Events

Perceiving-Acting Workshop (PAW)

The Perceiving-Acting Workshop (PAW) is a weekly research seminar in which faculty, graduate students, and visiting scholars present and discuss current projects. Visitors have included psychologists (Karen Adolph, Karen DeValois, Jeff Elman, Brett Fajen, Gilbert Gottlieb, Gordon Logan, Richard Pew, Dennis Proffitt, Michael Spivey, Herb Terrace, Guy Van Orden, Bill Warren), physicists (Wiero Beek, Anatol Fel'dman, Gene Yates, Arthur Zajonc), philosophers (Mark Bickhard, Tony Chemero, Daniel Dennett, Fred Dretske, Ron McClamrock, Ruth Millikan, Andrew Wells), fundamental and applied movement scientists (Ramesh Balasubramaniam, Peter Beek, Sergio Fonseca, Ken Holt, Scott Kelso, Gunter Knoblich, Marisa Mancini, John Scholz, Dagmar Sternad, Richard Van Emmerik, Robert Wagenaar, Jill Whitall, Howard Zelaznik) and mathematicians (Domina Spencer).

Fall 2009 Schedule

Spring 2009 Schedule

Fall 2008 Schedule

Workshop on the Organism-Environment System

CESPA 20th Anniversary Special Events

Spring 2008 Schedule

Fall 2007 Schedule

Spring 2007 Schedule

Fall 2006 Schedule

Spring 2006 Schedule

Fall 2005 Schedule

Spring 2005 Schedule

Fall 2004 Schedule

Conference: A Natural-Physical Perspective on Perception-Action-Cognition

People navigate through cluttered terrain with apparent ease, steering around obstacles to find the least effortful route. Water from the Spring thaw also negotiates cluttered terrain, finding its way down the hillside, around obstacles following the least effortful route. Whereas the former is an intentional act guided by information about the environment, the latter emerges from circumstances governed by physical law. It is easy to consider these everyday achievements of vision, movement, touch, hearing, and language as the products of special psychological abilities controlled by the brain. But stable behaviors are characteristic of many physical systems that don't have brains to control them. Many scientists believe that human behavior can benefit from being treated as a problem of physics.

In keeping with this theme, the international conference A Natural-Physical Perspective on Perception-Action-Cognition, funded by the National Science Foundation, was held in Storrs, CT, June 19-21, 2008 in honor of M. T. Turvey's "transition" into the next phase of his academic career. The speakers–primarily drawn from among Turvey's Ph.D.s and post docs– presented brief position papers in several of the areas that Michael has worked in and contributed to for more than 40 years. These were complemented by poster sessions and time for discussions. .

Conference Schedule

Conference photos

Ecological Meetings

CESPA has hosted two international meetings in series International Conference on Perception and Action) and national meetings of the International Society for Ecological Psychology. On June 10-12, 2004 a special ISEP meeting was held in Storrs, honoring Robert E. Shaw, on the occasion of his retirement from the University of Connecticut.

2004 North American ISEP Meeting/Festschrift for Robert Shaw

2006 North American ISEP Meeting

ICPA

ICPA is the primary international meeting of the International Society for Ecological Psychology. Recent meetings have been in Monterrey, California and in Yokohama City, Kanagawa, Japan.

ICPA15 was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, July 12-17, 2009. (For details, see ICPA15)

Arthur S. Iberall Distinguished Lecture Series

The series is dedicated to the exploration of connections between physical processes and their manifestations in nature, life, humankind, mind, and society. The series honors the physicist, Arthur S. Iberall (1918-2002), whose intellectual legacy includes homeokinetics, a method of applying the laws of thermodynamics to all self-organizing systems. His applied research contributed significantly to the development of the first space suit, the high-speed dental drill, stove surface burners, the fancy-stitch sewing machine, and the electric knife. Contributions to the fund are invited.

2009: Seventh Arthur S. Iberall Distinguished Lecture: Dava Newman (December 4)

2008: Sixth Arthur S. Iberall Distinguished Lecture: Douglas White (December 5)

2007: Fifth Arthur S. Iberall Distinguished Lecture: Peter N. Kugler (December 7)

2006: Fourth Arthur S. Iberall Distinguished Lecture: Peter J. Beek (December 1)

2005: Third Arthur S. Iberall Distinguished Lecture: J. A. Scott Kelso

2004: Second Arthur S. Iberall Distinguished Lecture: James B. Bassingthwaighte

2003: The Inaugural Arthur S. Iberall Distinguished Lecture: F. Eugene Yates