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As time series analysis continues to capture the interest of cognitive and behavioral researchers, it is increasingly important to evaluate these methods and compare their respective insights. Here, we evaluate three popular analyses: vector autoregression, cross-correlation, and cross-recurrence quantification analysis. Using social cohesion data derived from Twitter and daily counts of real-world events during the Arab Spring, we present a case study using these methods and evaluate their benefits, limitations, and differences in results. We propose that researchers interested in time series analysis consider these differences and use multiple methods to assure reliability of their results.

CogSci 2021

Vector Autoregression, Cross-Correlation, and Cross-Recurrence Quantification Analysis: A Case Study in Social Cohesion and Collective Action

The AGI conference series is the only major conference series devoted wholly and specifically to the creation of AI systems possessing general intelligence at the human level and ultimately beyond. By gathering together active researchers in the field, for presentation of results and discussion of ideas, we accelerate our progress toward our common goal.

Underline hosted the two main days of AGI 2020 on Wednesday June 24th and Thursday June 25th. Both days were **live-streamed** and you can read the full program bellow. All presentations are available for a **asynchronous viewing**. All presenters are grouped into panels. You can also hear guest talks by **Ben Goertzel** (SingularityNET), **Valery Tarasov** (Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics), **Tatiana Shavrina** (Sberbank) and **Joscha Bach** (MIT Media Lab). 

AGI-20

The AGI conference series is the only major conference series devoted wholly and specifically to the creation of AI systems possessing general intelligence at the human level and ultimately beyond. By gathering together active researchers in the field, for presentation of results and discussion of ideas, we accelerate our progress toward our common goal.

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### Looking for Cogsci 2023? Please [click here](https://underline.io/events/405/reception) to switch to 2023 edition.


**Dear Colleagues,**

Welcome to the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society! 

This year’s conference brings together the latest research from all Cognitive Science and also highlights this year’s theme **Comparative Cognition: Animal Minds.** 

The program features four plenary speakers: Friederike Range (University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna), Onur Güntürkün (Ruhr University Bochum), Julia Fischer (University of Göttingen), and Erich Jarvis (The Rockefeller University). The keynotes and invited symposia showcase the broad spectrum of ideas that encompass the conference theme of comparative cognition. 

Further, the program includes the Rumelhart Prize keynote presentation by Susan Goldin-Meadow (University of Chicago), and symposia to celebrate the winner of the Elman Prize: Wei Ji Ma (New York University), the Heineken Award winner Robert Zatorre (McGill University), and the Robert J. Glushko Dissertation Prizes session.

The program committee for CogSci 2021 received 1,025 submissions, including 710 full papers, 275 member abstracts, 8 publication-based talks, as well as 15 proposals for symposia, and 17 for workshops and tutorials. After a rigorous review process, the committee selected 152 papers for oral presentation and inclusion in the conference proceedings (14.8%), 332 papers for poster presentation and inclusion in the proceedings (32.4%), and 175 papers for poster presentation with inclusion of abstracts in the proceedings (17.1%) We also selected 275 submitted member abstracts. In addition, we accepted 6 publication-based talks, 12 symposia, and 9 workshops and tutorials to make for an exciting and inclusive program.

We hope that you enjoy the conference this year!<br><br>

**Your Program Chairs,**
![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/99984908caba5e6453e5fc5ba34f3507.jpg)

**Learn more about the Vienna Cognitive Science Hub at the University of Vienna, hosts of CogSci 2021**

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/464h1m3iU68" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

To review the proceedings for the conference or review the searchable program, please visit the [website](https://cognitivesciencesociety.org/program/).


The Cognitive Science Society brings together researchers from around the world who hold a common goal: understanding the nature of the human mind. The mission of the Society is to promote Cognitive Science as a discipline, and to foster scientific interchange among researchers in various areas of study, including Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, Anthropology, Psychology, Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Education. The Society is a non-profit professional organization and its activities include sponsoring an annual conference and publishing the journals Cognitive Science and TopiCS.

Evidence shows comparing events helps children learn verbs (e.g., Childers et al., 2016), but studies are needed to understand whether event type is important. Study 1 examines two types of experiences during learning: seeing similar events than varied, or all varied events. Two½-(n=22), 3½-(n=20) and 4½-year-olds(n=14) learned 4 novel verbs. BS:similar events first or all varied events; pointed at test. A 3(Age: 2,3,4 years) x 2(Condition: similar,varied) univariate ANOVA,dv=proportion correct, showed main effect of Age, F(2, 55)= 7.6, p=.001 only. All children succeeded (one sample t-tests,ps< .03), whereas in a prior study, younger children failed. A second study confirms these results with a different set of video events, and events separated by 1-minute distractors. Here, only 2½- and 3½-year-olds who saw similar events extended verbs,perhaps because events were separated in time. These studies show that verb learners can benefit from comparing events, and comparing similar events can be especially useful.

Verb learning in young children: Are types of comparisons important?

Syntactic priming may be a key mechanism underlying children’s learning of novel words. Havron et al. (2019) exposed French-speaking children (ages 3 to 4) to a speaker biased by the use of either familiar verbs or nouns presented in the same syntactic context. This influenced participants’ interpretations of ambiguous novel words presented in the same syntactic frame. In Experiment 1, we successfully replicated Havron et al. with 77 French-speaking adults, using a web-based eye-tracking paradigm. Experiment 2 adapted this paradigm to English: Repeated exposure to a syntactic structure induced 102 English-speaking adults to update their expectations about the meanings of novel words. Our results indicate participants adapted to the specific linguistic structure used, not just the speaker’s tendency to mention actions or objects. These findings support the role of rapid adaptation during word learning. Experiments in progress investigate whether the English paradigm yields successful learning in 3- to 5-year-old children.

Syntactic adaptation and word learning in French and English

The purpose of this study is to capture the structure of the interactive role-making process and introduce an integrated perspective to view actors’ creativity in the process. In particular, this study focuses on the characteristics of utterances in an acting training, which emphasizes paying attention to a partner and communicating. Statistical analyses are conducted on temporal changes, individual differences, and the granularity of utterances. The influence of attention toward partners on utterances is discussed, as well as the possible internal changes of actors, which reflects a perspective from which to view creative action as is referred to in the five A’s framework. In addition, by applying the theory of constructed emotion, the present study attempts to provide a possible demonstration of how truthful emotion is born under imaginary settings in acting.

Emotion Expression Captured by Utterances in Acting and Underpinning Internal Changes in Actors

Zipf’s Law of Abbreviation (ZLA) states that the more frequently a word is used, the shorter its length tends to be. This arises due to the optimal trade-off between competing pressures for accuracy and efficiency in communication, known as the Principle of Least Effort. Existing research has not focused on how individuals adapt their language use to remain optimal despite language change and whether social factors like common ground affect this. To investigate this, we replicated and extended the artificial language learning paradigm and communication game of Kanwal et al. (2017). We found participants were able to re-optimize their language use according to ZLA after a language change event, but this ability was hampered by common ground. This research identifies common ground as one potential cause for observed sub-optimalities in human languages and may have implications for understanding the dynamics of language change across communities where common ground varies.

Zipf's law of abbreviation and common ground: Past communicative success hampers the re-optimization of language

Language guides how we conceptualize the level of detail in categorical spatial relations (Bowerman, 1996; Choi, 2006). This study examined whether details in different dimensions (i.e., distance and direction) given in spatial descriptions vary as a function of spatial categories. We asked Turkish speaking participants (N=40) to describe the spatial relation between two geometric objects aligned either on the horizontal or the vertical axis. There were three relations (on/above, under/below, next to/near) of which the direction (left, right) and the distance (adjacent, 5 mm, 10 mm, 15 mm) varied equally. More detailed descriptions in terms of direction and distance were provided for ‘next to/near’ compared to ‘on/above’ and ‘under/below’ relations. These results suggest an asymmetry between vertical and horizontal axes. Sensitivity for detailed descriptions along the horizontal axis may relate to language-specific spatial categorization.

The asymmetry between descriptions of vertical and horizontal spatial relations

Infants have been shown to be particularly adept at extracting so-called non-adjacent dependencies (NADs) from auditory linguistic input (for a review, cf. Mueller, Milne, & Männel, 2018). Mueller, Friederici & Männel (2012) showed that 3-4 month-olds readily learn arbitrary associations between specific non-adjacent syllables from an artificial language (e.g. fikato) and related this ability to individual differences in pitch processing. Here, we addressed the question whether syllables are the building block NAD learning operates on, or whether smaller segmental units also allow for such structural generalizations (Nespor, Peña, & Mehler, 2003). In an oddball paradigm, 8-10-months-olds showed a differential ERP response to standard (e.g. bokäwu, liwase) and deviant (e.g. sogäle, kisüru) exemplars of an exclusively vowel-based NAD, and to an intensity manipulation. Implications of successful rule generalization from this smaller segmental unit and its relation to auditory sensory processing are discussed.

8-10 months old infants extract non-adjacent dependencies from segmental information

Children typically do not spontaneously recognize accented productions of known words until approximately 19 months. In 15-month-olds, however, this ability is correlated with vocabulary size. Vocabulary size may support cross-accent accommodation by decreasing the likelihood that a variant production is considered to be an unknown word. We simulated a cross-accent word identification experiment, with word tokens generated from a two-dimensional Gaussian space, and accented productions simulated via linear transforms. Simulated participants were Bayesian classifiers with large or small vocabularies. Our large vocabulary group accurately classified more accented tokens and were less likely to classify an accented token as an unknown word. Thus, one way a growing vocabulary size may foster cross-accent accommodation is through increasing infants’ propensity to fit accented variants to known words, rather than treating them as unknown words.

Modeling a direct role of vocabulary size in driving cross-accent word identification

A considerable amount of cognition is, in some way, social. Here we consider one example: our reliance upon experts for information about phenomenon within a particular domain. Novices and experts share some knowledge within a domain in question which is crucial for knowing when to seek expert advice and how to evaluate that advice. Just when we decide to relinquish our own knowledge or skill in deference to an expertise remains an important question for cognitive scientists. Here we explored some conditions that might influence when we choose to defer to experts. In two experiments (N=570) we demonstrated that participants have a greater willingness to defer when experts have provide descriptive information (i.e., facts) about their domain of expertise, than when they provide prescriptive advice about what we ought to do with those facts. We interpret these results from the perspective that individuals exercise greater vigilance when given prescriptive advice in the form of normative statements. From this perspective individuals feel threatened, and therefore are less deferential, when experts tell them what to do, rather than share knowledge with them.

What we ought to do is…’: Are we More Willing to Defer to Experts who Provide Descriptive Facts Than Those who Offer Prescriptive Advice?

Language acquisition is supported by an ability called phonological awareness, which allows children to become intentionally aware of phonological units. It is known that erroneous pronunciation appears during the formation of phonological awareness. To clarify children's internal processes during this formation, this research aims to examine the factors that correct an erroneous phonological generation process. To do this, we utilized the innate and experiential factors of the memory retrieval mechanism in the cognitive architecture ACT-R. Specifically, we performed simulations to examine the interaction tasks that contribute to the acquisition of phonological awareness. As a result, it was shown that repeating a single task causes incorrect convergence and that this convergence can be prevented by performing other kinds of learning between tasks. In the future, it will be necessary to examine learning between tasks that can be associated with real situations and to confirm the overall process of phonological awareness formation.

Simulating the factors that correct the erroneous process of phonological generation in Japanese

How many rhymes are possible in English? How much alliteration or assonance? This paper explores the space of common phonologically driven poetic devices. I investigate instances of these poetic devices across unique words in the dictionary, assuming perfect matching in relevant corresponding elements of word pairs. Documenting the frequencies of poetic device matches across words provides a baseline for understanding the diversity and use of these forms in the wild. It also allows us to describe the distribution of words across these patterns within each poetic device. We show that certain devices, such as alliteration and stress, support a relatively small number of unique phonological patterns, providing more consolidated and predictable resources than other devices. Forms like masculine and feminine rhyme, assonance, and consonance display relatively more sound patterns respectively, and unique words are distributed across them differently. These results are discussed in terms of their poetic and cognitive implications.

Vector Autoregression, Cross-Correlation, and Cross-Recurrence Quantification Analysis: A Case Study in Social Cohesion and Collective Action

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Verb learning in young children: Are types of comparisons important?

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