October 2004 Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning Conference

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This proposal supports Third Annual Workshop on the Cognitive Neuroscience of Category Learning, to be held October 10th and 11th, 2004, in New York City. The study of category learning has been a central paradigm within cognitive psychology for over twenty-five years. For a number of reasons, cognitive neuroscientists have recently been drawn to this paradigm. First, there is a large body of pre-existing empirical and theoretical analyses of category learning. Neuropsychological studies of brain-damaged populations and neuroimaging of healthy subjects have provided preliminary insights into the cognitive neuroscience of category learning. Second, category learning has aspects of both elementary associative learning as well as higher order cognition. It is this dual nature-part elementary skill, part higher cognition-which makes category learning a valuable paradigm for studying fundamental and important aspects of human learning, at both the behavioral and neural levels of analysis. Advancing research in category learning will have many broad impacts on society including (1) enhanced interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaborations, (2) increased international contacts and dissemination of research, (3) expanded participation in science and training for women and under-represented minorities, and (4) broad dissemination of program content via meeting participation, meeting website, and free distribution of conference program with all speaker's slides. By providing funds to include more graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, this proposal stands to enhance the workshop's intellectual merit still further by increasing the breadth and depth of ideas that will be discussed at the meeting.