Evolving communication: from action to language
An 'implicit vs. explicit' cognitive and pragmatic perspective
May 13-14, 2004 // Graduate College Santa Chiara, via Valdimontone 1, Siena (Italy)
Chair:
Cristiano Castelfranchi – ISTC-CNR, Roma
Organizers:
Sara Congiu – Università di Siena
Francesca Giardini – Università di Siena
Fabio Paglieri – Università di Siena (contact person: paglieri@media.unisi.it)
Vanni Zavarella – Università di Siena
Overview:
This workshop brings together leading scholars in different disciplines to address one of the most controversial issue in cognitive science: the evolution of communication.
Main purpose of the workshop is to compare researches and results in two closely related, but not yet integrated, fields of study: the evolution of communication before language, and the distinction between implicit and explicit knowledge in communication.
Session 1: The evolution of communication before language (May 13, 2004)
In the last decade an increasing number of researchers from different disciplines have emphasized the need of integrated and interdisciplinary studies on the evolution of communication, both in human and non-human species. How did communication evolve? How do communicative skills develop in social species? What are the relations between human communication and communication in non-human species?
The topics addressed in this workshop include (but are not limited to) the origin of language, the role of behavioral traits as means for communication, the complex development of communicative skills in children and animals, and artificial simulations of language acquisition using neural networks. Special attention is devoted to the early stages in the evolution of communication: i.e. pre-linguistic and behavioral communication.
Session 2: Implicit vs. explicit knowledge (May 14, 2004)
The nature of the distinction between explicit and implicit communication, which is a main topic of an evolutionistic approach to communication, is based on a more general definition of the concepts of implicit and explicit knowledge. Nevertheless, such a notion is still object of an open debate in cognitive science.
What does it mean for knowledge to be explicit or implicit, explicitly or implicitly represented in a system? Is it there any way to segment the continuum that separates these two states? Is implicitness a still and invariable feature of knowledge, or is it possible to model the processes through which knowledge can become explicit? Do language and communication play any role in accounting for those processes which make information explicit? How do they interact with evolutionary and developmental issues? Is implicitness a structural or a procedural property of information? Is it a matter of consciousness?
Similar problems have been addressed by several disciplines, including cognitive and developmental psychology, cognitive neurosciences, linguistics, philosophy, and semiotics. This workshop is meant to compare and contrast all these different approaches, in order to foster a more integrated and unambiguous definition of implicit and explicit knowledge.
Speakers:
Session 1: The evolution of communication before language (May 13, 2004)
Cristiano Castelfranchi – ISTC-CNR, Roma
Julia Fischer – Max Planck Institute, Leipzig
Pat Healey – Queen Mary University, London
Domeniso Parisi – ISTC-CNR, Roma
Elena Pizzuto – ISTC-CNR, Roma
Luc Steels – Sony Computer Science Lab, Paris / University of Brussels
Session 2: Implicit vs. explicit knowledge (May 14, 2004)
Zoltan Dienes – University of Sussex
David Kirsch – University of California, San Diego
Glenda Lassi – Università di Siena
Luigi Rizzi – Università di Siena
Ted Ruffman – University of Sussex
Marco Zorzi – Università di Padova
Program:
May 13, 2004
The evolution of communication before language
L. Steels: "Simulating the evolution of language" [abstract]
D. Parisi: "Embodied agents that interact in a physical environment" [abstract]
C. Castelfranchi: "When doing is saying: implicit communication before and without language and gestures" [abstract] [presentation]
P. Healey: "Graphical language games: experiments on the emergence of a graphical symbol system" [abstract]
tea break
E. Pizzuto, O. Capirci, M.C. Caselli, V. Volterra: "The nature of gesture in relation to language: the emergence and development of the gesture-speech integrated system" [abstract]
J. Fischer: "Primate vocal communication and the evolution of language" [abstract]
May 14, 2004
Implicit vs. explicit knowledge
D. Kirsch: "A computational process approach to the explicit / implicit distinction" [abstract]
Z. Dienes, J. Perner: "A hierarchy of explicit representation" [abstract] [presentation]
coffee break
T. Ruffman: "Implicit and explicit theory of mind: relation to language" [abstract] [presentation]
M. Zorzi: "The dissociation between implicit and explicit knowledge: evidence from neuropsychology" [abstract] [presentation]
G. Lassi: "Motor cognition and internal models" [abstract] [presentation]
L. Rizzi: "Unconscious linguistic knowledge: results and speculations on its structures and origins" [abstract]
Information:
For some useful information on travel and accommodation, click here
Contact:
For further information concerning the workshop, please contact Fabio Paglieri (paglieri@media.unisi.it)
Sponsors:
PhD Programme in Cognitive Science, Siena
ISTC-CNR, Roma/Padova
ESF-OMLL: European Science Foundation – The Origin on Man, Language and Languages
Università degli Studi di Siena
Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici, Siena
Graduate College Santa Chiara, Siena
The Origin of Man, Language and Languages (OMLL)
The research presented in this workshop by Olga Capirci, Cristiano Castelfranchi, Domenico Parisi, Luc Steels is supported in the framework of the European Science Foundation EUROCORES programme "The Origin of Man, Language and Languages". Financial support was provided by the ESF for some workshop participants.
