There is a tendency in cognitive science to avoid the development of theories that attempt large scale integration of domains which appear to be closely related (Gigerenzer, 2010; Dale, Fusaroli, Duran, and Richardson 2013). Natural language semantics has for many years been driven by an integrative theoretical approach, dynamic semantics, whose main slogan is "meaning as transitions between contexts", where the formal notion of context is to be construed as cognitive states. Nonetheless, there is on the whole little contact with empirical work on the structure and dynamics of naturally occurring memory and appraisal systems, though these should figure in accounts of phenomena like anaphora, ellipsis, attitude reports, etc. Integrative empirical and theoretical approaches are necessary for understanding contexts and/as cognitive states, including the brain structures typically involved. Arguably, this becomes an even more pressing issue for accounts of multimodal phenomena such as laughter, gaze or pointing, given the increasing complexity of contextual structures that need to be postulated. Conversely, neuropsychological work on memory and emotion is a flourishing area and yet the lion's share of studies are highly lab- and sentence-based and do not directly address spontaneous speech in conversational settings. There is also little work on using semantic tools or notions to directly model neural processing of natural language.
Semantics, Memory, and Emotion II is the second workshop following a successful first edition in 2021 (see DME'21) bringing together linguists, philosophers, neuroscientists, psychologists, and computer scientists to foster work on the interface between semantics, memory systems, emotion, and their embodiment in the brain.
Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Applications of Working Memory/Long-Term Memory in linguistic explanation: attention, capacity, forgetting, remembering
- Formal models relating conversational context, working memory, and long-term memory
- Propositional attitudes, appraisal, emotion and memory structures
- Formal models of appraisal/emotion construction in semantic/pragmatic processing
- Neural models of semantic notions such as concepts, emotions, signs
- Neural models of context and (multimodal) meaning integration or non-integration
- Implications of neural models for semantic theory
- Implications of semantic theory for neural models: learnability, normativity, intentionality, phenomenality and beyond
- Neuro-Atypicality and semantic processing in conversation: Dementia, schizophrenia, and neuro-degenerative processes in general
- The time course of processing of semantic phenomena such as laughter, gesture, exclamations in relation to speech
Invited speakers
- Christine Bastin (University of Liège)
- Chris Eliasmith (University of Waterloo, Canada)
- Kristina Liefke (Ruhr Universität Bochum)
- Markus Werning (Ruhr Universität Bochum)
Submissions should be sent (pdf only) to: Andy Lücking
Submissions
Two forms of submission are possible for this workshop:
- Full Paper: 4 pages + 1 page for references
- Extended Abstract: 2 pages including references
Important dates
Deadline for submission: 16 June 2022
Notification of acceptance: 8 July 2022
Workshop session: 6-7 September 2022
If there is sufficient interest, we will organise publication as a special issue, probably with the journal Topics in Cognitive Science
Dale, Rick et al. (2013). "The Self-Organization of Human Interaction". In: Psychology of Learning and Motivation. Ed. by Brian H. Ross. Psychology of Learning and Motivation 59. Academic Press. Chap. 2, pp. 43–95. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-407187-2.00002-2.
Gigerenzer, Gerd (2010). "Personal Reflections on Theory and Psychology". In: Theory & Psychology 20.6, pp. 733–743. doi: 10.1177/0959354310378184.