The Cognitive Science Colloquium Series is proud to present Marjorie Solomon, Professor and the Oates Family Endowed Chair in Lifespan Development in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and the MIND Institute at UC Davis

Friday, September 20th, 4pm, Oak 117

Dr. Solomon will provide a talk entitled “Executive Control in Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Behavioral and Neural Mechanisms”

Abstract: Many individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) exhibit executive control deficits, meaning that they fail to maintain appropriate task context representations so they can inhibit impulsive responding, behave flexibly, and thereby effectively pursue their goals. Although individuals with typical development are thought to experience significant maturation of executive control processes during adolescence, those with ASD are thought to exhibit executive control impairments that persist into adolescence and young adulthood and are associated with clinically significant difficulties in social and adaptive functioning, and attention deficit, internalizing, and ASD symptoms. Given the challenges inherent in the transition to adulthood, it is critical to better understand the precise nature and development of executive control deficits in those with ASD, and their associations with behavior. This talk will briefly review behavioral and neuroimaging studies of executive control in ASD, and present new neuropsychological and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) results from the first wave of a large longitudinal cohort sequential study of individuals with ASD and typical development ages 12-22 years. We seek to clarify the neural signatures of executive control deficits in those with ASD and to investigate how the development of executive control impacts the transition to adulthood in these individuals.

If you are interested in meeting with Dr. Solomon during the day, and/or coming to dinner Friday night, please contact Dr. Naigles: letitia.naigles@uconn.edu

Cognitive Science and Sports Management Major David Dapaah-Afriyie ’19 is featured in UConn Today.

The ECOM website migration to the UConn server is almost complete. Later this month we will be introducing some updates and changes to some of our pages.

Below please see 3 announcements.

(1) ECOM members updates. DEADLINE JAN 20

All members have been asked to update their blurbs (check for broken links, provide info about ECOM-related work to include in our News page and in reports to our sponsors, etc.). Graduate students have been asked to indicate whether they wish to remain or become ECOM members, and specify which ECOM activities they expect to be involved in during the coming year.

Please send requests and updates to Dorit Bar-On AND Aliyar Ozercan.

(2) Call for abstracts for ECOM’s Spring Workshop (“Communication, Context, Conversation”). DEADLINE: FEB 1.

A 2-page pdf with an abstract prepared for blind review should be sent to Aliyar Ozercan.  Please check the ECOM website for details about our invited speakers. Please email Aliyar Ozercan for full instructions about this Call.

(3) A new ECOM Summer Graduate Research Fellowship (open to ECOM members). DEADLINE: APRIL 1, with info session FEB 8:

Please see the attachment re ECOM’s new Summer Fellowship open to graduate students who are ECOM members. A Meet & Greet event (with refreshments) will be held on February 8, 2019
4-5:30 pm (at the UCHI seminar room, Babbidge Library, 4^th floor), during which we will have a discussion of this fellowship opportunity. Faculty interested in introducing graduate students to their research are invited to give a 5-minute presentation – please let us know in advance (by Feb 1^st).

Please let Dorit Bar-On or Teresa Allen (cc’ed here) know if you have any q’s.

 

Dr. Douglas Oliver from UCHC authored a TED Lesson which offers an easy to understand explanation of how the brain and ears work together to process sound.

ResearchMatch is a tool that connects researchers with individuals interested in participating in research studies through an online matching tool.

 

There is no cost to UConn researchers to use ResearchMatch.

 

To learn more about using ResearchMatch for studies, register here for the free ResearchMatch Researcher Webinar Training/Live Demo on Thursday, July 12, 2018 from 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. 

 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions on joining the training.

 

Applications are invited for a postdoctoral position in computational modeling of language at the University of Maryland, co-advised by Naomi Feldman and Jan Edwards.

The postdoc will be part of an NIH-funded project, in collaboration with Pat Shafto at Rutgers University-Newark, that uses models of pedagogical reasoning to predict which language interventions will be most effective for helping children with Specific Language Impairment learn grammatical morphemes. Experience with probabilistic models of language acquisition and interests in morphological processing and/or language disorders would be helpful, but anyone who is interested in the position is encouraged to apply.

The appointment can be made through either the Department of Linguistics, the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, or the Language Science Center.

The starting date is flexible, and can be August 1, 2018 or later. The initial appointment will be through summer 2019, with the possibility of extension.

The University of Maryland is home to an extensive interconnected network of over 200 language scientists that spans 22 different departments and centers . The person hired for this position will have opportunities to interact regularly with colleagues from linguistics, hearing and speech, computer science, and other units on campus, and will be a member of the Computational Linguistics and Information Processing Lab. The PIs arecommitted to supporting the success of trainees who belong to groups that are underrepresented in academia and in computing.

To apply, please send a CV, research statement, writing sample, and contact information for three references to nhf@umd.edu (letters are not needed as part of the initial application). Review of applications will begin July 2 and will continue until the position is filled.

The Center for Autism Research Excellence (CARE) at Boston University is looking for a post-doctoral fellow

The CARE Fellow will work on a project investigating auditory processing in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder on a newly-funded interdisciplinary research program, which is a collaboration between Boston University (PI: Helen Tager-Flusberg; Barbara Shinn-Cunningham) and Carnegie Mellon University (PI: Lori Holt).

We are looking for an energetic scientist who is interested in exploring how purpose-built videogames can be used to probe and lead to changes in auditory processing in adolescents with ASD behavioral and neural measures in the context of a randomized controlled trial. The ideal applicant will have a strong research background, technical and programming expertise, as well as experience collecting and analyzing behavioral and electrophysiological (EEG/ERP) data. Some experience working with people with ASD is preferred.

The Post-Doctoral Researcher will have primary responsibilities in managing and carrying out all aspects the research program. Responsibilities include:
· Piloting the suite of videogames with adolescents with ASD providing iterative feedback to the developers at CMU
· Training and supervision of students and other project staff
· Data collection for the randomized controlled trial in the lab and home including both behavioral assessments and auditory ERP experimental measures
· Analyzing the gaming data
· EEG/ERP and behavioral data processing and analysis
· Write-up and dissemination of findings for reports, conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications

Required Qualifications:
· Ph.D. in Psychology, Neuroscience or a related field
· Experience working with children/adolescents in research settings, preferably including individuals with ASD
· Training in two or more of the following areas: cognitive science/cognitive neuroscience, neuroimaging/ electrophysiology , autism research
· Programming skills (e.g., MATLAB; Python) and proficiency with statistical programs and analyses (e.g., R, SPSS)
· Excellent interpersonal leadership skills, writing and organizational skills
· Strong record of scholarly accomplishments
The position will start summer/fall 2018 with a minimum of a two-year commitment.
Interested candidates should send a CV, cover letter, research statement and contact information for three professional references to Helen Tager-Flusberg, Ph.D. (htagerf@bu.edu)<mailto:htagerf@bu.edu)> and Chloe Adams Agarwal (Center Administrator) – chloeaa@bu.edu<mailto:chloeaa@bu.edu>.

To learn more about the Center, please visit the website or contact:

Helen Tager-Flusberg, PhD.
Director, Center for Autism Research Excellence
Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Boston University
100 Cummington Mall
Boston, MA 02215
www.bu.edu/autism

Berlin School of Mind and Brain

One 3-year DAAD scholarship for international student

One scholarship is available to the best international candidate, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) as part of their Graduate School Scholarship Programme (GSSP).

 

Eligibility:
As of September 2018, the last final exam (Master’s degree or equivalent) must have taken place no longer than six years ago.
As of September 2018, applicants must not have resided in Germany for more than 15 months.
Duration and funding

The scholarship amount is 1,200 € per month plus funding for travel expenses, insurances, research support, family support, German-language courses, etc.

Application:
You will have to apply through the online application tool of the Berlin School of Mind and Brain.

Shortlisted applicants will be either invited to come to Berlin (they will receive reimbursement for all or parts of their travel expenses) or interviewed via Skype.

Deadline: 15 July 2018, 23:59:59 hrs CET

Read more

Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin
Berlin School of Mind and Brain
Unter den Linden 6
10099 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 2093-1706, Fax: -1802
mb-manager@hu-berlin.de
www.mind-and-brain.de
www.neuroschools-germany.com/

The University of Warwick, UK is seeking to appoint a full-time, 3-year
postdoctoral researcher based at the Department of Psychology, as part of
the research grant ‘How does language experience support language
development? Short-term priming and long-term learning,’ funded by the
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The PDRA will work with a team
of researchers led by Dr. Kate Messenger (PI, University of Warwick), and
Prof. Holly Branigan (Co-I, University of Edinburgh).

Further information available here.

Closing date for applications: 20th June 2018

Start date: 1st August 2018 

 

For questions, please contact:

Dr Katherine Messenger

Department of Psychology | University of Warwick | Coventry | CV4 7AL

Tel: 024761 50557 | Email: K.Messenger@warwick.ac.uk |

Dr Eleonora Rossi from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona will be giving a talk  April 28th entitled The dynamics of learning and using two languages: Investigating second language acquisition, and its consequences for the mind and the brain as part of the 9th Annual University of Connecticut Language Fest.

Dr Rossi will be available for individual meetings on Thursday, April 26th (between 1 and 4 PM) and Friday, April 27th (between 9 AM and 4 PM). If you are interested in bilingualism and would like to meet with Dr Rossi, please send an email to Yanina Prystauka (yanina.prystauka@uconn.edu).

*******
Abstract: Learning a second language (L2) past childhood can be a challenging task, especially when the two languages differ in their linguistic structures (Sabourin & Stowe, 2008). At the same time, bilinguals, even at lower levels of proficiency are able to negotiate two languages with relative ease even in the presence of conflicting linguistic structures (Kroll et al., 2014), revealing a fine-tuned system for language control (Abutalebi & Green, 2007). During my talk, I will examine the linguistic and neural signatures of second language processing in adult learners, and I will propose that it can be used as a lens to examine the relative plasticity of the linguistic and neural systems. I will first present behavioral and neuroimaging data analyzing the processing of grammatical structures that are not shared between the native and the second language. Behavioral and electrophysiological (EEG) results will provide evidence supporting the view that L2 learners show similar neural signatures to those observed in native speakers, suggesting that there is a higher degree of plasticity for adult L2 learners than typically assumed. Building on that observation, I will then address the question of how bilinguals manage to negotiate the activity of the two languages in one mind and brain. Towards that goal, I will present recent neuroimaging data revealing that bilinguals possess a powerful neural control mechanism that allows successful selection of the language to be spoken. I will also demonstrate that the recruitment of those neural substrates is shaped by different language use. Finally, I will discuss how learning an L2 past childhood can be a catalyst for reshaping the structure of the brain itself by strengthening the white-matter pathways that are dedicated to language processing and language control. In the final part of the talk I will describe future directions for my research program.