Below is the schedule from last year's conference. It will be updated with this year's schedule after the presenters are notified.

Saturday, April 2nd 2011

Time	Author	Presentation Title & Abstract	Location
9:00am-9:30am, Check-In, Psychology Building Lobby
9:30am-10:00am, Welcome Address, PY 101
	Dr. Robert Goldstone	Welcome to IU Cognitive Science	PY 101
10:00am-12:00pm, 1st Session, PY 101
10:00am	Ronak Shah	Sentencing Behavior and Temporal Metrics Judges and magistrates must frequently sentence offenders according mandatory indeterminate sentencing ranges. These ranges are established for particular crimes by the legislature of judicial jurisdiction, and prescribe a range of time--for instance, five to fifteen years--allowable for a judge to apply in their sentencing decision for a particular crime--for instance, burglary. The advantage of sentencing ranges is that judges can individualize sentences to the circumstances surrounding a crime. By using these ranges, a judge has the power, for instance, to sentence a young or first-time offender more lightly, and a career criminal more heavily, for the same offense. However, both the ranges themselves and the way in which they are expressed vary from region to region. The fact that there is wide variance in actual sentencing decisions from region to region and from judge to judge raises the concern that sentencing decisions may be influenced by the way in which indeterminate sentencing ranges are presented to sentencing authorities. This study examines whether the temporal units in which a sentence is expressed affects the sentencing decision made. Participants were given ten simple crime scenarios and were asked to make a sentence within a given range. Half of the participants were given sentencing ranges expressed in years; the other half were given the same sentencing ranges for the same crimes, but with those ranges expressed in months. Sentencing behavior tended to be harsher when sentencing options were expressed in years than when they were expressed in months. Clumping and anchoring effects were also observed.	PY 101
10:20am	Hannah Leeper	Configural processing of same and other race faces In past studies, the perception of faces has been thought of as “special” when compared to the perception of other objects. Faces can be said to be processed “configurally”. What we mean by this is that they are recognized efficiently, as a whole, and with emphasis on the relations between the features rather than just the features themselves. In past studies, the other-race effect has been shown in the processing of faces, meaning that people seem to be better and faster at recognizing faces of the same race rather than faces of another race. It has been hypothesized that this difference is due to a lower degree of configural processing for other-race faces. We designed an experiment to use the capacity coefficient, a measure of processing efficiency, to quantitatively measure a difference in processing. We had African-American and Caucasian participants look at stimuli of either race. To measure the capacity, these faces were shown in one of three conditions: top half, bottom half, or whole face. If participants were much quicker at the whole face condition versus the two halves, they would have a high capacity coefficient, which is a signature of strong configural processing. Extensions on this study are currently being conducted to try a different task in the same general paradigm to further our results.	PY 101
10:40am	Lindsey Kitchell	Visual Search Expertise in Video Game Playing The human visual system can only focus on fine details in a small region of visual space. This forces us to constantly change and allocate our attention to the regions we want to acquire information from, resulting in an eye movement and shift of gaze. Many jobs and situations rely heavily on the accuracy and reliability of a person’s eye movement and require quick recognition of certain features and elements. Airport personnel scanning luggage, doctors reading X-rays, or even just someone searching for a friend in a crowd are all examples of when visual proficiency are necessary. Previous studies that used eye-tracking methodologies have shown that those with experience and expertise in a field differ from novices in where and what they look at during the completion of vision-based activities. We describe a study that determines if experts and novices vary in the visual features that attract their attention during the task. Using a head mounted eye-tracker, we monitored the eye movement patterns of 12 subjects, 6 novices and 6 experts, as they played the computer game Bejeweled 2. Bejeweled 2 was chosen because it provides a constrained situation with elements of more complex tasks that can be applied to real world situations. An in-house software package was written in order to analyze this data. We computed the potential point value of each possible move made in the game and then measured if experts tend to look at locations that have higher point values more often than novices. The results show the degree to which experts demonstrate a significant performance advantage over novices, in that they may be more aware of what is diagnostic for the task and have learned what is important and what should be ignored.	PY 101
11:00am	Ryan Lahrman	Neurophysiological Substrates of Perceptual Decision Making In order to make a decision, one must not only determine what the stimulus is, but also decide how to respond to it. After you have determined what the stimulus is, it takes time for you to actually respond to the stimulus. In this study, we investigated decision making by analyzing both behavioral and electroencephalogram (EEG) data as participants decided which letter was presented to them on a computer monitor. EEG data was recorded from 6 subjects sampled at 250 hz, following standard preprocessing procedures. The data was averaged in order to compute event related potentials (ERP). The stimuli in the first experiment were the letters "M" and "O", that were presented under 6 different levels of noise. Participants had to respond with their decision by pressing the left or right button on a standard computer mouse. In the second experiment, the stimuli were the letters "M", "O", "P", and "T", also presented under the same 6 levels of noise. Participants also responded with their decision by pressing the left or right buttons on a mouse. The results show that differences in ERP waveforms consist of an early component (≈150-200 ms) and a late component (≈250-450 ms) after stimulus presentation. We used these differences to create a decision making diagram that describes the neural substrates of the decision making process. This approach allows us to access a neural marker of the decision being made to determine the participant’s response before their button press. This approach separates the entire event into perceptual, decisional, and motor processes. We can use these separated factors to determine how aging, memory loss, and sleep deprivation affect the decision making process.	PY 101
11:20am	Edwin Kirsch	Commonsense understanding of moral capacities: An empirical investigation Everyday people make moral assessments. For example, we say someone did the right or wrong thing. We also say that particular situations morally require people to behave in a certain way. These moral assessments are often made using our commonsense intuitions. Our research investigates the factors that drive these moral intuitions on two dimensions of moral status — moral agency, which grants an entity blameworthy for wrong actions and praiseworthy for right ones, and moral patiency, which grants an entity worthy of moral obligations. In particular, these studies ask whether high-level cognitive capacities, sentient capacities, or a hybrid of both drive these two dimensions of moral status.	PY 101
11:40am	Robert Hawkins	Basic features in visual perception: A Systems Factorial analysis What is a fundamental "feature" of visual perception? Is it part of an object or does it only emerge as a relationship between objects? Using the tools of Systems Factorial Technology (SFT), we further investigate the effects documented by Dr. Jim Pomerantz and Mary Portillo in their work with perceptual organization and emergent features. Using an "odd-man out" task with arrangements of dots in four quadrants, Pomerantz and Portillo found significant reductions in rate time when the dots were presented with a "non-informative context" consistent with Gestalt grouping principles (proximity, orientation, etc). We replicate their results for non-informative contexts and extend their work with the statistical methodologies of SFT in order to answer questions about capacity, architecture, and stopping rule in configural processing. By comparing data for a single-dot condition (where the decision is based on detecting differences in location alone) against data for a double-dot condition (where the decision is instead based on differences in proximity or orientation), we find evidence in the simplest stimuli that emergent features may be the fundamental building blocks of perception.	PY 101
12:00-1:00pm, Lunch Break
1:00pm-2:00pm, Keynote Speaker, PY 101
	Prof. Larry Yaeger	Evolutionary Selection of Structure and Function in Brain Networks Using a computational ecosystem, Polyworld, that evolves learning neural architectures of embedded agents, we will examine evolutionary trends in neural complexity, graph theoretical metrics of network structure, and dynamical systems analysis of neural dynamics during periods of behavioral adaptation of the agents to their environment.	PY 101
2:00pm-4:00pm, 2nd Session, PY 101
2:00pm	Erin Good	Internal-External Source Discrimination Accuracy as a Function of Personal Relationship with External Source Source monitoring is one’s ability to recount the details of the context in which information was presented (e.g., Johnson, Hashtroudi & Lindsay, 1993). An internal source is defined as contextual information within the individual who is monitoring the source of information. An external source is the contextual information outside of the individual. Researchers have found that the accuracy of source discriminations can depend on the combination of sources tested (e.g., Marsh & Hicks, 1998). For example, one "internal" and one "external" source are easier to differentiate than two external sources (e.g., Johnson & Raye, 1981). However, no research has addressed the possibility that who the external source in an internal-external source decision is may affect one’s accuracy in discriminating sources. In this study, we evaluate differences in source monitoring accuracy, specifically in heterosexual romantic couples versus unacquainted heterosexual pairs of individuals. Particularly, we are interested in whether the members of romantic couples and unacquainted pairs may differ in their internal-external source monitoring accuracy. During the first experimental session, each member of the pair takes turns asking the other member pre-selected questions and both individuals answer the questions. This procedure is identical for both romantic couples and unacquainted pairs. We are not interested in their answers, but rather in their ability to remember, 48-50 hours later, which questions they asked and which questions their partner asked. In the second session, participants receive an item recognition and source memory test in which they are tested on whether certain questions were asked during the previous session and, if so, by whom. Participants are also asked to indicate their confidence in the accuracy of their responses. Data analysis is still ongoing, but preliminary results suggest that couples have more accurate recognition and source memory scores than unacquainted pairs of individuals.	PY 101
2:20pm	Angel Dyke	Time embodied: Physical representations during speech How does the mind represent an abstract concept such as time? Linguistic, gestural, and computer-based studies that attempt to elucidate this question have yielded conflicting results. Because our concept of time is closely related to our own bodies and our physical environment, time-related speech is often facilitated by gestures. The purpose of this study was to determine how English speakers gesture when discussing time during informal conversation. In an original procedure, twelve university students responded to questions about their past and future, made comparisons with the present, and described the progression of time-related events in a story. Results yielded more transverse (left-right) than sagittal (back-front) gestures during discussions of time. These observations support the notion of a mental timeline that flows from left to right, which may be attributed to written cultural artifacts and adjacent concept mapping in the parietal cortex.	PY 101
2:40pm	Gail Rosenbaum	Domain-Specific Effects in Competitive Interaction How do people compete when they have different amounts of resources from their competitors? Does this vary across domains? Previous research compared competition in an abstract setting to a business setting and found that context in competition changes the strategies used (Avrahami, Kareev, Todd & Silverman, 2010). Here we compare these results to an adaptively significant domain: mate choice. In a variant of the Colonel Blotto game, competing participants allocated different numbers of lines written on an online dating page to eight qualities describing themselves, and were chosen based on one of the qualities. Behavior largely followed game theory predictions: advantaged competitors with more lines distributed them across all qualities; those with fewer lines gave up on describing some qualities completely. Compared to the business and abstract settings, the mating context led participants to compete closest to game theory predictions. This was more pronounced in men than in women and may be due to the evolutionary significance of the mate choice domain.	PY 101
3:00pm	Rachel Walsh	Food for Thought:  A Search for a Dietary Means to Increase Young Adults’ Studying Efficiency  So many times when students sit down at their desks with the intent to study, nothing is accomplished. They get distracted, lose interest, or stress themselves out to the point where they do not accomplish anything. There are many factors that can influence a student’s ability to study effectively, like motivation, attention, mental state, and physical condition. As a college student who runs into this problem more than I should, I was interested in the possibility of food influencing my ability to study. Are there any nutrients or dietary habits that could help decrease tension and stress or increase attention and memory? In my search for relevant studies that have been conducted, I found intriguing leads about glucose consumption, carbohydrate consumption, energy drinks, altered diets, and guarana. Even though this is only a small portion of the many different components that could be explored, they all affect how the brain functions. I will explain why each component has been researched, the results, and what work needs to be further done. If I don't run out of time, I'd also like to discuss some vitamins and minerals that can affect one's long-term brain health.	PY 101
3:20pm	Adeetee Bhide	The effect of orthographic neighborhood size on the extent of priming A balance between fast and accurate reading may be achieved by having tight coding for words with high neighborhood densities (N) (where many words can be formed by changing one letter in the target word) and loose coding for low N words. Masking priming paradigms in adults (Castles et al., 2003) have shown facilitation on lexical decision tasks when substitution letter primes (e.g., ebey) precede low N (e.g., obey) but not high N targets, suggesting competition between orthographic neighbors and the target. In contrast, children up to grade 6 showed substitution letter priming for low N and high N (i.e., > 4 neighbors) words (Castles et al., 2003). However, it is unclear whether these high N stimuli were effectively low N stimuli for younger children (i.e., whether children knew the target’s neighbors). This study used targets with very high N (i.e., > 10 neighbors), assessed children’s knowledge for orthographic neighbors, and tested the developmental trajectory of substitution letter priming for low N (i.e., 0 neighbors) and high N (i.e., > 10 neighbors) stimuli using a masked priming, lexical decision paradigm with children (8-12 years), adolescents (13-17 years), and adults (18-23 years). Post-experiment testing indicated that children knew approximately 9 of the neighbors for high N words, confirming that these stimuli were high N for children. When primed with a substitution letter prime, the adults and adolescents only showed facilitation for the low N word targets not the high N word targets, replicating prior work. In contrast, children showed facilitation for both the high and low N word targets. Thus, developmental differences in high N substitution priming are not the result of smaller effective N in children, suggesting a possible developmental change in how orthographic neighbors of a target word inhibit the target or compete with the target during lexical decision.	PY 101
3:40pm	Cheryl Bigney	My recovery from a coma: psychologically, socially and metaphysically I'll be discussing the damage done to my brain: what I believe happened, (after dieing, meeting God and returning) (not my decision) and how I "came back" to the person I was before through a lifetime of reading, discovering, and journaling. This journey was mine alone, and couldn't begin this journey for years. Because I didn't remember what happened to me! I'll describe the biggest points of discoveries in my recovery, regarding memory, self-image, self-identity, ego, frontal lobes, God, and what it was like to exist without an ego, and also without time to separate things. I'll explain how flashes of memory/feeling/identity came flooding back every once in a while as years past, of who I used to be - similar to how it happens to Alzheimer's patients - and how I built on these flashes to recover my old memories, and rebuild my person.	PY 101
4:30-5:00pm, MUCSC RUCKUS, INFO East
5:00-6:30pm, Poster Session, INFO East
	Brian Cherry	Associative False Memory in Synesthesia This study investigates the extent to which the superior memory found in individuals with synesthesia “protects” them from experiencing false memories. Synesthesia is a non-disordered condition in which individuals associate perceptual experiences with stimuli that do not elicit those perceptual characteristics. For example, we would ask a person if they associate a certain color when shown the letter “A.” Previous research has indicated that this type of synesthesia (i.e., grapheme-color synesthesia) results in better memory for stimuli that induce synesthesia (e.g., word lists) and for stimuli that do not induce synesthesia (e.g., abstract figures). After obtaining an informed consent, we administer a memory test adapted from McDermott and Watson (2001) and Watson, Balota, and Roediger (2003). Fifteen words that are semantically-related to one critical, non-presented word appear for 250 milliseconds each, followed by a 45 second free recall task. This procedure repeats for each of the 18 lists adapted from the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm (e.g, Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Following the presentation of all 18 word lists, participants complete a recognition test that includes all lists. False memory is defined as mistakenly recalling or recognizing the non-presented critical lures. Finally, participants complete a synesthesia battery, a standard assessment tool that confirms and identifies the presence and type of synesthesia in an individual. Results indicate that, compared to standard rates of false recall under comparable experimental conditions (e.g., 0.66 in Hege & Dodson, 2004), synesthetes show statistically significantly lower false recall rates (.37), t(8) = 3.13, p<.05. However, synesthetes do not show a higher proportion of correct responses (.53), compared to non-synesthetes under similar experimental circumstances, (.47), t (8) = 1.50, p =.173. Our data suggest that synesthesia significantly protects synesthetes from false memory recall in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm, compared to non-synesthetes.	INFO EAST
	James Torre	Evaluation of building optimization for internal human traffic using genetic algorithm simulation Human beings demonstrate a desire to maintain inherent interpersonal space preferences (proxemic zones) between themselves and other objects in their surroundings, the breach of which affects their level of apprehension when traversing an environment. The extent to which individuals are forced to compromise these spatial sensibilities to achieve time efficient intrabuilding transit can be used to evaluate the optimization of a building to human traffic. Proactive modeling of building optimization can be performed using computer simulation, as presented in this case study of the Science and Mathematics Academy (SMA) of Aberdeen High School, Maryland. A virtual model of the SMA is constructed in the breve programming environment, and populated with agents corresponding to the members of the student body. A waypoint-based pathfinding genetic algorithm is created to allow agents to develop time-optimized routes between class schedule based objectives. After stable transit paths are established, interagent distance data is collected and compared with known human preferences. The data is supplemented with qualitative assessments of the simulation to identify particular environmental features contributing to instances of bottle-necks and other path inefficiencies.	INFO EAST
	Abhi Kapuria	Comparing Dual Route & Connectionist Theory in a Past Tense Conjugation Task How does our mind recognize and interpret words? We can infer a lot about semantic networks by using a past tense task. The majority of past tense verbs in the English language are associated with a regular, "-ed", suffix for their formation (i.e. jump to jumped). In a significant number of cases, however, the past tense is generated irregularly (run to ran). The greatest dissention in the literature exists when describing how these verbs are stored and by what means we call upon their past tense conjugation. One theory suggests that there exists a dual route mechanism for this conjugation process (Pinker, 1999). According to this model, regular verbs follow the rule-based method of adding “-ed”. For irregular verbs, the lexical pathway is utilized so that the individual is essentially performing a whole word lookup. The contradicting theory (Rumelhart & McClelland, 1986) is based on a connectionist foundation. This theory proposes that the production of past tense verbs is based on the consistency of those words, so the number of words that are similarly conjugated to the target. Following the logic of connectionist theory, it can be hypothesized that there may be an effect of consistency on all verbs and the difference between regular and irregular words will be minimal. Continuing this idea, because regular words follow only 3 basic grammar changes while irregulars contain many more, data suggesting any difference between regular and irregular words would in turn be in support of the dual route model. The goal of this experiment is threefold: to provide evidence in support of the connectionist or dual-route theory, to assess the model proposed by Albright and Hayes (2003), and to ultimately make the data available to other researchers. To accomplish the first goal, we need to determine whether the data shows differences between regular and irregular verbs. A difference between regular and irregular verbs would provide some support for the dual route model. In order to assess the rule based model proposed by Albright and Hayes (2003), a large volume of data was collected, and participants reaction times (RTs) and accuracy were compared to model confidence ratings (a measure of the models accuracy in predicting the past tense of a target word). Like the English Lexicon project (Balota, 2007), this large amount of data, available to other researchers, will continue to add to the wealth of research on semantic networks.	INFO EAST
	Sabena Siddiqui	Comparing and Contrasting the Function of Vocalizations in Two Captive West Indian Manatees (Trichechus manatus) and Wild Populations The functions of vocalizations emitted by the West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus) have a short history in academia. Of the little existing research conducted on this aspect of manatee behavior, most research supports that the manatee vocalizes for communicative or social purposes. This paper compares and contrasts studies conducted on wild populations of manatees to captive born manatees in order to evaluate the validity of using ethological research in addition to laboratory research to assess complex areas of animal behavior. Data collected from two aquarium born West Indian manatees, named Hugh and Buffett, is analyzed to determine how often the subjects vocalize per minute and which behaviors have the largest correlation to vocalizing. This data is then compared to preexisting data concerning vocalizations per minute and behavior on wild manatees to determine if there are inconsistencies or similarities in vocal function.	INFO EAST
	Nina Massad	Hot Cognition: Effects of Emotionality on Interference Resolution within Working Memory Studies examining the effect of emotion on working memory have demonstrated conflicting results. While previous research has shown that people have better recall for emotional stimuli relative to neutral stimuli (MacKay et al., 2004), the effect of emotionality on the control of proactive interference merits further examination. Proactive interference occurs when previously learned information interferes with new learning. Research suggests that the presence of arousing stimuli in working memory helps resolve proactive interference (Levens & Phelps, 2008). Other studies have shown that taboo stimuli capture attention and cause delayed response times (Siegrist, 1995). The present study extends previous findings, by further examining the effect of emotion on attention and proactive interference resolution in working memory. Our within-subjects design uses a Taboo Stroop paradigm, and an item-recognition Recent Probes task, to determine the effect of both emotional (negative valence, high arousal) and taboo (offensive, high arousal) words on performance in working memory. Results from the item-recognition task suggest increased interference for taboo words relative to neutral words, however emotional words did not display this effect. The results from the Taboo Stroop task demonstrated increased response times to identify ink colors of both taboo and emotional stimuli relative to the neutral stimuli. The study demonstrated no significant relationship between within-subject interference effects on the two tasks. Furthermore, results revealed a difference in task performance between genders. These findings support the conclusion that arousing stimuli capture attention and impede interference resolution in working memory.	INFO EAST
	Caitlin Dawson	The Songful Journey: Metaphorical Language in Music Discourse The purpose of this research is to shed light on the frequency and type of metaphorical language in dialogue about music. A literature review from cognitive and musicological perspectives provides a background in the phenomenon, incorporating theories on programmatic versus formalistic readings of music, image schemas, and embodiment in music, both performance and analysis. Brandt and Brandt (2005) provides a model for structural analysis of conceptual metaphors incorporating blending, conceptual integration, and conceptual metaphor theories. Pairs of participants were presented with auditory and visual art stimuli in randomized order and instructed to discuss each stimulus while being videotaped. Participants are divided into three groups: musician-musician, musician-nonmusician, and nonmusician-nonmusician to test for an effect of musical training on the use of metaphor. Their discourse is analyzed for frequency of metaphorical language (and nonverbal communication) and the structure of high-level conceptual metaphors, stressing trends among the participant groups. A discussion follows of how the metaphorical language observed may be peculiar to music (to the exclusion of other art forms), why this effect may be shown, and what the results suggest about how humans experience and communicate about music.	INFO EAST
	Rachel German	Negative Transfer of Response Inhibition: Toward a Selective Fatigue of a Non-Unitary Executive The idea that different tasks rely on the same limited-resource executive function motivates our study. Previous research indicates that extended performance on a task that places high demand on interference control, a specific executive function that engages left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), impairs performance a subsequent task that also requires interference control. We refer to this negative transfer as process-specific fatigue. Here we extend this work by examining whether process-specific fatigue and negative transfer are evident in another isolable executive function: response inhibition. Response inhibition helps us overcome a prepotent response and relies on the right IFG. Participants performed a stop signal task for an extended time period (~18min) that had either a high (50%) or low (20%) proportion of stop trials, thus requiring response inhibition to a different extent. Before and after the stop signal task, participants performed a go/no-go task that also relied on response inhibition and is known to engage the right IFG. We hypothesized that extended engagement of response inhibition only in the more demanding high inhibition condition would fatigue the response inhibition process and compromise performance on a transfer task that also required response inhibition and is known to rely on the right IFG. As predicted, only participants in the high inhibition condition showed negative transfer in the form of reduced stopping accuracy. This suggests that it is possible to isolate and fatigue a specific executive function known to rely on the right IFG. The results provide further support for a the idea of a nonunitary central executive made up of discrete executive functions, as well as further evidence of a limited resource model of executive function and the behavioral consequences of depleting these resources.	INFO EAST
7:15pm, Question of the Week Discussion, Irish Lion