Bonjour-hi fellow Psychonomic Society Fellows and Members! Over 2,400 cognitive psychologists from around the world will descend on the city of Montréal for the Psychonomic Society 60^thAnnual Meeting the week commencing November 11^th, 2019.

Keynote

Around 60% of the citizens of Montreal and surrounding areas are bilingual in English and French. What a fitting venue for this year’s keynote speaker, Judith Kroll’s talk entitled, “Bilingualism Reveals the Networks that Shape the Mind and Brain.”

When: Thursday, November 14   |   7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Where: Palais des congrés de Montréal, Room 517D

The abstract of the keynote is:

The use of two or more languages is common in most places in the world. Yet, until recently, bilingualism was considered to be a complicating factor for language processing, cognition, and the brain. In the past 20 years, there has been an upsurge of research that examines the cognitive and neural bases of second language learning and bilingualism and the resulting consequences for cognition and for brain structure and function over the lifespan. Contrary to the view that bilingualism adds complication to the language system, the new research demonstrates that all languages that are known and used become part of the same language system. A critical insight is that bilingualism provides a tool for examining aspects of the cognitive architecture that are otherwise obscured by the skill associated with native language performance in monolingual speakers. In this talk I illustrate this approach and consider the consequences that bilingualism holds more generally for society when language learning and active bilingualism are encouraged.

Symposia

There are four symposia this year and the first two will be live streamed. Details are below.

Symposium I: What Memory Quirks, Hiccups and Odd Phenomena Tell Us

Who: Bennett L. Schwartz, Zehra F. Peynircioglu, Anne M.Cleary
When: Friday, November 15 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Where: Palais des congrés de Montréal, Room 517D

In this symposium, we consider some of the peculiar characteristics that challenge our understanding and force us to reconsider what we know about the nature of human memory. Just as perceptual illusions inform us further about perceptual processes, so too do such memory quirks push the existing boundaries and enrich our thinking about memory processes. Theory in memory research has developed to explain phenomena such as encoding and retrieval, recognition and recall, and semantic memory and episodic memory. However, many important memory phenomena do not fit into these neat categories. In particular, in this symposium, we consider the relation of metacognitive experience and memory. Metacognitive experience occurs regardless of its accuracy and thus is often subject to illusion, which, in turn, may have consequences for self-regulated learning. Speakers consider phenomena such as the déjà vu phenomenon, tip-of-the-tongues states, and the revelation effect, reporting new findings that address these current mysteries.

Symposium II: Re-organizing our Understanding of Semantic and Episodic Memory

Who: Louis Renoult,Signy Sheldon
When: Friday, November 15 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
Where: Palais des congrés de Montréal, Room 517D

Traditional models of memory describe semantic and episodic memory as independent entities within long-term memory, which has led to studying them as separate memory systems. Contemporary research has begun to document several scenarios in which semantic and episodic memory necessarily interact, ranging from learning new information, retrieving past memories and making effective decisions. These findings raise new questions about how long-term memory is organised and whether semantic and episodic memory are truly independent systems. In the current symposium, we will present developments on the scenarios under which semantic and episodic memory interact to reveal new insights into the underlying cognitive and neural architecture of long-term memory. The integration of these findings provides new theoretical models of the organisation of memory to direct future research.

Symposium III: Seeking Explicit Cognitive Processes in Animals

Who: Barbara A. Church, J. David Smith
When: Saturday, November 16 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Where: Palais des congrés de Montréal, Room 517D

Researchers have tended to interpret animals’ behavior unitarily, collapsing their processes/understandings to a single level or learning system. Yet theories distinguishing different types of learning and memory have permeated and transformed human cognitive science. Less is known about how these differentiations map to cross-species research. The symposium considers how researchers can draw meaningful distinctions among the learning, memory, monitoring, and conceptual systems that animals bring to different tasks (e.g., implicit-explicit; procedural-declarative; unconscious-aware, stimulus-bound or abstract-symbolic). Topics include: animal metacognition’s relation to explicit cognition, species continuities in hippocampal memory, animals’ implicit/explicit categorization, detecting explicit cognition in animals, the role of symbolic representation in fostering explicit cognition, and paradigms of conscious cognition in humans/nonhumans. We consider the nature of dissociative paradigms, the representational and awareness character of explicit cognition, and its evolution. The symposium will synergize cognitive and comparative psychology and build bridges to neuroscience.

Symposium IV: Beyond a Single Participant: Interactive Social Cognition in Dyads and Groups

Who: Jelena Ristic
When: Saturday, November 16 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
Where: Palais des congrés de Montréal, Room 517D

So far, the study of social cognition has mainly focused on assessing performance in single participants, whose social cognitive processes and behaviors were elicited by carefully controlled computerized displays. This approach is rapidly changing, with researchers beginning to study how cognitions and actions arise in the presence of other humans. How can the study of social cognition be extended from passive single participants to interactive real-life settings? How does social cognition work in group and multi-agent contexts? What are the challenges and experimental methods of this new interactive approach? Four speakers will present their cutting-edge work showcasing how cognitions, social functions, and actions are modulated by interactions within dyads and groups. Their approaches and data highlight an exciting future for the emerging field of interactive social cognition.

Missing the meeting?

If you are unable to attend the meeting, you’ll be missed, but you don’t have to miss out. You can stay informed and connected by:

• Following us on Twitter and filtering your stream by using the hashtag #psynom19.
• Watching the live stream of the keynote address and two symposia. More details are available here and be sure to register.
• Checking your email for daily synopses about talks and posters.

Twitternome takeover of the Psychonomic Society Twittter account 

What’s a Twitternome?

Not this:

Twitternomes are psychonomes who have signed up to tweet about the conference in real time and write daily synopses. The synopses will be emailed to the membership the following morning. They will be using the Psychonomic Society Twitter account (@Psychonomic_Soc) and using the hashtag #psynom19 to share their thoughts.

We are pleased to introduce this year’s Twitternomes:

• Kris Bowman
• Amber Gillenwaters
• Clair Hong
• Yipei Lo
• Gia Macias
• Raunak Pillai
• Michelle Rivers
• Louisa Talipski

Digital details

We encourage everyone to use the hashtag #psynom19 to share observations, experiences, ideas, etc.

Download the app so you have 24/7 access to the meeting’s activities or download the pdf of the program.

Come visit the Psychonomic Society’s Digital Content team at our poster to hear about the Society’s engagement on digital and social media. We want to hear your ideas on how to best maximize our efforts for the membership. We’ll be at each poster session:

• Session 1: Thursday, November 14 from 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
• Session 2: Friday, November 15 from 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
• Session 3: Friday, November 15 from 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
• Session 4: Saturday, November 16 from 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
• Session 5: Saturday, November 16 from 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

The weather forecast looks to be just above freezing, so bundle up, get your poutine order ready, remember to save space in your suitcase for maple syrup, and most importantly, enjoy the science!