The Future of Social Cognition: Paradigms, Concepts and Experiments

Since the publication of Premack and Woodruff’s classic paper introducing the notion of a ‘theory of mind’ (Premack & Woodruff 1978), interdisciplinary research in social cognition has witnessed the development of theory-theory, simulation theory, hybrid approaches, and most recently interactionist and perceptual accounts of other minds. The challenges that these various approaches present for each other and for research in social cognition range from adequately defining central concepts to designing experimental paradigms for testing empirical hypotheses. But is there any approach that promises to dominate future interdisciplinary research in social cognition? Is social cognition witnessing a gradual paradigm shift where hitherto grounding notions such as ‘theory of mind’ are no longer viewed as explanatorily necessary? Or have we simply lost our way in attempting to devise adequate experimental setups that could sway the debate in favour of one or another contending account? The conference proposes to bring together leading researchers in the field for debating on the future of research in social cognition. We aim to organise the discussion along the following two interconnected sections: 1) Theoretical discussion of central concepts and paradigm shifts and 2) Core experimental paradigms for interdisciplinary research in social cognition.  

Scientific organization:

Nivedita Gangopadhyay and Albert Newen (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)  

Confirmed speakers:

Colin Allen (Indiana University)
Ian Apperly (University of Birmingham)
Peter Carruthers (University of Maryland)
Hanne De Jaegher (University of the Basque Country)
Anika Fiebich (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
Shaun Gallagher (University of Memphis)
Nivedita Gangopadhyay (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
Dan Hutto (University of Wollongong)
Albert Newen (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
Shaun Nichols (University of Arizona)
Søren Overgaard (University of Copenhagen)
Josef Perner (University of Salzburg)
Hannes Rakoczy (University of Göttingen)
Somogy Varga (University of Memphis)
Kai Vogeley (University of Cologne)  

Information for travel to Bochum: The closest international airport is Düsseldorf (only 30 min. by train to Bochum central station). The main European airport Frankfurt may be an option for long-distance international flights (approx. 2 hours by train to Bochum central station by the fast ICE train).  

To register please send an email to [email protected] . Please include your institutional affiliation when registering. There is no registration fee.