Call for Papers: External Symbol Grounding Workshop 2006

[Lev Goldfarb]

Call for papers External Symbol Grounding Workshop 2006 3 and 4 July 2006, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom http://www.tech.plym.ac.uk/SoCCE/ESG2006/ The External Symbol Grounding Workshop 2006 (ESG2006) is an international workshop for research on grounding external signs and symbols. Specifically, we wish to invite contributions viewing language and cognition as linking what goes on in the head with causal processes that are intersubjective, multimodal, affect-laden, and organised by historically rooted customs and artefacts. We aim to bring together linguists, psychologists, ethologists and social biologists, social and cognitive neuroscientists, philosophers, computer scientists, and roboticists for an intense two days of presenting and discussing (potentially incompatible) views. The purpose of the workshop is not so much to present completed work as to find new ways of tackling a complex issue and to launch collaboration among participants to that end. Since the workshop focuses on how symbol grounding can be reconsidered when language is viewed as a dynamical process rooted in both culture and biology, research related to robotic or computer modelling of symbol grounding, psychological and linguistic viewpoints on cognitive development and semiotic dynamics are of great interest. We have invited a range of speakers who will bring their specialised expertise to bear on the issue of external symbol grounding, and we are looking for additional researchers who would like to contribute to this exciting new initiative. ESG2006 is the successor to the first Distributed Language Group’s Conference on Cognitive Dynamics and the Language Sciences, held at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge on 9-11 September 2005. Special issue Participants will be invited to submit papers to Interaction Studies for the special issue on external symbol grounding to be published in 2007. Papers will be selected based on an independent peer review. Important dates Deadline for submission of two-page abstract (or paper): 15 April 2006 Notification of acceptance: 1 May 2006 Workshop: 3 and 4 July 2006 Submission instructions Authors are invited to submit a two page abstract for presentation at the workshop. Alternatively, they may submit papers that are not to exceed 12 pages. Submitted abstracts and papers will be refereed and selected for half-hour oral presentations on the basis of quality and relevance to issues surrounding the external grounding of signs and signals. Accepted papers will be included in the proceedings and will be made accessible through the web. Copies of the proceedings will be available at the workshop. Authors are strongly encouraged to submit their papers electronically (MS Word or PDF preferred). Please email your submission to [EMAIL PROTECTED]. If you cannot send your submission through email, please send a hardcopy to Stephen J. Cowley School of Psychology University of Hertfordshire College Lane AL10 9AB Hatfield United Kingdom The deadline for submission is 15 April 2006. Confirmed speakers Michael Anderson (University of Maryland, MD, USA) Angelo Cangelosi (University of Plymouth) Stephen Cowley (University of Hertfordshire) Stevan Harnad (Université du Québec à Montréal, provisional) Karl MacDorman (Indiana University, IN, USA) David Spurrett (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) Paul Thibault (Agder University College, Kristiansand, Norway) Paul Vogt (University of Tilburg, The Netherlands)