Netherlands

Variation in the use of syntactic alternations has long been an explanatory target of language production theories. In this work, we test the predictions of several semantic, pragmatic and psycholinguistic theories of language use for the English dative alternation. We first experimentally test the role of incremental constituent informativity in the dative alternation, and find that contrary to information structural and RSA models of production, informativity has little effect on production preferences. We then more rigorously focus on accessibility effects, demonstrating that a lossy-context automatic policy can recover a key pattern of accessibility. Ultimately, we conclude that incremental production is modulated primarily by both accessibility and lexical semantic effects, rather than audience design pressures.

**Authors:**

Neil Rathi: Stanford University; Brandon Waldon: Georgetown University; Judith Degen: Stanford University

CogSci 2024

Informativity and accessibility in incremental production of the dative alternation

The 46th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society was an in-person meeting held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands at the Postillion Hotel & Conference Centre.

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**Thursday, July 25** 
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1000: [Gleitman Award Winner Isabelle Dautriche on Language Foundations: Insights from acquisition, communication, cognition, and more](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions/18000/lecture/99085-gleitman-talk) 
1415: [Invited Symposium: Dynamics between minds and the environment](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions?eventSessionId=18016&searchGroup=lecture) 
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**Friday, July 26** 
0900: [C.L. de Carvalho-Heineken Prize Keynote Speaker Kia Nobre on Focusing in memory](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions/18035/lecture/99162-hp1-c-l-de-carvalho-heineken-prize-keynote-address) 
1030: [Rumelhart Symposium: Childhood as exploration](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions/18038/lecture/100346-childhood-as-exploration) 
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1600: [Invited Symposium: Dynamics between minds](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions?eventSessionId=18065&searchGroup=lecture) 
1745: [Keynote Speaker Andrea E. Martin on Neural dynamics encode the structure and statistics of language](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions/18077/lecture/99271-neural-dynamics-encode-the-structure-and-statistics-of-language) 

**Saturday, July 27** 
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1500: [Invited Symposium: Dynamics within minds](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions?eventSessionId=18100&searchGroup=lecture) 


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#### **Letter from the President**

Welcome to the 2024 Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society in Rotterdam! CogSci 2024 brings together a large community of cognitive scientists who have traveled here from around the world, as well as a smaller group of remote presenters. I would like to extend an especially warm welcome to our first-time CogSci meeting attendees, and hope that 
their experience inspires them to join our future meetings for many years to come.

I want to thank this year’s conference co-chairs, Larissa K Samuelson, Stefan Frank, Mariya Toneva, Allyson Mackey, and Eliot Hazeltine, for putting together an amazing series of invited talks and symposia around the theme of Dynamics of Cognition. The co-chairs also deserve credit for handling a record-breaking number of submissions and producing a truly exciting conference program 

Beyond the invited talks and symposia dedicated to this year’s conference theme, I would like to highlight the presentations and events honoring the 
Rumelhart, Elman, Gleitman and C .L . de Carvalho Heineken prize winners, including the Rumelhart reception on Thursday. As you may know, we are recording all of the invited talks and symposia, and all prize-winners’ talks, and will be making this content available after the conference. 

The Cognitive Science Society relies on the volunteer efforts of our Governing Board members who work on matters related to our membership; conference policies; diversity and inclusion, international, and outreach initiatives; prizes and much more. We welcome interest from Society members who would like to become more involved in what we do. The 
Society is deeply grateful to Rick Dale and Andrea Bender, who serve as editors of the two Society journals, Cognitive Science and Topics in Cognitive Science respectively. We especially acknowledge our editors’ generosity in donating their stipends each year to D&I and outreach efforts. 

This year’s Annual Meeting depends critically on the support of Marischal De Armond and his team at Podium Conference Specialists: Sharon Zwack, Cendrine De Vis, Sarah-Kate Burke, and Rachel Waller worked tirelessly to secure the venue and handled a multitude of logistical and organizational issues, from arranging coffee breaks and receptions to making sure that a huge number of posters fits comfortably into the available space. Finally, and importantly, I would like to acknowledge the Cognitive Science Society Executive Officer, Erica Wojcik, for managing the complex and ever expanding sphere of our Society’s activities.

I hope you enjoy this year’s meeting and the many different opportunities to engage with the vibrant community of cognitive scientists gathered here. I also hope you get a chance to explore the great city of Rotterdam with its many attractions, museums, restaurants and scenic views. If you’d like to talk more about our Society, or simply want to say hello, please stop by!

![](https://assets.underline.io/markdown_image/1/image/3c66d0e21fff30e204df1138ffd15173.jpeg)

**Anna Papafragou** 
President, Cognitive Science 
Society 2023-2024

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The 46th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society presents the latest research across cognitive science and highlights the theme of Cognition in Context.

poster

Human linguistic communication is based on a variety of inferences that we draw from sentences, often going beyond what is literally said. While there is wide agreement on the basic distinction between entailments, implicatures, and presuppositions, their boundaries are continuously being re-drawn and the status of many inferences remains open. In this paper, we focus on three inferences of plain and embedded disjunctions, and compare them with regular implicatures. We investigate this comparison from the novel perspective of the predictions of state-of-the-art Large Language Models, using the same experimental
paradigms as recent studies investigating the same inferences with humans. The results of our best performing models mostly align with those of humans, both in the large differences we find between those inferences and regular implicatures, as well as in fine-grained distinctions among different aspects of those inferences.

**Authors:**

Polina Tsvilodub: University of Tübingen; Paul Marty: University of Malta; Sonia Ramotowska: University of Amsterdam; Jacopo Romoli: Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf; Michael Franke: University of Tübingen

Experimental Pragmatics with Machines: Testing LLM Predictions for the Inferences of Plain and Embedded Disjunctions

Recognizing printed words involves identifying individual letters, as well as keeping track of specific positions of the letters. Interestingly, some languages show flexibility in letter-position coding which is inferred by the observation that pseudowords formed by transposing internal letters of a word (e.g., jugde-JUDGE) can facilitate recognition of the given word. While research in English and other Indo-European languages have shown that readers can cope with such violations in the canonical order of letters in a word, research from other languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Korean produce contrary findings. Such scenario creates a demand for conducting similar research across different languages using different writing systems, so that a universal model of word-recognition can be built. Therefore, in the current study, we investigated flexibility in letter-position coding in Hindi (Devanagari script). Interestingly, we find evidence for flexibility in letter position encoding in Hindi similar to English and other Indo-European languages.

**Authors:**

Suraj Kumar: Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur; Anurag Khare: Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur; Ark Verma: Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Is there flexibility in Letter-Position Encoding in Hindi? Evidence from masked form priming study

Round numbers are often interpreted approximately (Krifka, 2002), with "pragmatic halos" (Lasersohn, 1999) that encompass multiple permissible values. For example, stating "there were 200 people at the meeting" would be acceptable even if the exact count were 197 or 204. In line with the idea that larger numbers have more approximate representations (e.g., Cheyette & Piantadosi, 2020), we demonstrate that rounding and pragmatic halos are magnitude-dependent. First, an analysis of every single number in two large corpora (COCA, BNC) shows that indicators of rounding predict frequency (cf. Woodin et al., 2023), but crucially in interaction with magnitude, with round numbers over-represented for larger magnitudes. Second, we show that jigsaw puzzles often systematically deviate from what is advertised on the box in a way that depends on magnitude, e.g., a 1,000-piece puzzle may contain 1,024 pieces, whereas a 50-piece puzzle is more likely to contain the stated value exactly.

**Authors:**

Bodo Winter: University of Birmingham; Greg Woodin: University of Birmingham; Alexandra Lorson: University of Groningen

Rounding and magnitude: Pragmatic halos are bigger for larger numbers

Is it tautological to call an action “wrongful discrimination?” Some philosophers and political theorists answer this question in the affirmative and claim that the term “discrimination” is intrinsically evaluative. Others agree that “discrimination” usually conveys the action’s moral wrongness but claim that the term can be used in a purely descriptive way. According to such a view, the negative evaluation is only pragmatically, not lexically conveyed. In this paper, we present two corpus studies and two experiments designed to test whether the folk concept of discrimination is evaluative. We demonstrate that the term has undergone a historical development and is nowadays no longer used purely descriptively. Further, we show that this evaluation cannot be cancelled without yielding a contradiction. We conclude that the descriptive use of “discriminatory” is a thing of the past.

**Authors:**

Pascale Willemsen: University of Zurich; Simone Sommer Degn: Aalborg University; Jan García Olier: University of Zurich; Kevin Reuter: University of Zurich

“Wrongful discrimination” - a tautological claim? An empirical study of the evaluative dimension of discrimination vocabulary

Quotational constructions as in 'This phenomenon is called “moonbow”' involve predicates like call and are used to introduce a lexicalized word, i.e. “moonbow”, to the addressee. The name of a lexicalized concept is mentioned which is why we refer to this type of sentential construction as a name-mentioning construction (NMC). Although there is substantial philosophical research on the notion of quotation, empirical evidence is sparse. In our empirical investigation, we use eye-tracking data to look into the nature of the processing of quotation marks in NMCs. The results of Linear Mixed Models indicate that there is no statistically significant difference for early eye-tracking measures, but a significant effect for the expression in the target Interest Area Dwell Time. Words enclosed in quotation marks are processed longer than target words without quotes. We argue that our findings suggest the involvement of higher cognitive processes in the processing of quotes.

**Authors:**

Natascha Raue: University of Kassel; Holden Haertl: University of Kassel; Alvaro Cortés Rodríguez: University of Potsdam

Evidence from eye-tracking on the processing of quotation marks in German

Experimental studies show that the tendency to derive Scalar Implicatures (SIs) varies considerably between individuals: some individuals accept sentences that are literally true but carry a false SI, while others systematically reject them. The question of what factors drive these differences is crucial to understanding the mechanisms involved in SIs and currently at the center of numerous discussions. To date, there is no agreement on how to quantify individual differences in SI rates. 
In this article, we show how a hierarchical Bayesian modelling approach can be used to quantify subjects' preferences observed in the results of a truth value judgement task that investigated intra-individual and inter-individual variability in the rates of upper-bounding and lower-bounding SIs associated with the <some, all>-scale.
The results show that SI strength is partially modulated within individuals by certain linguistic features, such as the presence of negation.

**Authors:**

Sonia Ramotowska: University of Amsterdam; Paul Marty: University of Malta; Leendert van Maanen: Utrecht University; Yasutada Sudo: University College London

Some but not all speakers sometimes but not always derive scalar implicatures

Rhyme is widely considered to be a powerful mnemonic device that facilitates cognitive processing. Previous studies examined rhyme-perception development mainly in the case of children, while the analyses of information-recall processes in the adult population are scarce. It has been shown that rhyme and memory are closely connected in culture transmission procedures, which emphasises the demand for research on whether and how the adult population’s recall ability is enhanced by rhymes. The present study investigates whether rhyming words are more likely to be recalled than non-rhyming ones. Results suggest that rhymes affect the memory consolidation of both real-words and pseudowords in a group of adult subjects (N = 38). The research potentially elucidates the relation between both short- and long-term memory and rhyme. By gaining insight into the patterns of recalling and rhyme, into the processes of cognitive poetics, it may be possible to derive more general conclusions about cognition.

**Authors:**

Klára E. Finta: University of Vienna; Tecumseh Fitch: University of Vienna

Do Rhymes Enhance Memory Processes? Real word and pseudoword recall in rhyming conditions

This research investigates the advantages and roles of bilingualism in Indian school children with low vision impairment. Bilingualism, especially in a multilingual nation like India, may provide significant cognitive, social, and educational benefits. These advantages are considerably more apparent in children with modest visual impairments. The study focuses on a sample group of 100 school-aged children with varied degrees of low vision impairment and investigates how bilingual education influences their learning and social integration. The research uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches to evaluate cognitive development, language competency, and social interaction abilities in a bilingual setting. The findings show that bilingualism increases not just linguistic capabilities but also cognitive flexibility, problem-solving ability, and social empathy in young children. This study contends that bilingual education should be an essential component of the curriculum for visually impaired students in India, promoting their general development and integration into society. The results have major implications for educational policies and practices involving special needs children in multilingual settings.

**Authors:**

Male Shiva Ram M.S, PhD: University of Hyderabad; PHANI KRISHNA: University of Delhi; Baskar Theagarayan: University of Huddersfield

The Benefits and Role of Bilingualism in Indian Schoolchildren with Low Vision Impairment.

Generics have been presented as a window onto children’s concepts. Studies have documented the
facilitating effect of generics on inductive reasoning in children, particularly, that this effect is sensitive to
both age and domain of knowledge (natural kinds vs artifacts). The present study builds on Gelman (2002)
who compared how 3 to 5 years old children generalized novel properties about familiar categories,
contrasting the use of generics or specific quantifiers. We also expand Gelman’s work by measuring
interindividual variability and by disentangling the respective influence of conceptual development and
quantifiers understanding on induction performance. We enriched Gelman’s materials with food stimuli.
Crucially, we measured food neophobia disposition to determine if the later interferes with the facilitation
effect of generics on induction, as previous work has consistently shown that food neophobia interferes
with conceptual development in the food domain (Rioux et al., 2017). We also added a quantifier
understanding task adapted from (Gelman et al., 2016) to determine whether neophobic children’s
hypothesized poor performance in the task resulted from an immature conceptual system about food
and/or because they simply failed to understand the quantifiers. Results obtained shed light on the
psychological barriers to the development of food literacy in children which is of crucial importance for
dietary variety and children’s cognitive and physical development.

**Authors:**

Sabrina Boulkour: Université de Bourgogne; Jean-Pierre Thibaut: University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté; Lafraire Jérémie: Institut Paul Bocuse

The facilitating effect of generics on inductive reasoning in 3 to 5 years old children: interindividual variability and domain-specificity

Animacy is prevalent in as a semantic basis for noun classification systems (i.e., grammatical gender, noun classes and classifiers), but colour is completely absent, despite its visual salience. The absence of colour in such systems is sometimes argued to suggest domain-specific constraints on what is grammatically encodable. Here, we investigate whether this tendency could instead be explained by the superior predictive power of animacy (i.e., the degree to which it predicts other features) compared to colour. In a series of experiments, we find that animacy-based noun classes are learned better than colour-based ones. However, when participants are encouraged, by manipulating predictive power, to sort images based on colour, they are worse at learning animacy-based noun classes. The results suggest the animacy bias in grammar may have its roots in domain-general categorisation principles. They further serve as evidence for the role of cognitive biases in constraining cross-linguistic variation.

**Authors:**

Ponrawee Prasertsom: University of Edinburgh; Kenny Smith: University of Edinburgh; Jennifer Culbertson: University of Edinburgh

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Experimental Pragmatics with Machines: Testing LLM Predictions for the Inferences of Plain and Embedded Disjunctions

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