Netherlands

Extensive research from both sensorimotor and perceptual domains has shown that people make decisions by combining prior and current information according to their relative uncertainties, following Bayesian statistics predictions. However, less is known about visual search, a task that requires people to determine the presence/absence of a search target (T) amongst distractors (Ls). Here, we examined decision-making behavior in a visual search task which manipulated the target prevalence rate (prior: 25% or 50%) and the portion of the display that was visible (sensory information: 0%, 30%, or 60%). Participants’ (N=57) decision-making behavior qualitatively reflected Bayesian predictions, relying more on the information that was less uncertain. When no items were visible, participants were highly accurate in making present/absent decisions based on the prevalence rate learned through feedback. However, when provided sensory information, participants’ decision-making was more strongly influenced by visibility. Thus, reliance on sensory information may dominate priors in visual search.

**Authors:**

Mathi Manavalan: University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Vanessa G Lee: University of Minnesota; Iris Vilares: University of Minnesota

CogSci 2024

Bayesian-like Decision-Making Behavior in Visual Search

### 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/).


CogSci 2021

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.

poster

The 46th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society was an in-person meeting held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands at the Postillion Hotel & Conference Centre.

**ON-DEMAND PROGRAM ACCESS AFTER THE CONFERENCE**<br>
Recordings of the invited program are now available. You can access them by clicking on the 'Schedule' icon on the left. Select view by week and navigate to the day and time slot of the recording you wish to view. Click on the time slot to access the recording.

Recordings available (click on each recording to view):

**Thursday, July 25**<br>
0900: [Keynote Speaker Morgan Barense on Enhancing real-world event memory](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions/17997/lecture/99084-dynamics-between-minds-and-the-environment)<br>
1000: [Gleitman Award Winner Isabelle Dautriche on Language Foundations: Insights from acquisition, communication, cognition, and more](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions/18000/lecture/99085-gleitman-talk)<br>
1415: [Invited Symposium: Dynamics between minds and the environment](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions?eventSessionId=18016&searchGroup=lecture)<br>
1700: [Rumelhart Prize Presentation Speaker Alison Gopnik on Exploit, explore, empower: Three ages and three intelligences](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions/18028/lecture/99161-rp1-rumelhart-prize-presentation)<br>

**Friday, July 26**<br>
0900: [C.L. de Carvalho-Heineken Prize Keynote Speaker Kia Nobre on Focusing in memory](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions/18035/lecture/99162-hp1-c-l-de-carvalho-heineken-prize-keynote-address)<br>
1030: [Rumelhart Symposium: Childhood as exploration](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions/18038/lecture/100346-childhood-as-exploration)<br>
1415: [Elman Prize Symposium](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions?eventSessionId=18053&searchGroup=lecture)<br>
1600: [Invited Symposium: Dynamics between minds](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions?eventSessionId=18065&searchGroup=lecture)<br>
1745: [Keynote Speaker Andrea E. Martin on Neural dynamics encode the structure and statistics of language](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions/18077/lecture/99271-neural-dynamics-encode-the-structure-and-statistics-of-language)<br>

**Saturday, July 27**<br>
0900: [Keynote Speaker Gregor Schöner on How higher cognition emerges from the dynamics of strongly interacting neural populations](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions/18083/lecture/99273-dynamics-within-the-mind)<br>
1000: [Glushko Talks](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions?eventSessionId=18086&searchGroup=lecture)<br>
1500: [Invited Symposium: Dynamics within minds](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions?eventSessionId=18100&searchGroup=lecture)<br>


#### **CogSci 2024 Program Book**
<div style="position:relative;padding-top:0;width:900px;height:500px;"><iframe style="position:absolute;border:none;width:100%;height:100%;left:0;top:0;" src="https://online.fliphtml5.com/ebtyf/cble/"  seamless="seamless" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" ></iframe></div>


**The Program Book can be downloaded [here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yRVp1cBqRnAbdYi4GXWV_pZeyWNsRquv/view?usp=sharing).**

#### **Letter from the President**

Welcome to the 2024 Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society in Rotterdam! CogSci 2024 brings together a large community of cognitive scientists who have traveled here from around the world, as well as a smaller group of remote presenters. I would like to extend an especially warm welcome to our first-time CogSci meeting attendees, and hope that 
their experience inspires them to join our future meetings for many years to come.

I want to thank this year’s conference co-chairs, Larissa K Samuelson, Stefan Frank, Mariya Toneva, Allyson Mackey, and Eliot Hazeltine, for putting together an amazing series of invited talks and symposia around the theme of Dynamics of Cognition. The co-chairs also deserve credit for handling a record-breaking number of submissions and producing a truly exciting conference program 

Beyond the invited talks and symposia dedicated to this year’s conference theme, I would like to highlight the presentations and events honoring the 
Rumelhart, Elman, Gleitman and C .L . de Carvalho Heineken prize winners, including the Rumelhart reception on Thursday. As you may know, we are recording all of the invited talks and symposia, and all prize-winners’ talks, and will be making this content available after the conference. 

The Cognitive Science Society relies on the volunteer efforts of our Governing Board members who work on matters related to our membership; conference policies; diversity and inclusion, international, and outreach initiatives; prizes and much more. We welcome interest from Society members who would like to become more involved in what we do. The 
Society is deeply grateful to Rick Dale and Andrea Bender, who serve as editors of the two Society journals, Cognitive Science and Topics in Cognitive Science respectively. We especially acknowledge our editors’ generosity in donating their stipends each year to D&I and outreach efforts. 

This year’s Annual Meeting depends critically on the support of Marischal De Armond and his team at Podium Conference Specialists: Sharon Zwack, Cendrine De Vis, Sarah-Kate Burke, and Rachel Waller worked tirelessly to secure the venue and handled a multitude of logistical and organizational issues, from arranging coffee breaks and receptions to making sure that a huge number of posters fits comfortably into the available space. Finally, and importantly, I would like to acknowledge the Cognitive Science Society Executive Officer, Erica Wojcik, for managing the complex and ever expanding sphere of our Society’s activities.

I hope you enjoy this year’s meeting and the many different opportunities to engage with the vibrant community of cognitive scientists gathered here. I also hope you get a chance to explore the great city of Rotterdam with its many attractions, museums, restaurants and scenic views. If you’d like to talk more about our Society, or simply want to say hello, please stop by!

![](https://assets.underline.io/markdown_image/1/image/3c66d0e21fff30e204df1138ffd15173.jpeg)

**Anna Papafragou**  
President, Cognitive Science 
Society 2023-2024

**CODE OF CONDUCT**<br>
By attending the CogSci 2024 Conference, you are required to adhere to the society’s [Code of Conduct](https://drive.google.com/file/d/16-6KkptF0Gn3ZYGJDlpqpwTdImw45Ng0/view?usp=drive_link).

**ABOUT THE COGNITIVE SCIENCE SOCIETY**<br>
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.
<br><br>

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Please register!

The 46th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society presents the latest research across cognitive science and highlights the theme of Cognition in Context.

Previous research has effectively employed the fast-paced action puzzle video-game Tetris for understanding the acquisition of extreme expertise in complex, dynamic environments. A common approach when contrasting expert to novice performance has been the dissection their interactions with the environment into disjunct sub-tasks – such as Reaction Time (RT), measured by the input latency to new events on screen. The crucial, underlying assumption to this paradigm is task consistency at all levels of expertise. Using data collected from participants of the Tetris World Championship 2019 and novices in lab, we show that this assumption does not hold. While for novices the RT task type remains the same across all conditions, for experts - depending on environmental parameters - the nature of the RT task undergoes a shift and under specific conditions does not represent a reaction time task anymore. Thus, expert vs. novice sub-task comparison may not be a valid paradigm.

**Authors:**

Alexander Lutsevich: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

"Apples to Oranges" - Evaluating Reaction Time measures as paradigm to contrast expert vs. novice performance in complex, dynamic task environments.

Everyday tasks demand attentional resources to perceive, process, and respond to important information. Attempting to complete multiple tasks simultaneously, that is, multitasking, necessarily requires more resources than completing either task alone. Allocating common resources among two or more difficult tasks will lead to competition and result in performance deficits to one or more of the to-be-completed tasks. Multiple resource theory suggests separate pools for perceiving (aural, visual, tactile), processing (verbal, spatial), and responding (vocal, manual), but a common overarching resource pool still exists and is heavily taxed for the management of multiple ongoing tasks. We use the combination of neural activity and performance to estimate the degree to which the demands of a visual-spatial-manual (VSM) task impedes the performance of an auditory-verbal-vocal (AVV) task, where each taxes independent pools of attentional resources. We found AVV performance decreased when paired with a more difficult VSM task. Using components from group-level event related potentials (ERPs), we draw conclusions to estimate how and why cross-modal task performance changes, and diagnose resource bottlenecks and limitations. Specifically, we find auditory evoked potentials, P300, and Reorienting Negativity serve as fruitful indicators of not only high or low cross-modal load, but are predictive of (in)correct trial performance. Further, we discuss how these indicators provide insight to the underlying mechanisms driving misses, and whether crossmodal bottlenecks may occur at the perceptual, cognitive, or response stage.

**Authors:**

Elizabeth Fox: Air Force Research Laboratory; Margaret Ugolini: BAE Systems, Inc., Space & Mission Systems; Ashley D Cook: Air Force Research Laboratory; Gregory Bowers: BAE Systems, Inc., Space & Mission Systems

Neural evidence of visual-spatial influence on aural-verbal processes

The impact of visual attention on choice processes has been established over the last decades. Several studies are consistent with the view that visual attention increases the subjective value of the attended option. However, a few computational models have been proposed to investigate how attention and subjective values interact in multi-attribute choices. Moreover, these models disagree in terms of whether value is modulated by attention additively or multiplicatively. The additive theory states that the boost up subjective value depends only on gaze duration, and gaze on an option magnifies the subjective value at a constant rate. On the other hand, the multiplicative theory assumes that the magnitude of the attention-driven boost is value-dependent, and gazing at a high-value option yields a more significant boost in subjective value. Although there is a long debate on these two theories, recent studies have shown that both additive and multiplicative interactions between subjective value and gaze time may be essential for explaining empirical data and have suggested hybrid theories. For multi-attribute decisions, however, extant attentional models only consider the multiplicative interaction. This work introduces a new computational framework to account for attention in multi-attribute decisions. Our model assumes a hybrid attentional mechanism for the interaction between subjective values and gaze duration. We have tested the model on four datasets from various domains (e.g., clothing/brand, food/nutrition, food bundle, and money risk tasks). The results from the nested model comparison show that the proposed hybrid model works better than the other computational models.

**Authors:**

Amir Hosein Hadian Rasanan: Basel University; Sebastian Gluth: University of Hamburg; Jörg Rieskamp: University of Basel

A Computational Framework to Account for Attention in Multi-attribute Decisions

This study explores the impact of a single-session meditation intervention on cognitive performance and brain wave responses in university students (~19 years) with varying physical activity levels. In a fast-paced academic environment, understanding factors influencing cognitive health is crucial for overall well-being. Lifestyle components, including sports engagement, stress, sleep, loneliness, and anxiety, were examined using a quasi-experimental design. Participants underwent pre-and-post cognitive tests focusing on attention and working memory with simultaneous brain activity measurement. Experimental groups practiced guided meditation, while controls listened to meditation-benefits audio. Results indicate improved cognitive performance in students from no-sports group post-meditation and control, while sports group exhibited faster initial task responses. Brain wave data aligned with cognitive performance, revealing a relaxed focus state post-meditation. This provides valuable data from student populations, supporting the development of interventions for a healthier learning environment and validating portable EEG devices for potential use in neurofeedback and cognitive neuroscience research.

**Authors:**

Shriya Parekh: FLAME University ; shruti goyal: FLAME University; Anuradha Batabyal: FLAME University

Cognitive Performance in Students: Focus on Lifestyle Factors, Brain Activity & Meditation Intervention

Background: Research on adults with ADHD has traditionally emphasized emotion-independent cognitive processes. However, many adults with ADHD manifest emotion regulation impairments. Objective: to examine adults ADHD efficiency to regulate arousal, positive, and negative emotions using three emotion regulations strategies (observe, reappraise, and suppress). Method: college students with clinical ADHD symptoms (n = 68) and students with non-clinical ADHD symptoms (n = 69) were exposed to either neutral or negative IAPS image sets. Participants report their emotions while employing the three abovementioned emotion regulation strategies. Results: The participants with clinical ADHD symptoms exhibited heightened arousal to negative IAPS set during suppression compared to their counterparts. Additionally, independently of the strategy used, they experienced more intense negative emotions and less intense positive emotions than those with non-clinical ADHD symptoms. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the use of suppression as an emotion regulation strategy should be discourage among individuals with ADHD.

**Authors:**

Jorge A Flores: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; J I Amaro-Fuenzalida: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Isabella Fioravante: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Main author

Teaching plays a crucial role in human learning, from formal educational environments to 
mentorship scenarios, yet its cognitive underpinnings remain underexplored. We focus on the distinction between teaching by reasoning using Theory of Mind (i.e., explicitly inferring what a learner knows) and teaching using heuristics (i.e., relying on a simple rule). We use a graph-navigation task where a learner agent with limited knowledge attempts to navigate through the most rewarding trajectory, with guidance from a human teacher. Our findings reveal that teachers utilize a blend of learner-specific strategies and general heuristics. We model learner-specific strategies using Bayesian Theory of Mind (Baker, Saxe, & Tenenbaum, 2009) and demonstrate that the most effective teachers incorporate this strategy. Intriguingly, we show that teaching strategies can be altered without explicit feedback. This suggests that subtle changes in the environment may significantly alter teaching approaches, highlighting the importance of understanding the cognitive processes behind teaching.

**Authors:**

Sevan Khoy Harootonian: Princeton University; Yael Niv: Princeton University; Tom Griffiths: Princeton University ; Mark K Ho: Stevens Institute of Technology

Modeling Cognitive Strategies in Teaching: Integrating Theory of Mind and Heuristics

Humans can coordinate their behavior with others through interaction. However, not all pairs coordinate. From the perspective of predictive processing, different social interaction patterns can be explained by the diversity of individuals’ belief strength. To investigate the relationship between coordination and belief strength, we designed an interaction experiment using Simon Game, in which participants memorize the order of color sequences. Results from the 23-pair adult experiment showed that there was diversity in the degree of coordination within pairs and in the strength of belief between individuals. Our analysis supported the hypothesis that belief strength explains the success or failure of coordination: coordination fails when both individuals in a pair have stronger beliefs, but coordination can be established by having one person be the leader and the other the follower when beliefs are not too strong. Our findings suggest that predictive processing theory can be applied to social interaction situations.

**Authors:**

Seiya Nakata: International Research Center for Neurointelligence, The University of Tokyo; Yukie Nagai: The University of Tokyo

Which pairs coordinate and which do not?

Interleaving, as opposed to blocking, information improves learning of categories, such as artists' painting styles. The current study examined whether presentation schedules also impact memory for specific items. 179 participants studied paintings from 12 different artists on either a blocked or interleaved schedule. In Study 1 (N = 84), participants were then asked to either identify the artists of a series of paintings (style recognition task) or determine whether they had previously seen a specific painting (item recognition task). In Study 2 (N = 93), participants completed both tasks. Results showed that the interleaved schedule led to better learning of the painting styles, but did not impact item memory. However, when participants had to recognize the style and the painting for an artist on the interleaved schedule, they incorrectly thought that they had previously seen the painting. This finding illustrates the dynamic relationship between item memory and category learning.

**Authors:**

Ezgi Melisa Yüksel: University of Wisconsin-Madison; Melina Lauryn Knabe: University of Wisconsin-Madison; C. Shawn Green: University of Wisconsin-Madison; Haley Vlach: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Interleaving Benefits Category Learning But Not Item Memory

Navigating social situations is complex due to others' hidden intentions and evolving strategies, requiring learning from past experiences. Anxiety complicates adaptation to uncertainty, especially in non-social settings. However, research on the anxiety's impact on learning within social uncertainty remains scarce. In a preregistered study (N = 190), we investigated whether individuals with higher trait anxiety struggled to adjust learning rates in a social context with stable or volatile outcomes utilizing various learning models (e.g., additive, multiplicative, betrayal). Participants engaged in a modified trust game with stable and volatile players, alongside a non-social task with slot machines. Participants showed higher learning rates in social than non-social contexts, with notably elevated social learning rates in individuals with heightened fear of negative evaluation (FNE)—a crucial trait linked to anxiety, especially social anxiety. This suggests individuals with increased FNE might be more sensitive to learning under social uncertainty.

**Authors:**

Selin Topel: Leiden University; Ili Ma: Leiden University; Henk van Steenbergen: Leiden University; Anna C. K. van Duijvenvoorde: Leiden University; Ellen de Bruijn: Leiden University

The role of anxiety in learning under uncertainty in social and non-social contexts

When people plan, they often do so in the face of uncertainty. However, little is known about how uncertainty affects planning. To study these effects, we used a reward gathering task in which the we varied the reliability of announced rewards varied from certain to completely random. We quantitatively compared several planning models. We found that participants used a suboptimal approach, failing to directly incorporate stochasticity into their planning. Instead, they "compensated" for uncertainty by decreasing their planning effort as stochasticity increased. First-move response time correspondingly decreased with increasing stochasticity. Our findings generalized to a manipulation of transition uncertainty. Together, these findings open the door to a more comprehensive and computationally grounded understanding of the role of stochasticity in planning.

**Authors:**

Jordan Lei: New York University; Wei Ji Ma: New York University

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