Canada

**Abstract:**

Early language learning relies on statistical regularities that exist across timescales in infants’ lives. Two types of these statistical regularities are the routine activities that make up their day, such as mealtime and play, and the real-time repeated behaviors that make up the moment-by-moment dynamics of those routines. These two types of regularities are different in nature and are embedded at two different temporal scales, which led to divergent research in the literature – those who collect long-form recordings and observations of at-home behavior and those who use eye trackers and micro-level analyses to quantify real-time behavior in laboratories. The goal of present paper is to jointly examine and connect the statistical regularities at these two timescales. Towards this goal, we brought wearable eye trackers to English- and Spanish-speaking families’ homes to record parent and toddler visual attention during daily routines. We transcribed parent speech during object play and mealtime and coded toddler visual attention during naming moments. We found that parents and toddlers jointly interacted with the unique vocabularies of the two activities. Although naming and attention were more coordinated during object play, mealtime still afforded opportunities for high-quality naming moments. Our results lay the building blocks for connecting these two lines of research and demonstrate the feasibility of at-home data collection with eye trackers.

**List of authors and affiliations:**

Sara E Schroer: UT Austin; Ryan E Peters: Duolingo; Alyssa Yarbrough: UT Austin; Chen Yu: University of Texas at Austin

CogSci 2022

Visual attention and language exposure during everyday activities: an at-home study of early word learning using wearable eye trackers

poster

Join us for CogSci2022! Our 44th Annual Conference will be centered around the theme of diversity, with an accompanying range of keynotes and invited speakers who themselves highlight the diversity of our field. Our three symposia are Cognition across Diverse Populations, Cognition within Diverse Societies, and Global Challenges for Cognitive Science. The conference is being offered in a fully hybrid environment for onsite and online attendees.
 
 [**The Program at a Glance can be found here**](https://cognitivesciencesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cogsci-2022-PAAG-Detailed-July-12final-1.pdf)
 [**The Detailed Program can be found here**](https://cognitivesciencesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DeArmond-CogSci2022-program-v113-final.pdf)

This conference requires a registration to attend. Please use the link below to secure your ticket. The website will be available to all registered attendees on July 25th. 

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The 44th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society highlighted research on the theme Cognitive Diversity in addition to the full breadth and diversity of research topics offered by the society’s membership. 





**Abstract:**

Laboratory experiments have shown that the first causal explanation people hear “imprints” on the mind. New causal explanations become combined with the first, rather than replace it. The COVID-19 pandemic presented a real-world version of these experiments. The initial causal model communicated by scientific publications focused on how the virus spread via contact with surfaces. However, by July 2020 the science was clearly showing that aerosol transmission was more important, yet there has still been a greater focus on cleaning surfaces than ventilation since then. The current studies show how the surface model and aerosol model coexist in people’s minds, are associated with risk perceptions, and drives preferences for pandemic control strategies. In addition, the studies shows that a tutorial based on a deeper explanation of aerosol transmission focused on the density of virus particles in the air helps causal model updating.

**List of authors and affiliations:**

Micah Goldwater: University of Sydney

Causal imprinting in the pandemic: the persistence of the surface-model of Sars CoV2 transmission

**Abstract:**

Research has shown that visual diagrams facilitate people’s understanding of and communication about  abstract relations. In addition, the distinction between causal versus associative relations is important in human reasoning However, previous research has not directly compared how humans represent these two types of relations through visual diagrams. The current study examined whether causal and associative relations differ with respect to how people cognitively represent and interpret them in a spatial context using diagrams. We found that participants perceived relatedness of causal relationships to be stronger than that of associative relationships. This difference was reflected in their drawing of diagrams. Participants connected variables that shared a causal relationship with a shorter line than they did with variables that shared an associative relationship. The results shed light on the difference between causal and associative relations, and suggest new directions for future research to explore the spatial component of causal reasoning.

**List of authors and affiliations:**

Icy(Yunyi) Zhang: University of California, Los Angeles; Shuhao Fu: UCLA; Alice(Zhongrui) Xu: University of California, Los Angeles; Hongjing Lu: UCLA

Causal versus Associative Relations: Do Humans Perceive and Represent Them Differently?

**Abstract:**

Bayesian Causal Inference (BCI) models multisensory perception as inference about two causal structures: either the sensory data stems from several separate causes or from a common cause. If the sensory evidence supports a common cause, the multimodal sensory input is integrated into a single percept. BCI has been applied to the rubber hand illusion, in which the subject integrates tactile stimulation with seen brush strokes on a rubber hand and experiences said hand as their own. A model of body ownership is relevant for virtual reality design, especially for strengthening avatar embodiment. In previous work, we have criticized the applied BCI model for its extraordinarily wide priors. Here we investigate whether the priors can be narrowed by increasing the sensory evidence. We try to accomplish this by extending the model across time. Preliminary results look encouraging, but further research, especially psychophysical experiments to inform the parameter choices, is needed.

**List of authors and affiliations:**

Moritz Schubert: Philipps University of Marburg; Dominik M Endres: Philipps-Universitaet

Extending the Bayesian Causal Inference of Body Ownership Modell Across Time

**Abstract:**

When judging the relative difficulty of impossible actions within the context of a magical world like that of Harry Potter, individuals honor real-world causal principles (e.g., assuming that heavier objects would be harder to levitate than lighter ones even though levitation itself is impossible; Shtulman & Morgan, 2017). We examined whether this effect persists when events are presented outside of this context. U.S. (Studies 1 and 2) and Chinese (Study 2) adults were asked to rate the relative difficulty of two impossible events that varied according to an irrelevant causal principle in one of three contexts: present science, future science, or magical. Though Chinese and U.S. adults honored irrelevant causal principles to a similar degree across the three contexts, Chinese adults’ confidence in their judgments varied by context. Additionally, individual differences in cognitive reflection (U.S.) and fantasy engagement (Chinese) related to judgments. Findings indicate that adults honor irrelevant causal constraints when reasoning about the impossible across multiple contexts, though subtle differences exist at both the cultural and individual level.

**List of authors and affiliations:**

Christine Coughlin: University of Texas at Austin; Jenny Nissel: University of Texas at Austin; Kelsey A. Kelley: The University of Texas at Austin; Jennifer M Clegg: Texas State University; Hui Li: Central China Normal University; Jacqueline Woolley: University of Texas at Austin

Cross-Cultural Sensitivity to Context when Reasoning about the Impossible

**Abstract:**

An outstanding issue in cognitive science is whether the computational principles that apply to causal reasoning also guide the way that participants encode the relations among events in memory. The outcome density effect is a behavioral pattern in causal reasoning in which participants’ causal ratings linearly decrease as the base rate of the effect also decreases, even while contingency remains 0. It is key evidence for Bayesian models of causal reasoning as it reflects decreasing uncertainty. We queried whether it may also, separately, affect memory for events. We measured both recall and causal ratings in a causal learning task to test whether the outcome density manipulation affects causal judgment, recall, or both. We replicated the outcome density effect on causal judgment, lending support to Bayesian models, but found that memory instead exhibited a U-shaped relationship with base rate, and therefore, causal judgment and memory had divergent signatures.

**List of authors and affiliations:**

Eli Stark Elster: UC Davis; Anna Leshinskaya: UC Davis; Charan Ranganath: University of California, Davis

Patterns of Causal Judgements Diverge from Patterns of Recall: a Test of the Outcome Density Effect

**Abstract:**

Children are capable of using the causal properties of objects to determine category membership. Can they also recognize causal system categories, or abstract patterns of causation that apply across phenomena (Rottman et al., 2012)? For example, do children recognize that one causal chain (e.g. the transmission of salmonella across species) shares the same underlying structure as a chain in another domain (e.g. heat transfer between objects)? If so, recognizing that superficially distinct events share the same underlying causal system may facilitate knowledge transfer. In Study 1, 6- to 7-year-olds and adults, but not 4 to 5-year-olds, are capable of identifying simple machines that share the same causal structure. In ongoing work, we control for low-level perceptual similarities and explore whether adults and children recognize similar causal structures among unique mechanical systems. We also consider whether their recognition of causal systems can be used to support knowledge transfer.

**List of authors and affiliations:**

Alexandra Rett: UC San Diego; Micah Goldwater: University of Sydney; Caren M. Walker: University of California San Diego

Children’s Recognition of Shared Causal Structure in Mechanical Systems

**Abstract:**

An accurate mental model of the partner's behavior is fundamental for efficient cooperation. The theory of mind demonstrates that humans are able to create such a model from repeated interactions with their human partners. However, it is an open question whether humans are also willing and capable of taking the perspective of artificial agents and creating similar mental models of agent behavior. We developed a repeated cooperative task that allows us to investigate the process that guides the formation of a specific partner model by repeatedly asking for a prediction of an artificial agent's actions. We found that humans learn to anticipate the artificial partners' behavior if it is goal-directed. An inability to explicitly explain the partner's behavior suggests that this is an implicit learning process. The role of the acquisition of task knowledge in the model of the other agent's behavior is discussed.

**List of authors and affiliations:**

Fritz Becker: Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien; Juergen Buder: Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien; Markus Huff: Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien

Thinking into a machine's mind - Anticipation of an agent's behavior in a cooperative game

**Abstract:**

Language studies in Asperger Syndrome (AS) report problems in intention interpretation, figurative language and pragmatic abilities. Those abilities require to differentiate constructional and contextual meaning. Previous research use a functional framework to look for literal and figurative language processes. Method. We use Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and Steen's five steps analysis to compare metaphorical expression frequencies in AS and Typical Development (TD) from an experiential-based perspective. We documented the conceptual metaphors (A is B form), and the metaphor's types: Structural, Orientational, and Ontological. We applied three tasks to elicit speech: (a) conversation task, (b) narration task, and (c) description task. Results. Our Mexico City’s data indicates that AS children are able to produce common metaphorical expressions at the same levels as TD children, at equal ages in Spanish. We found both populations use intentional and contextualized metaphor expressions, and the metaphors are mostly conventionalized expressions previously not considered.

**List of authors and affiliations:**

Josué Elías Benavides Gómez: Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia; Avril Nuche Jannette Nuche Bricaire: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Felipe Cruz Pérez: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Frequencies of Metaphorical Expressions in Asperger Syndrome and Typical Development

**Abstract:**

Prior work suggests children understand how speech conveys information and influences others’ minds. Although these studies have focused on communication under ideal conditions, auditory noise plagues the real world, often corrupting the transmission of information. The current study examines how children reason about the impact of auditory noise on communication. Children (N=72, Age:3;0-5;11) watched scenarios where a teacher tells a learner about two toys, but loud auditory noise masks one of the explanations. When asked which toy the learner wants to hear about again, children were more likely to select the noise-masked toy when the learner knew about neither toy (No Knowledge) than when he already knew about the masked toy (Partial Knowledge). However, their preference for the masked toy also increased with age in both conditions. Overall, these results demonstrate children's developing understanding of when and how communication affects listeners' knowledge and information-seeking behaviors.

**List of authors and affiliations:**

Aaron Chuey: Stanford University; Rondeline M. Williams: Stanford University; Michael C. Frank: Stanford University; Hyowon Gweon: Stanford University

Young children's reasoning about the epistemic consequences of auditory noise

**Abstract:**

Apperly and Butterfill (2009) argue that adult theory of mind (ToM) requires two parallel systems. One system, efficient but inflexible, enables rapid judgements by operating without explicit modeling of beliefs, while a separate, effortful system, enables richer predictions over more complex belief encodings. Here, we agree with their qualitative distinction but propose a different model: a single process, but with effortful re-representation leading to two phases of ToM reasoning. Efficient reasoning, in our view, occurs over representations that include actions, but not necessarily explicit belief states. Effortful reasoning, then, involves re-representation of these initial encodings in order to handle errors, resolve real-world conflicts, and fully account for others’ belief states. We present an implemented computational model, based in memory retrieval and structural alignment, that illustrates our approach.

**List of authors and affiliations:**

Irina Rabkina: Occidental College; Clifton James McFate: Elemental Cognition

Visual attention and language exposure during everyday activities: an at-home study of early word learning using wearable eye trackers

Next from CogSci 2022

Causal imprinting in the pandemic: the persistence of the surface-model of Sars CoV2 transmission

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