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One Time Only: Consciousness Preconference at SPSP |
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| Posted by: | Kathleen Vohs |
| Title/Position: | Associate Professor |
| School/Organization: | University of Minnesota |
| Sent to listserv of: | SPSP, SESP, SPSSI |
| Date posted: | September 22nd, 2010 |
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Announcing a new SPSP Preconference
CONSCIOUSNESS: FACTS, FICTIONS, FUNCTIONS
*One Time Only* Preconference: An Overview of the Field
Everyday intuition suggests that consciousness controls our actions — but multiple empirically-based critiques have suggested that consciousness accomplishes relatively little. These skeptical views invoke Thomas Huxley’s analogy from the 1800s: Consciousness is like a steamwhistle, deriving from the locomotive’s engine and revealing something about its processes, but ultimately contributing nothing to moving the train.
These cataclysmic developments have prompted a revolution in theorizing about consciousness. Contrary to the steamwhistle view that consciousness is functionally useless, researchers are now looking in other places to discover what consciousness does and how it contributes to human functioning.
This preconference brings together a terrific array of speakers who will provide an overview of theoretical developments, not focus narrowly on recent studies. Because this preconference will be a one-time-only event, speakers will provide integrative summaries of what human conscious thought is capable of doing.
The speakers will include skeptics and supporters of the value of conscious thinking. Most are social and personality psychologists, but one eminent, influential thinker each from cognitive science (Baars) and philosophy (Churchland) will augment the group to provide greater breadth.
The combination of high quality, diverse opinions, eminent and distinguished speakers, methodologically rich data, and a topic that goes to one of the most profound and core problems in the history of psychology promises to make this preconference one of the highlights of the 2011 SPSP meeting.
If you are interested in an exciting compendium of work that will bring you up to date on current thinking about the role of consciousness in human functioning, please join us for this unique event!
Registration will open soon. For details, visit:
http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~masicampo/ConsciousnessPreconference/
ORGANIZERS:
Roy Baumeister, Kathleen Vohs, EJ Masicampo
SPEAKERS:
Bernard Baars, Theoretical Neurobiology at The Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla
John Bargh, Yale University
Roy Baumeister, Florida State University
Patricia Churchland, UC San Diego
Matt Lieberman, UCLA
Ezquiel Morsella, San Francisco State University
Jonathan Schooler, UC Santa Barbara
Kathleen Vohs, University of Minnesota
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