University is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive academic global community; as an EEO/AA employer, Brown considers applicants for employment without regard to, and does not discriminate on the basis of, gender, race, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

Friday, October 6

4pm

Room: Oak 109

Barbara Landau, Professor of Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins will give a lecture on:

Origins and development of spatial language: Some complexities

The acquisition of spatial language has historically provided a fertile test-bed for theories of language-thought relationships. Does spatial language emerge driven by pre-linguistic spatial concepts, or does it emerge strictly as a function of the linguistic input provided in the environment? In this talk, I’ll consider challenges to both of these positions, focusing on the challenge of accounting for the linguistic combinatorics that are inherent in spatial language. Acknowledging the complexities of the mapping between spatial language and underlying concepts forces us to abandon simplistic hypotheses and to think about learning in new and more subtle ways.