Netherlands

A behavioural and two EEG hyper-scanning experiments are presented which investigate how predictive processing modulates the way interlocutors align behaviourally and at the level of the brain (Hasson, 2012; Pickering &amp; Garrod, 2007). In the experiments interlocutors engaged in dyadic interactions performing a semi-controlled semantic association game and where the p predictability of the semantic associations was manipulated. The behavioural results showed that both interlocutors were around 400 ms faster in the predictable versus non-predictable conditions The results of the two EEG studies aim at demonstrating (1) whether we observe brain-to-brain synchronisation between the interlocutors at the level of word semantics, and (2) whether prediction enhances this synchronisation. To our knowledge, this is the first study to directly demonstrate prediction effects in an interaction.

**Authors:**

Emilia Kerr: Aix-Marseille University; Kristof Strijkers: CNRS &amp; Aix-Marseille University; Benjamin Morillon: Aix-Mareille University

CogSci 2024

Does prediction drive neural alignment in conversation?

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CogSci 2022

The 44th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society highlighted research on the theme Cognitive Diversity in addition to the full breadth and diversity of research topics offered by the society’s membership. 





A behavioural and two EEG hyper-scanning experiments are presented which investigate how predictive processing modulates the way interlocutors align behaviourally and at the level of the brain (Hasson, 2012; Pickering & Garrod, 2007). In the experiments interlocutors engaged in dyadic interactions performing a semi-controlled semantic association game and where the p predictability of the semantic associations was manipulated. The behavioural results showed that both interlocutors were around 400 ms faster in the predictable versus non-predictable conditions The results of the two EEG studies aim at demonstrating (1) whether we observe brain-to-brain synchronisation between the interlocutors at the level of word semantics, and (2) whether prediction enhances this synchronisation. To our knowledge, this is the first study to directly demonstrate prediction effects in an interaction.

**Authors:**

Emilia Kerr: Aix-Marseille University; Kristof Strijkers: CNRS & Aix-Marseille University; Benjamin Morillon: Aix-Mareille University

poster

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.

**ON-DEMAND PROGRAM ACCESS AFTER THE CONFERENCE** 
Recordings of the invited program are now available. You can access them by clicking on the 'Schedule' icon on the left. Select view by week and navigate to the day and time slot of the recording you wish to view. Click on the time slot to access the recording.

Recordings available (click on each recording to view):

**Thursday, July 25** 
0900: [Keynote Speaker Morgan Barense on Enhancing real-world event memory](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions/17997/lecture/99084-dynamics-between-minds-and-the-environment) 
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) 
1700: [Rumelhart Prize Presentation Speaker Alison Gopnik on Exploit, explore, empower: Three ages and three intelligences](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions/18028/lecture/99161-rp1-rumelhart-prize-presentation) 

**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) 
1415: [Elman Prize Symposium](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions?eventSessionId=18053&searchGroup=lecture) 
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** 
0900: [Keynote Speaker Gregor Schöner on How higher cognition emerges from the dynamics of strongly interacting neural populations](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions/18083/lecture/99273-dynamics-within-the-mind) 
1000: [Glushko Talks](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions?eventSessionId=18086&searchGroup=lecture) 
1500: [Invited Symposium: Dynamics within minds](https://underline.io/events/465/sessions?eventSessionId=18100&searchGroup=lecture) 


#### **CogSci 2024 Program Book**
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**The Program Book can be downloaded [here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yRVp1cBqRnAbdYi4GXWV_pZeyWNsRquv/view?usp=sharing).**

#### **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

**CODE OF CONDUCT** 
By attending the CogSci 2024 Conference, you are required to adhere to the society’s [Code of Conduct](https://drive.google.com/file/d/16-6KkptF0Gn3ZYGJDlpqpwTdImw45Ng0/view?usp=drive_link).

**ABOUT THE COGNITIVE SCIENCE SOCIETY** 
The Cognitive Science Society brings together researchers from around the world who hold a common goal: understanding the nature of the human mind. The mission of the Society is to promote Cognitive Science as a discipline, and to foster scientific interchange among researchers in various areas of study, including Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, Anthropology, Psychology, Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Education.

The Society is a non-profit professional organization and its activities include sponsoring an annual conference and publishing the journals Cognitive Science and TopiCS.

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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.

The brain uses contextual information and prior knowledge to predict future content during
language comprehension. Previously, it has been demonstrated that contextual word
embeddings, derived from Large Language Models, can be linearly mapped onto brain data. Recently, Goldstein et al. (2022) have used this method to study neural signatures of
predictive processing. They found that predictive signatures of an upcoming word can be
observed in its pre-onset signal, measured with ECoG during listening to naturalistic
narratives . In the fMRI domain, Caucheteux et al. (2023) have shown that including
embeddings of multiple upcoming words improves the model’s fit to brain data. This has
been interpreted as an indica4on that the brain encodes long-range predictions. In this study we examine whether the same predictive information can be found in MEG data, a signal with lower signal-to-noise ratio than EcOG and higher temporal resolution than fMRI. We show that: 1) The signatures of pre-onset predictions about the upcoming word are also detectable in MEG data similarly to ECoG and 2) Contrary to what has been observed in the fMRI data, including future embeddings does not improve brain encoding in MEG signals. These findings provide a novel avenue for studying predictive processing during language comprehension with naturalistic stimuli using MEG signals.

**Authors:**

Sahel Azizpour: Donders institute for brain, cognition and behaviour; Britta U. Westner: Donders institute for brain, cognition and behaviour; Umut Guclu: Donders institute for brain, cognition and behaviour; Linda Geerligs: Donders institute for brain, cognition and behaviour

What MEG can tell us about predictive processing during language comprehension

Studies have reported that prestimulus brain oscillations guide perceptual experiences during AV speech perception. However, 'what' features in such oscillations drive perception remains unknown. In this EEG study (n=18), we investigated how prestimulus periodic oscillations and aperiodic components influence the perception of the McGurk illusion on a trial-by-trial basis. Using logistic mixed-effect models, we determined the topology of spectral markers that predict the brain response to illusory perception. We found lower levels of alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (15-30 Hz) band oscillations over parieto-occipital sensors, lower aperiodic offset values over parietal-temporal sensors, and a lower global effect of exponent over the scalp that predicted the response to McGurk illusion. We conclude that the predominant source of variations in the prestimulus oscillatory state is manifested by aperiodic background activity and that variations in these oscillations and aperiodic activity, account for inter-trial and inter-individual variability in perception of the McGurk illusion.

**Authors:**

Vinsea A V Singh: National Brain Research Centre; Vinodh G. Kumar: Penn State College of Medicine; Dr. Arpan Banerjee: National Brain Research Centre (NBRC); Dr. Dipanjan Roy: Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur

Prestimulus Periodic and Aperiodic Neural Activity Shapes McGurk Perception

Video game competition, called esports, is an intriguing subject for the investigation of psychological skill differences between players; such skills are more weighted toward achieving optimal performance than physical skills are. We looked for differences in psychological skills between advanced and intermediate players and the kind of psychological skill that is critical for defining a player’s skill level. We measured the physiological states of players in esports matches and found that the temporal heart rate pattern during competitive matches was highly correlated among advanced players, rather than among intermediate players or players of different levels. Additionally, physiological synchrony among advanced players decreased under sparring situations in which no winner or loser was determined. These results suggest that the unique superior psychological skills of advanced players are motivation control, which is characterized by the ability to maintain and demonstrate a high motivation to win.

**Authors:**

Ken Watanabe: NTT Communication Science Laboratories; Naoki Saijo: NTT Communication Science Laboratories; Sorato Minami: Kashino Diverse Brain Research Laboratory; Makio Kashino: NTT Communication Science Laboratories

Superior Psychological Skills of Advanced Players in Esports: An Examination of Physiological Synchrony

Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation has proven effective in modulating parasympathetic autonomic nervous system activity and various cognitive functions. 
This study investigated the effects of transauricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) on body ownership and interoception in healthy subjects using a within-subjects experimental design (active taVNS/sham). 
The rubber hand illusion (RHI) and the Heartbeat Counting Task (HCT) were employed. 
Cardiac activity was recorded throughout the procedure to measure physiological indices of heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV).
Ownership for the fake hand was observed in both active and sham stimulation, as indicated by drift and scores on illusion-relevant items (Q1-Q3). 
HR and HRV showed no variations between synchronous/asynchronous RHI or between stimulation conditions. Active taVNS resulted in decreased interoceptive meta-awareness.
Individuals with lower interoceptive abilities exhibited heightened susceptibility to RHI during active taVNS, possibly due to perturbation of interoceptive signals and increased reliance on exteroceptive signals in constructing body representation.

**Authors:**

Angelica Scuderi: Sapienza University of Rome; Maria Luisa De Martino: Sapienza University of Rome; Erik Leemhuis: Sapienza University of Rome; Mariella Pazzaglia: Sapienza University of Rome

Know your body by heart: a taVNS study on body awareness

Collective improvisation is remarkable. When people
improvise—whether dancing, making music, or even just
conversing—they coordinate their behavior while exploring
abstract spaces of movements, sounds, and ideas. How do improvisers
navigate these abstract spaces? One possibility is
that collective improvisation builds on foraging strategies used
in the physical world. Here, we investigate the dynamics of an
especially complex and abstract form of collective improvisation:
professional free jazz. We quantify how ensembles navigate
a space of sounds. We find that these dynamics change
when an improvising ensemble shifts from one sonic ‘soundworld’
to another. Before a sonic shift, ensembles engage in
widespread exploration; after, they quickly shift to focused exploitation
of the new sound. This resembles a strategy used
by foraging animals known as Area Restricted Search. While
collective improvisation pushes at our cognitive limits, these
results suggest that it builds on evolutionarily-ancient strategies
with a much more mundane origin.

**Authors:**

Tevin Williams: University of California, Merced; Matthew Setzler: Meta; Minje Kim: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Rachel Ryskin: University of California, Merced; Michael Spivey: UC Merced; Tyler Marghetis: University of California, Merced

Professional Jazz Musicians Explore and Exploit a Space of Sounds

Intelligent systems that record, analyze, and respond to events have become major parts of our lives. They are available as Decision Support (DS) for many tasks and can enhance the information on which decision-makers can base their decisions. Decision makers need to evaluate the available information, and they also have to decide whether to seek information from additional information sources. The information is often costly, and its costs and benefits must be weighted. Also, integrating information from multiple sources can complicate the decision task. Here, we study the combined decision process that chooses information sources and integrates them, if chosen, in a classification decision.
In an online experiment with 75 engineering students, we manipulated the redundancy level of information received from DS with already existing information. Participants' task in two between-subjects conditions was to classify binary events with the option to access up to two DS systems. In one of the conditions, the two DSs provided non-redundant information, and in the second condition, one of them provided fully redundant information, and the other provided non-redundant information. We found that the decision to access information was not affected by whether some information was redundant (strongly correlated with already available information). 
Participants used the information to improve classification performance, and the improvement was significantly higher when they used non-redundant information. However, the benefits gained were smaller than predicted from a normative model. Moreover, the use of information from multiple independent sources can increase mental workload, as was evident in our results, possibly because of conflicting information from different sources.

**Authors:**

Yoav Ben Yaakov: Tel Aviv University; Joachim Meyer: Tel Aviv University

Choose and Use: Users’ Selection of Information Sources for Decision Support

In Experiment 1, we conducted a survey in which we asked a sample of N = 762 participants explicitly about their preferences regarding reimbursement and experimental duration of web-based experiments. In Experiment 2, we implicitly measured the preferences of N = 189 participants by letting them choose one duration and reimbursement of an experiment. Participants significantly prefer donations and raffles over other forms of reimbursement in 5-minute experiments. When experiments take 30 minutes or longer, participants significantly prefer direct payment via PayPal. This finding applies to 15-minute experiments, too, if only data of PayPal account holders is analyzed (75.23% of our sample). Experiment 2 replicated that direct payment is the preferred reimbursement in longer studies and that the preferred reimbursement varies by duration. The most popular choice of duration and reimbursement was to receive direct payment for an experiment of 60 minutes, which was selected by 57% of all participants.

**Authors:**

Alina Palmetshofer: University of Tübingen; Alice Winter: University of Tübingen; Carolin Dudschig: University of Tübingen; Barbara Kaup: University of Tübingen

Study on Preferred Duration and Reimbursement in Web-Based Experiments

“Misfortunes never come singly” is a saying common in different languages and historical contexts. Could this proverb reflect more than irrational superstitions? We draw from two frameworks, the fast-and-frugal heuristics approach to decision making, and the rational analysis of cognition. The former prompts us to conceptualize the proverb as a simple but smart heuristic that may be adapted to statistical regularities in decision-making environments, and the latter offers a method for studying such environments. Analyzing the pattern of humanitarian disasters between 2000 and 2022, we find that the probability of observing a new or continuing disaster in a country increases with frequency of disasters observed in the previous 100 days in that country. We propose a research agenda to study the ecological rationality of proverbs. Our results are also of potential practical relevance to humanitarian analysts.

**Authors:**

Alex Odlum: University of Lausanne; Julian Marewski: University of Lausanne; Joerg Dietz: University of Lausanne

Misfortunes never come singly: Reflections of the environment in a proverb

Traditional conceptions of inference emphasize explicit following of logical rules, often tied to the possession of natural language, thereby implying that non-human animals cannot make inferences. However, an extensive body of comparative and developmental studies shows the success of pre-linguistic children and several species of non-human animals in nonverbal reasoning, putting pressure on the traditional view. We deny the assumption of lingualism of thought, and argue instead that inference doesn’t require explicit rule following, advocating the possibility of ‘heuristic’ inferences implicitly following logical rules in a constraint domain. We introduce a multidimensional model of inference illustrated through several case studies, categorizing informational transfers across the dimensions of context-independence, formats of representation, and perspectivity. We show that our framework offers a more nuanced interpretation of empirical data than the traditional view, and accommodates both linguistic and non-linguistic inferential behaviors, shedding light on varied manifestations of inference across species and developmental stages.

**Authors:**

Albert Newen: Ruhr-Universität Bochum; Sanja Sreckovic: Ruhr University Bochum

Rethinking Inference: A Multidimensional Model of Inference for Human and Nonhuman Animals

Recent literature often presents memory as ultimately dealing with the future–helping the organism to anticipate events and increase its adaptive success. Yet, the distinct contribution of episodic (as opposed to semantic) memory to future-oriented simulations remains unclear. We claim that episodic memory yields adaptive success because of its crucial role in singular counterfactual causal reasoning, which thus far has been mostly ignored in the literature. Our paper presents a causal inference model based on the predictive processing framework and the minimal trace account of episodic memory. According to our model, evaluating the cause of an event involves (i) generating an episodic memory related to the said potential cause, (ii) constructing a counterfactual scenario through inhibition of the relevant part of the past episode, and (iii) temporal evolution followed by alternative model evaluation. 
Keywords: counterfactuals; causal reasoning; predictive

**Authors:**

Sofiia Rappe: Ruhr University Bochum; Markus Werning: Ruhr University Bochum

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What MEG can tell us about predictive processing during language comprehension

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