Symposia                                              

The following schedule is tentative and subject to change. A finalized schedule will be published by August 15th.

Symposium 1: Visual Statistical Learning and Attention: A Two-Way Street
Friday, November 18, 10 AM - 12 Noon U.S. Eastern Time (time subject to change)
Organizer: Louisa Bogaerts (Ghent University)

Visual stimuli tend to repeatedly appear in the same sequences and spatial configurations. The process by which we detect the statistical regularities in our visual environment is known as "visual statistical learning." While statistical learning has long been described as a type of implicit learning that operates automatically, growing evidence suggests that it not only oftentimes requires attention, but can also shape how attention is deployed. This symposium will highlight a series of findings that can help us understand the bidirectional relationship between observers‚ sensitivity to visual regularities and the allocation of visual attention. It does this by bringing together speakers from different areas of research: experts on learning and memory who are investigating the modulation of statistical learning performance by attentional allocation on the one hand, and experts on attention who are investigating the ways in which statistical regularities shape attentional biases on the other hand. We end by discussing possible directions for taking an integrative approach to statistical learning and attention forward. 

Symposium 2: Bridging the Gap Between Spoken and Written Language Research
Friday, November 18, 1:30 - 3:30 PM U.S. Eastern Time (time subject to change)
Organizer: Kristi Hendrickson (University of Iowa) 

Language relies on intricate relationships between several cognitive processes and multiple sensory modalities. For most individuals, language is accessed across two sensory modalities: auditory (spoken language) and visual (written language). While there is a rich history of literature documenting the cognitive mechanisms underlying each language system, historically, these literatures have been somewhat disparate. In the current symposium, we illustrate how research that examines spoken and written language in tandem can: 1) highlight the distinct sensory and cognitive challenges each language system faces; 2) identify a set of core mechanisms of each system in a common set of computational principles; and 3) delineate how each language system is shaped by the other at multiple time scales (from the millisecond unfolding of processing in real-time to the time scale of behavior over years). The talks in this symposium highlight state-of-the-art methods for assessing language abilities, and cut across several levels of language processing and production. Finally, an open-forum Q&A at the conclusion of the symposium will provide an opportunity to discuss how to further bridge the gap between these literatures. 

Symposium 3: Facilitating Belonging, Inclusion, and Equity in STEM (Special Symposium)
Friday, November 18, 3:45 - 5:45 PM U.S. Eastern Time (time subject to change)
Organizers: Timothy J. Nokes Malach (University of Pittsburgh) and Mary A. Peterson (University of Arizona)

The speakers in this symposium investigate the topics of belonging, inclusion, and equity with an emphasis on identity, mindsets, and equity in STEM. Their perspectives -- from social and educational psychology – differ from, but are related to, the cognitive perspectives typically represented at the annual Psychonomic Society meeting. The speakers will cover challenges to creating an inclusive and equitable STEM community and will suggest approaches to addressing them. Our goals are to inspire attendees to work toward inclusion and equity within the cognitive psychology community and to provide effective tools for this effort.  

Symposium 4: Age-Related Patterns for Memory and Future Projections During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Saturday, November 19, 10 AM - 12 Noon U.S. Eastern Time (time subject to change)
Organizer: Lauren L. Richmond (Stony Brook University)

Although the COVID-19 pandemic was a collectively experienced event, memories from the COVID-19 pandemic period may be varied, particularly as a function of age. Moreover, memories and future projections are known to be tightly related to one another; therefore, understanding features of memories formed during the COVID-19 period, such as valence, is also expected to provide insights into how people will think about the future moving forward from this period. Older adults are at greater health risk under COVID-19, and may therefore have different memories and future projections than younger-aged adults that may be more negative in nature. At the same time, older adults are known to possess better emotion regulation skills and to remember information more positively than younger-aged cohorts, suggesting a potential benefit to emotional memory associated with being older during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, due to the stressful nature of the COVID-19 period, emotion-focused processing may impact memory accuracy for both emotional information that is unrelated to COVID-19 as well as information related to the COVID-19 pandemic itself.

Symposium 5: Co-Registration of Eye Movements and EEG (Leading Edge Workshop)
Saturday, November 19, 1:30 - 3:30 PM U.S. Eastern Time (time subject to change) 
Organizers: Elizabeth R. Schotter (University of South Florida) and Brennan R. Payne (University of Utah)

Visual attention is critical for many real-world cognitive tasks that have important consequences for our daily lives (e.g., reading, visual search, object perception). Recent technological innovations have allowed for the simultaneous study of behavioral and neural measures of visual and cognitive processes in naturalistic free-viewing scenarios, moving beyond the constraints of traditional laboratory paradigms (e.g., through co-registration of EEG while people freely move their eyes). Because much of the prior eye movement and EEG research on visual attention has been developed in largely independent research areas, each with their own theories, foci, and best practices, rapid progress in answering these questions requires integrating these long-siloed domains through collaborative cross-talk, which was the topic of the 2022 Psychonomic Society Leading Edge Workshop on EEG and eye movement co-registration. This symposium highlights a broad overview of the workshop and features some of the latest empirical, theoretical, and methodological work on eye-movement and EEG co-registration in cognitive science.