ASSC 13

The 13th annual meeting of the ASSC will be held at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science, Germany from June 5-8, 2009. Michael Pauen (m@pauen.com) and John-Dylan Haynes (haynes@cbs.mpg.de) are the local organizers.

Future Events

ASSC 14

The 14th annual meeting of the ASSC will be held in 2010.

Past ASSC Conferences

WHAT DOES IMPLICIT COGNITION TELL US ABOUT CONSCIOUSNESS? (ASSC 1)
June 13-16, 1997.

The phenomena of implicit cognition -- implicit memory, implicit learning, unconscious perception, blindsight, and so on -- have attracted widespread attention in recent years. This is partly because of their intrinsic interest, and partly because the study of these processes holds great promise as an empirical method for investigating consciousness. But although research in these areas has proliferated, the connections between this research and issues about consciousness have not yet been fully articulated. What have we learned about the conscious mind from the study of implicit cognition? This conference addressed this question, drawing systematic connections between implicit cognition and consciousness.

NEURAL CORRELATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS: EMPIRICAL AND CONCEPTUAL ISSUES (ASSC 2)
June 19-22, 1998
Bremen, Germany, the Hanse Institute for Advanced Study

The search for neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) -- specific systems in the brain that correlate directly with states of conscious experience -- has become an active area of research in recent years. Methods such as single-cell recording in monkeys and brain imaging and electrophysiology in humans, applied to such phenomena as blindsight, implicit/explicit cognition, and binocular rivalry (among others), have generated a wealth of data. At the same time a number of theoretical proposals about NCC location have been put forward. In addition, important conceptual questions raised by this work are beginning to be addressed.

CONSCIOUSNESS AND SELF: NEURAL, COGNITIVE AND PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES (ASSC 3)
June 4-7, 1999
London, Canada, the University of Western Ontario

Consciousness involves not just the passive experience of sensory contents, but the active involvement of an agent.  Phenomena such as volition, social cognition, metacognition, self-recognition, self-modeling, reflection, and planning all suggest that "self"-related phenomena may be central to an understanding of consciousness.

Recent neurophysiological and neuroimaging research has linked these self-related activities to specific brain activities, especially in prefrontal cortex.  Neuropsychologists have studied numerous disorders of the self, often forcing our intuitive ideas about self to be revised. Psychologists have investigated the role of self and agency in memory, personality, volition, metacognition, and many other areas.  Cognitive models have suggested a central role for "executive systems" in understanding these self-related phenomena of consciousness.  And philosophers have analyzed the relationship between consciousness, self, and self-consciousness, with some arguing that self-directed cognition is at the core of consciousness.

THE UNITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS: BINDING, INTEGRATION, AND DISSOCIATION (ASSC 4)
June 29 - July 2, 2000
Brussels, the Université Libre de Bruxelles

Consciousness has many elements, from sensory experiences such as vision, audition, and bodily sensation, to nonsensory aspects such as volition, emotion, memory, and thought.  The apparent unity of these elements is striking: all are presented to us as experiences of a single subject, and all seem to be contained within a unified field of experience.  But this apparent unity raises many questions.  How do diverse systems in the brain co-operate to produce a unified experience?  Are there conditions under which this unity breaks down? And is conscious experience really unified at all?

In recent years, these questions have been addressed by researchers in many fields.  Neurophysiologists and computational modelers have investigated the mechanisms by which binding and integration of disparate information may take place in the brain, producing a unified experience.  Neuropsychological research has documented a large variety of dissociation disorders in which damage to specific brain regions leads to dissociated experiences, suggesting the apparent disintegration of a unified subject.  Cognitive psychologists have investigated the role of attention and learning in the integration of information, and have examined conditions under which perception and action, or subjective experience and behavior, can become dissociated. Some cognitive modelers have suggested that unity is a mere illusion, while others have emphasized the role of a central unifying system in integrating sensory and motor experience.  And philosophers have analyzed just what the unity of consciousness comes to, and whether we have reason to believe that it exists.

THE CONTENTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS: PERCEPTION, ATTENTION, AND PHENOMENOLOGY(ASSC 5)
May 27-30, 2001
Durham, North Carolina, USA, Duke University

Consciousness has rich and diverse contents, from sensory experiences such as vision, audition, and bodily sensations such as pain, to non-sensory aspects such as volition, emotion, memory, and thought. All of these conscious states can be seen as part of the contents of consciousness.  Furthermore, most conscious states can be seen as having representational contents of their own, in the sense that they are about something: objects and states of affairs in the world, or states of our own body.  The contents of these states are all presented to us, in William James's powerful metaphor, as part of a "stream of consciousness".

The contents of consciousness raise many important questions: Just how rich is the content present in conscious experience?  Do the contents of attention exhaust the contents of consciousness, or is there consciousness outside attention?  What is the neural basis of the representation of conscious content?  How does consciousness of our own body differ from consciousness of the external world?  What methods are available to monitor the contents of consciousness in an experimental context?  What is the relationship between consciousness and representation?  All of these questions have been actively discussed in recent years by neuroscientists, psychologists, philosophers, and other researchers.

CONSCIOUSNESS AND LANGUAGE: REPORTABILITY AND REPRESENTATION IN HUMANS AND ANIMALS(ASSC 6)

Consciousness and language are related in many ways. We report our conscious experiences using language, and these verbal reports are perhaps the central tool for scientifically investigating human consciousness. We consciously experience linguistic stimuli such as words and sentences, and also process them unconsciously. A subject's language arguably helps to structure his or her conscious experience, not least by shaping the subject's conceptual system. Some theorists have argued that language is essential to consciousness, and that infants and animals without consciousness lack consciousness altogether.

This conference explored the many connections between consciousness and language, from the perspectives of philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, cognitive ethology, and artificial intelligence. Key questions included:

• What is the relationship between consciousness and verbal report?
• What is the role of verbal reports in the science of consciousness?
• What are the characteristics of conscious and unconscious processing of language?
• What are the neural correlates of conscious & unconscious processing of linguistic stimuli?
• What role do language and concepts play in structuring conscious experience?
• What is the neural basis of conceptual and nonconceptual aspects of consciousness?
• What role did language play in the evolution of consciousness?
• Is language necessary for consciousness?
• What sort of consciousness, if any, is present in infants and non-human animals?

MODELS AND MECHANISMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS(ASSC 7)

Invited plenary speakers and symposia addressed empirical and theoretical issues in the study of consciousness, focusing on the theme of models and mechanisms of consciousness. The conference explored the many connections between models of consciousness and their psychological and neurobiological mechanisms, from the perspectives of philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, computer science, cognitive ethology, and artificial intelligence. Plenary symposia included:

• Global Workspace Theory
• Computational models of consciousness
• Binocular rivalry and the NCC
• The role of feedback and re-entrant mechanisms in consciousness
• Animal consciousness

THE EIGHTH ANNUAL ASSC CONFERENCE (ASSC 8)

Invited plenary speakers and symposia addressed empirical and theoretical issues in the study of consciousness.

The ASSC8 photo album

THE NINTH ANNUAL ASSC CONFERENCE (ASSC 9)

THE TENTH ANNUAL ASSC CONFERENCE (ASSC 10)

Invited plenary speakers and symposia addressed empirical and theoretical issues in the study of consciousness.

THE 11TH ANNUAL ASSC CONFERENCE (ASSC 11)

The 11th annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness took place between June 22nd and June 25th, 2007, at the Imperial Palace Hotel, Las Vegas.

THE 12TH ANNUAL ASSC CONFERENCE (ASSC 11)

The 12th annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness was held at the Gis Convention Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei from June 19th-22nd, 2008. Allen Houng (assc12@ym.edu.tw) was the local organizer.