[alife] Call for Papers: External Symbol Grounding Workshop 2006

Titus Brown titus at caltech.edu
Wed Mar 22 16:09:07 PST 2006


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/>
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
<http://www.psy.herts.ac.uk/dlg/conf.html> 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
<http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_seriesview.cgi?series=IS> 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
<mailto:ESG2006 at plymouth.ac.uk> ESG2006 at plymouth.ac.uk. 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 (Universit? du Qu?bec ? Montr?al, 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)



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