CFP: Attention & Conscious Perception

TOPIC
Does attention alter conscious perception? For example, does visually attending to an object make it look bigger, brighter, or otherwise alter the properties that it looks to have? Psychologists have been debating these questions at least since the 19th Century when William James and Gustav Fechner staked out opposing answers. Over the past decade, interest in this debate has renewed as psychologists and neuroscientists have developed new experimental methods to address these questions, and philosophers have leaned on their results to draw conclusions about the nature of attention, consciousness, and perception. This workshop aims to advance our understanding of these issues by bringing together an interdisciplinary group of researchers to discuss their approaches and findings.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
Jacob Beck, Department of Philosophy, York University
Ned Block, Department of Philosophy, New York University
Marisa Carrasco, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, New York University
Dirk Kerzel, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva
Keith Schneider, Department of Biology and Centre for Vision Research, York University
James Stazicker, Department of Philosophy, Reading University
Wayne Wu, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Melon University

CALL FOR PAPERS/ABSTRACTS
Up to two additional speaking slots are reserved for young scholars (graduate students or those who are within five years of receiving their Ph.D.), to be filled on a competitive basis. Authors of selected submissions will have their travel costs reimbursed up to CA $1,000. Philosophers who are young scholars are asked to submit a paper not to exceed 3,000 words. Psychologists, neuroscientists, and other scientists who are young scholars are asked to submit an extended abstract not to exceed 1,500 words. Submissions should be single-spaced, blinded, and emailed to [email protected] with the subject line “Workshop Submission.” PDFs preferred. Please include an abstract of no more than 150 words. Submissions will be evaluated on the basis of their quality and relevance to the workshop topic. Deadline for Submissions: February 15, 2015. Every effort will be made to notify authors of the outcome of the review process by early March.

REGISTRATION
While registration for the workshop is free, space is limited.  If you are interested in attending, please email [email protected].