Conference: Attention and Performance

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The XXth meeting of the International Association for the Study of Attention and Performance (IASAP) will be held from July 1-7 in Erice, Sicily, and will address the topic of Functional Brain Imaging of Visual Cognition. Functional brain imaging may have by now surpassed all other techniques in cognitive science in terms of expense, growth rate, and public visibility. But how much has this new set of techniques actually contributed to the study of human cognition? When if ever has a finding from brain imaging constrained a cognitive theory? We are sympathetic to those who have watched from the sidelines and felt underwhelmed by the contributions of brain imaging to cognitive science. Many of the early imaging studies in fact had little to offer researchers interested in cognition. However, we are encouraged by more recent results and hopeful that a new era is beginning in which functional brain imaging may realize its potential as a powerful tool for the study of cognition. It is the goal of this meeting to tackle all of these issues by addressing whether, when, and how functional brain imaging can constrain theories of human cognition. We have chosen to focus our discussions around the specific topic of visual cognition, where much of the best recent imaging work has been carried out. We have selected 65 of the top researchers in the world who either do imaging work on visual cognition, or who have expertise in a closely related field the world who either do imaging work on visual cognition, or who have expertise in a closely related field the understanding of which is critical four our advancement of brain imaging research (e.g., cognitive psychology, single-unit recording, computational modeling). At the meeting, these researchers will present the latest results from their labs and discuss the ways in which imaging can and cannot provide answers to cognitive questions. The meeting will include sessions on modularity, visual object representation, development and plasticity, visual attention, and sensorimotor integration. Every effort was made to include minorities, women, and researchers at early stages of their careers. We anticipate that several factors will guarantee that this meeting will have a broad impact not only on those attending it, but also on the field as a whole: i) the prestige of the IASAP, ii) the high visibility of many of the meeting participants, and iii) the long tradition of publishing from each Attention & Performance meeting an excellent and widely-cited volume of articles.