Dr. Brang is the director of the Multisensory Perception Lab and primarily studies the interactions between of visual and auditory processing in speech perception using fMRI technology.

In previous Colloquiums on Cognitive Science, we have showcased cutting-edge research in the field of cognitive science by both faculty and students. However, we understand that research is not for everybody, so this year we wanted to change things up to represent the interdisciplinary nature of cognitive science. For the 2023 CSC Colloquium on Cognitive Science, we invite students to come work in groups to dip their toes into the field of cognitive science. You will work with your peers to form focus groups tasked with creating initiative in the field of cognitive science. Say for example you’re interested in cognitive science’s relationship to the brain. You can make a TikTok account dedicated to promoting mental health awareness on campus. Or, maybe you want to reach out to a local organization and find a way to spread their mission. These examples only scratch the surface of what’s possible, but this project is very flexible with a lot of room for creativity. We will meet throughout the semester to keep teams productive and provide assistance, and at the end of the year you’ll be able to present what you did to peers and faculty! This is a wonderful opportunity to experience cognitive science in a non-academic setting and gain some real world experience working on something within the field. Come to our interest meeting to learn more about the project!

Every judgment we make requires a second one--whether to be confident or hesitant about it. I discuss psychological research on the vagaries of reaching accurate confidence assessments of our judgments, in particular the intrinsic problem of anticipating when we are wrong. Our errors are often invisible to us because they don't look like errors at the time. Other people, however, have a better chance at spotting those errors than we do.

When does something, x—e.g., some utterance, inscription, manual gesture, etc.—constitute a token of a word type, w, as opposed to some other word type, x*, or no word at all? (Central Question)

In this talk, I argue against a popular intentionalist answer to Central Question according to which (roughly put) something, x, constitutes a token of a word type, w, when one generates x with the intention to generate a token w (or a suitably similar intention). Given that word tokens are artifacts, the intentionalist answer to Central Question is indicative of a broader and widely held assumption in the literature on the metaphysics of artifacts, namely, that artifacts are intention-dependent—something, x, is an artifact of type, t, only if x was produced with the intention to produce an artifact of type t (Juvshik 2021). As I demonstrate, intention has little to no role to play in an answer to Central Question or, more broadly, an account of artifacts. I argue that our (tacit) knowledge of how to perform various complex actions, like generating word tokens through speech, is not something that must be intentionally accessed, reasoned with, and utilized in governing behavior in some fully top-down intentional manner. We can exhibit a host of complex and context sensitive behavior that constitutes an exercise of our competence with/knowledge of how to act within an environment without intention playing an initiating, guiding, or sustaining role.

People are increasingly using data and evidence from scientific studies to inform decisions, both in industry and in their personal lives. However, evidence-based reasoning presents many challenges, such as misinterpreting data, focusing on irrelevant data, and accepting evidence that conflicts with prior beliefs. In this talk, I will discuss how using theories from cognitive science can inform learning interventions to improve scientific and statistical literacy so that people can evaluate evidence more critically and objectively.

How do languages change in multilingual contexts? In this talk, I'll run through a few different types of language change, and show how taking an interdisciplinary approach can help us understand how factors such as language ideology and language policy might influence how words are pronounced/understood, as well as how words are ordered. I will show some examples across contexts, from American English and Malayalam, and argue that differences in how speakers categorize linguistic material as belonging to one language or another is an important factor in how languages change due to language contact. 

The stream of consciousness refers to ideas, images, and memories that meander across the mind when we are otherwise unoccupied. The standard view is that these thoughts arise from "automatic" subpersonal processes, and we are for the most part passive observers of them. Drawing on a series of laboratory studies we have conducted, I argue this view is importantly incorrect. On the alternative view I put forward, the stream of consciousness arises from “basic decisions”, a ubiquitous and underappreciated feature of our mental life. Basic decisions lie in a grey zone: They are both manifestations of agency as well as obstacles to it. 

When COVID-19 hit, people stockpiled everything from toilet paper to liquor. Was this “panic buying” really so irrational? Research across species suggests not. This response probably evolved long ago in the mammalian nervous system and adaptively emerges under conditions of risk or uncertainty. Kangaroo rats survive droughts in the desert by hoarding seeds after a rain; squirrels survive unproductive winters by scatter hoarding nuts in the woods; laboratory rats hoard chow if you give them a large enough supply. The same brain areas and contextual cues support the hoarding of food in these non-human animals and the human hoarding of food and material goods. Hoarding in humans occurs under similar conditions as in other animals—like when people feared that there would not be enough during the global pandemic. However, hoarding also occurs as an individual difference across people, such that some people really don’t like clutter and seem to be Marie Kondo-ing their closet every week while others keep so much that they cannot even sleep in their beds or cook in their kitchens (as in Hoarding Disorder (HD), like on A&E). A proximate mechanism in the brain—involving areas that support emotionally-mediated decisions like the accumbens and frontal lobe—evolved to adaptively respond to uncertain or unpredictable situations with stress or anxiety, which promotes the stockpiling of resources. This is usually a good thing, but the system does sometimes goes awry—such as when people suffer from stress or trauma unrelated to the supply of resources. I review research across species, tasks, and methods to demonstrate commonalities in this (generally) adaptive and evolved mechanism, which is mediated by the brain and body. 

Max Cantor - a psych major graduate of 13'. Max has obtained a master's of Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at CU boulder. At UM, he was involved in research at the Computational Neurolinguistics Lab and the Culture and Language Development Lab. With experience in cloud computing data platforms and deploying machine learning models (Condé Nast and Insight Data Science), Max is currently a software engineer, focusing on data engineering and ML. 

Claire Butz is a University of Michigan Alumna (class of 2018) currently living in Chicago. She was born and raised in Ann Arbor, so she holds the U of M community close to her heart. Claire majored in Cognitive Science (Decision & Cognition track) with a minor in Business. While she was an undergrad, she worked at the Michigan Daily student-run newspaper and was a fellow at the Ross School of Business' Center for Positive Organizations. Currently, she works as an associate manager research analyst for investment research firm Morningstar Inc and is a level 2 Chartered Financial Analyst candidate. 

How do processes like attention and cognitive control (and related activity in the prefrontal cortex) interface with sensory and motor brain regions to help (or hurt) successful behavior? To investigate these issues, I use a combination of functional MRI, non-invasive brain stimulation via TMS, and behavioral experiments.  Some of my recent research has focused on the phenomenon of choking under pressure.  In situations in which people are the most motivated, they often fail.  What are factors that lead to failures in performance?  What neural systems are involved in supporting superior performance and how are they affected in a variety of motivational contexts?  Does changing the focus of attention protect against choking?

Got questions about research? Summer plans? — Or that big application that's always on your to-do list? Ask your questions to a panel of upperclassmen!

This talk explores distinctions and relationships between consciousness and cognition through the lens of an emergent worldview called Integral Theory (IT), with insights from artistic creativity guiding the inquiry. Drawing widely from disciplines across the sciences and humanities as well as age-old spiritual wisdom, IT posits a remarkably expansive vision of human nature and developmental potential—at the core of which is consciousness development. From an IT vantage point, cognition has to do with the activity of the mind, Put another way, cognition is to consciousness as the wave is to the ocean. Artistic creativity, particularly as it manifests in improvised music, can be seen as a bridge between the two realms and helps illuminate them as part of an overarching wholeness of subjective experience. The arts-consciousness relationship also helps us move past conventional boundaries and labels when it comes to academic disciplines, with longstanding tensions between science and spirituality/mysticism a common, and unnecessary, casualty of such boundaries.

Abstract: "Why do humans exhibit flexible, intelligent behavior? Comparative studies of primates, our closest relatives, can help us understand the evolutionary origins of complex human cognition. I will present research examining how other primates like chimpanzees think about the world to address three main questions: how do other animals solve ecological problems like finding food, how do they solve social problems like finding friends, and how do their abilities change and develop over their lifetime? By integrating cognitive science with evolutionary theory, we can understand humans in the context of the natural world." 

We'll be going over our upcoming events as well as other ways you can get involved. We have planned professor talks and our annual undergraduate colloquium (check out last year's), so make sure to attend for more information. There you can Learn more about our events, See ways you can get involved with the cognitive science community, Ask us questions, Eat pizza and meet new people!