Qian Janice Wang, assistant professor, Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen
Anna Zamm, assistant professor, Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University

Abstract: Sharing food is a culturally universal bonding experience. Emerging evidence suggests that eating the same food, or even sharing from the same plate, can promote trust and cooperation between strangers. However, the sensory and cognitive mechanisms by which food sharing facilitates social affiliation are still unknown. The present project aims to disentangle sensory (shared food experience) from cognitive (knowledge of sharing) contributions to social outcomes of food sharing. Two lab-based food-sharing studies will be conducted where, by manipulating what participants are told about the shared foods and what they actually eat, we can disassociate the cognitive knowledge of food-sharing from the sensory experience. Partners will subsequently complete a social coordination game that either requires cognitive cooperation (Study 1, economic game) or sensorimotor coordination (Study 2, synchronization of dyadic finger-tapping). Thus, the present project will elucidate how different pathways to social affiliation via food-sharing (sensory versus cognitive) impact coordination across distinct domains of social behavior. 

Alberto Parola, postdoc, Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University

Abstract: Promising ML applications have shown great potential to identify vocal and speech markers of the most important neuropsychiatric conditions (e.g., Hitczenko et al., 2021; Cohen et al., 2021; Corcoran et al., 2020) and to develop systems able to monitor patients' symptoms and assist clinicians during the assessment process. However, these efforts face important limitations: the limited replicability and generalizability of previous results (Parola et al., 2022; Fusaroli et al., 2021), few attempts to explicitly account for the heterogeneity of the disorders (Mittal, 2021), and no concrete translation into effective clinical applications yet. What is critically lacking is an explicit reflection on the risks and limitations of ML applications that can support the development of robust, effective, and ethically grounded translational work. In this project, we will explore avenues to improve the clinical impact of ML applications in speech and voice research, focusing primarily on applicability and ethical concerns.  

To this end, we draw on an already collected large dataset of voice and speech samples from the Danish High Risk and Resilience Study - VIA7 study (Gantriis et al., 2019), which examined 522 children born to parents diagnosed with schizophrenia (SZ) or bipolar disorder (BP). Our goal is to develop conservative (i.e., more robust and generalizable) ML and NLP pipelines to identify vocal and language markers of clinical symptoms in children at high-risk, that can serve as a reference for future studies. In addition, we aim to assess the impact of heterogeneity (e.g., socioeconomic, demographic, and clinical differences) and the presence of potential methodological biases and limitations, and robustly test the reliability of the results against various preprocessing and analytical procedure. Finally, we will explore how ML techniques can concretely support the development of robust, effective, and ethically founded clinical applications, and evaluate how to include from the very design of a study a consideration of risks, limitations, and ethical practices. The final outcome is to provide a first solid effort - both conceptually and methodologically - for the development of better practices in ML, SSP and NLP clinical research.

Angela Woods, Professor of Medical Humanities, Department of English Studies, Durham University

Abstract: Over the last ten years, the UK has seen a sharp increase in the number of intellectually ambitious, humanities-led research investigations of health and human experience. These projects have both responded to and helped define a ‘critical’ turn in medical humanities characterised by more ‘entangled’ and experimental ways of working. In my roles as Co-Director of Hearing the Voice (a large, interdisciplinary study of voice-hearing based at Durham University from 2012-2022), Director of the UK’s Institute for Medical Humanities, and collaborator and advisor to other research teams, I have become fascinated by the way projects in our field imagine, actualise and value the contributions of particular disciplines. This talk will share findings of an interview study Dr Jamie Rákóczi and I conducted with literary studies academics who had worked on two or more critical medical humanities projects. What happens to literature, literariness, the literary text, and the literary scholar as they get caught up in collaborative, interdisciplinary, critical, and health-related projects? What are the theories of literature and of interdisciplinarity that emerge—not in abstraction, contemplation, or op-ed rhetoric but on the ground: in negotiation with funders, colleagues, managers, clinical and community collaborators? This talk will, I hope, be an invitation to wider discussion of some of the specific challenges and critical potential of research in and beyond the critical medical humanities. 

Alan O’Leary, Associate Professor in Film and Media in Digital Contexts, School of Communication and Culture, Dept of Media and Journalism Studies, Aarhus University
Martin Høybye, PhD Student, School of Culture and Society, Dept of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Aarhus University
Marie Hallager Andersen, dance artist and filmmaker

Abstract: How can the use of evolving creative constraints in interdisciplinary peer-to-peer reciprocal coaching contribute to the effective development of creative and creative-critical projects?

This presentation is a report of the experience and outcomes of the project ‘The Creative Potential of Evolving Constraints in Peer-to-Peer Reciprocal Coaching: A Three-way Investigation’, supported by IMC seed funding. The project was designed to gauge the utility of evolving creative constraints in the development of projects by the three participants (referred to as ‘makers’): a songwriter and doctoral researcher (Høybye), an academic video-essayist (O’Leary), and a dance artist and filmmaker (Hallager Andersen). 

The term creative constraints refers to deliberately adopted restrictions to choices in a given creative or creative-critical project. Constraint-based procedures are commonly employed and recognised as generative in artistic and design contexts, but they are also used in experimental academic work and have obvious relevance for practice research projects in an academic context. The modifier evolving refers to the adaptation of a constraint or set of constraints, or the application of further/different constraints, as a project proceeds, i.e., in response to work in progress. Three-way Investigation employed peer-to-peer reciprocal coaching to feed into the development of the three makers’ projects through the generation of evolving (sets of) constraints. This reciprocal coaching was peer to peer because each maker was expert in their own field and engaged in a project being offered for discussion and feedback even as each offered formative feedback on the other two makers’ projects. 

The presentation will set out the design of Three-way Investigation, and its theoretical coordinates. It will assess the utility of evolving constraint-setting by sharing the progress made in the four makers’ projects over a the series of peer-to-peer coaching meetings. 

Ingela Visuri, Senior lecturer, Department of Religious Studies, Dalarna University; Postdoctoral researcher, Interacting Minds Centre, Department of Culture, Cognition and Computation, Aarhus University

Abstract: It is widely acknowledged that education promotes well-being, but we also know that many autistic pupils struggle to participate in school. This presentation provides an overview of the outcomes achieved through an action research project conducted in two special educational schools for autistic pupils (10-19 years old) where we implemented a play-based approach to encourage and enhance participation in school activities. The initial aim was to support social learning through live action roleplay (larp), but as our understanding of participation was widened, we incorporated additional elements such as collaborative world-building, storyline development, character creation, costume design, and a workshop where the pupils crafted magical support animals. This promoted increased agency among the pupils as they got to choose between various activities and determine in what way they preferred to participate. In this presentation, I will primarily highlight two aspects: (1) the role of playfulness and humor in strengthening the relationships between pupils and educators, and (2) the recognition that participation can take various forms, of which some may not be immediately apparent. From a cognitive point of view, I will also propose that (a) larping provides a safe and brave space where autistic individuals can push their social boundaries, and (b) that narratives are particularly favorable in relation to autism, as they provide an interactional context that facilitates social interaction.

Savhannah Schulz and Kirsi Tilk, Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University

Abstract: Interacting Minds is an interdisciplinary research podcast and science communication project hosted by Arnault Quentin Vermillet and Savhannah Schulz. In each episode ofthe podcast, the two are joined by fellow interdisciplinary researchers to explore and discuss the work they have been doing and share a glimpse of the journey that brought them there. Outside of the recording studio, the project attempts to understand how researchers can build and maintain sustainable science communication platforms to build meaningful knowledge sharing exchanges with the public.

Kyosuke Tanaka, postdoc, Department of Management, Aarhus University

Abstract: Transactive memory systems (TMSs), colloquially known as ‘knowledge of who knows what,’ have been identified as a source of competitive advantage for organizations. To serve as a source of continuing competitive advantage, TMSs must be non-replicable across organizations but also adaptable to changing tasks and environmental conditions. This study investigates how a TMS updates when tasks change. Focusing on meta-knowledge—knowledge about the links between domains of knowledge and locations of that knowledge in a team, we develop a computer simulation where agents complete multiple decision-making tasks, with new task knowledge given to the team in between tasks. We vary the agents’ team communication network (centralized vs. decentralized) and the nature of knowledge distribution (generalized vs. specialized) to examine the extent to which new knowledge is incorporated into the team’s transactive memory, which in turn impacts team performance. From the simulation results, we derive testable hypotheses and propose an experimental design. Finally, by conducting an online group experiment, we test the hypotheses.

Ruth Grossman, Professor, Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, Emerson College

Abstract: During every face-to-face conversation, whether in person or on Zoom, we process a myriad of visual and auditory signals that lead us to form first impressions of our conversation partners within seconds. Research has shown that first impressions formed of autistic individuals tend to be less favorable than those formed of non-autistic individuals. This presentation will explore some of these findings, as well as various factors that lead to these less favorable impressions, including facial and vocal expressions, as well as the social expectations of the conversation partners.

Barbara Berger, Postdoc, AIAS-COFUND Fellow, Aarhus University

Abstract: Working memory (WM) is one of the three key components of executive functions (EF) along with inhibition and cognitive flexibility. EF are at the core of our everyday functioning enabling us to focus our attention, inhibit responses and allow updating of rules we follow. While these components are functionally distinct, they are also intertwined with often shared, partially overlapping cortical mechanisms and regions. Item maintenance in WM, for instance, also requires attention allocation, inhibition of unwanted sensory input and motor output as well as the ability to switch one’s focus. Hence it is not surprising that such complex set of operations are supported by a large distributed network of cortical areas. Our brain supports this chaotic mix of tasks by optimally aligning activation in various different regions apparently seamlessly. Unless something goes wrong.
The impairment of EF processes in general and WM in particular can have devastating effects on people. Depending on the severity, it can make it impossible for patients to function autonomously.
In this talk I will present findings from my research using non-invasive electrophysiology (EEG/MEG) combined with neurostimulation (TMS) identifying long-range network dynamics that can reliably predict behavioural outcome of higher cognitive operations that are part of the family of EF, like the allocation of cognitive resources for successful WM performance. I will present network disruptions manifested in disorders like for instance Schizophrenia that could underly WM impairment and a brief outlook why and how understanding basic mechanisms can directly translate to therapeutic interventions.

Johanne Nedergaard, PhD student, Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University
Mikkel Wallentin, Professor, Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University

Abstract: Speech addressed to the self (self-talk) is a prominent part of most people’s conscious experience. This self-talk can have both beneficial (planning, self-regulation) and detrimental (anxiety, rumination) consequences. In this study, we focused specifically on physiological consequences of difference kinds of self-talk. We measured participants’ whole-body movements, respiration, and heart rate while they talked to themselves covertly in either a positive or a negative manner as well as during silent counting (the control condition). Our main hypothesis was that positive and especially negative self-talk would be associated with elevated heart rate in the absence of motor movement compared with the control condition. The relationship between inner speech, cognition, and the body has important implications for theories on rumination and depression.

Sarah Pini, Assistant Professor, Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark

Abstract: The concept of presence in Western culture informs a cluster of different connotations, encompassing metaphysical, existential, psychological, cognitive, and performative dimensions (Heidegger, 1996 [1927]; Merleau-Ponty, 2012 [1945]; Derrida, 1997 [1967]; Clark, 1997; Noë, 2012). Here I focus on the concept of stage presence in different dance and performance practices. The classic model of stage presence broadly relates to the performer’s individual quality to enchant audience’s attention, and by focusing primarily on the agency of the skilled performer, it neglects audience’s participation (Sherman, 2016). Scholars who adopted an enactive and phenomenological perspective (Pini 2021; Pini 2019; Sherman, 2016; Zarrilli, 2009, 2012; Macneill, 2014) have tackled this classic view, revealing and accounting for the complexities of such encounter. Through a cognitive ecological and ethnographic approach (Hutchins, 1995, 2010) I investigate variations of presence in different dance practices and choreographic contexts: the case of the Ballet National de Marseille and the re-creation of Emio Greco’s piece Passione (Pini and Sutton, 2021), improvising together and interkinaesthetic agency in Contact Improvisation (Deans & Pini, 2022; Pini, McIlwain & Sutton, 2016); environmental attunement and ecological agency in Body Weather, a radical movement ideology informing the short dance film AURA NOX ANIMA by Palestinian-Australian visual artist Lux Eterna (Pini, 2022; Pini & Deans 2021). By exploring how dancers articulate their lived experience of presence, and how different dance ecologies shape different enactments of presence, I suggest adopting an ecological notion of stage presence in dance and performing arts.

Alba Montes Sánchez, Postdoc, Center for Subjectivity Research, Department of Communication, University of Copenhagen

Abstract: In this talk I seek to articulate a notion of "sense of belonging" that can shed light on the emotional impact of migration. Psychology research into the latter focuses on two complex phenomena, acculturation stress and migratory grief, but studies them in isolation from each other, and pays little attention to their common root: a challenged sense of belonging. The sense of belonging has recently been conceptualized in two ways. According to one account, it is an "existential feeling": a background affective orientation that shapes an individual’s space of possibilities (Ratcliffe 2008). As such, it amounts to a pre-reflective sense of togetherness that allows us to experience the world as a shared space (Wilde 2021). According to another proposal, the sense of group belonging is an episodic feeling, akin to other standard emotions, with an intentional target (the subject’s relation to the group), a formal object (the hedonically positive value of certain commonalities between oneself and the group) and a focus of concern (roughly, fitting in and being valued by other group members) (Szanto forthcoming). I argue that both notions are necessary. Episodic feelings of belonging arise against the backdrop of an existential feeling and respond to its disturbances and alterations, and these in turn shed light on the relations between acculturation stress and migratory grief.

Mette Leonard Høeg, Hosted Research Fellow, The Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford

Abstract: In this presentation, I argue for the value of integrating literary studies in consciousness research and ethics to develop a strong ethical and existential dimension in the field. More specifically, I consider the potential of fictional narrative for developing concepts of selfhood and personal identity that cohere with the reductionist explanations of human consciousness and self in modern empirical consciousness research and are sustainable in a posthuman future. My central claim is that looking to the literary representations of human consciousness and existence that reject or are free from conventional essentialist ideas of self, agency and anthropocentrism can help 'normalise' the reductionist scientific descriptions of humans and reduce their psychologically and socio-culturally disruptive impact. I use Virginia Woolf’s The Waves as an example and show how the novel’s non-anthropocentric and nonessentialist conceptions of self and consciousness overlap with materialist theories in neuroscience and -philosophy, but present these in a distinctive narrative framework and poetic terms that bring out the inherent emancipatory potential of the materialist explanation of human existence and offer the reader the possibility of relating to these experientially and emotionally.

Patrick Cairns, PhD student, Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University

Abstract: Most people want their doctor to be empathetic, but to what degree should it be a part of a doctor’s education? Should doctors be expected to rely on their innate person skills when faced with finite time and resources, as well as a curriculum depicting a predominately biomedical view of people? In this talk, PhD student Patrick Cairns will explore the topic of empathy in healthcare in general, as well as the use of a novel and simple communication tool in medical education: an empathy map. He will do this through the lens of his own PhD journey.

Jonathan Stavnskær Doucette, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University

Abstract: Danish democracy became consolidated during the long nineteenth century. Subsequently, political engagement has been consistently high and anti-democratic parties have received very little electoral support. However, this unique democratic experience has not been subject to quantitative examination due to a lack of data. Our project makes this possible by coding new data on turnout and electoral results for all elections between 1849 and 1915 at a geographically fine-grained level. 

In addition, we propose that Folk High Schools, which sought to teach civic skills to students, increased political engagement and democratic support. The project advances our understanding of Democratic consolidation in new democracies.

Yngwie Asbjørn Nielsen, Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University

Abstract: Semantic priming - the facilitation of linguistic processing observed when a word follows a semantically related word - is a cornerstone within cognitive science, linguistics, and natural language processing. Large-scale databases on semantic priming have provided researchers with invaluable resources for designing experiments and developing computational models of language processing. However, the existing databases have insufficient sample sizes and are often restricted to a single language: English. In an extensive collaboration organized by the Psychological Science Accelerator, researchers from across the world will explore cross-linguistic differences in the semantic priming effect and build a new, highly-powered database spanning multiple languages. In this project, we will add Danish to a state-of-the-art resource openly available to linguists, cognitive scientists, and anyone interested in improving our understanding of language in general and Danish in particular.

Ella Paldam, Head of Learning, The Science Museums, Aarhus University

Abstract: Several projects at the IMC collaborate with external partners such as museums, libraries and schools to develop creative and constructionist learning environments. Educators are invaluable collaborators because they know the learners and the cultures at partner institutions. Yet, external partners also represent a challenge: when we collect data from children, we commit to a complicated set of ethical and legal data regulations. For some partner institutions, the work load of setting up secure data handling infrastructure and negotiating data agreements through state and municipal offices render this type of research unfeasible. This puts at risk opportunities to strengthen the learning potential at these institutions through collaborative research and development projects. 

When we implement creative learning environments, a key component is professional development of educators at partner institutions. Taking inspiration from international collaborators from Fondazione Reggio Children (Reggio Emilia, Italy), the Tinkering Studio (San Francisco Exploratorium), and Project Zero (Harvard Graduate School of Education), we invite educators to document learning using established practices and thinking routines. The documentation is designed to make learning visible in order to deepen learning. Yet, the potential of documentation as a research tool is still underdeveloped. 

This seed explores whether we can develop the educators’ documentation practices into a reliable source to deepen our understanding of children’s learning. Through systematic repeated interviews with educators that explore their documentation, we trace pedagogical changes caused by the implementation of new approaches to learning. By asking educators to point to and reflect on visible traces of learning from their own practice, we explore an aspect of documentation that holds potential for future IMC-based projects. 

Simon Devylder, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, Norway

Abstract: When people talk about kinship systems, they often use co-speech gestures and other representations to elaborate (Enfield 2005, Gaby 2016). This paper investigates such polysemiotic (spoken, gestured, and drawn) descriptions of kinship relations, to see if they display recurring patterns of conventionalization that capture specific social structures. I present a case study from Paamese, a Melanesian ethnolinguistic community from Vanuatu, where 40 Paamese speakers were asked to talk about their family in semi-guided kinship interviews (Enfield & Levinson 2003). Analyses of the speech, gesture, and drawings produced during these interviews revealed that lineality (i.e. mother’s side vs. father’s side) is lateralized in the speaker’s gesture space. In other words, kinship members of the speaker’s matriline are placed on the left side of the speaker’s body and those of the patriline are placed on their right side, when they are mentioned in speech. Moreover, when Paamese speakers describe marital relations, they make a distinctive sagittal gesture on the left-diagonal axis or on the right-diagonal axis depending on the gender of the referred relative. Anecdotal evidence from the drawings performed on the ground during the interviews also appear to mark this contrast with crossed diagonals.

We interpret these results as evidence for the existence of a Paamese ‘polysemiotic kinship system’ and make the broader claim that they are instruments of cumulative cultural evolution, used to conceptualize, capture, and transmit knowledge about the structure and practices of a society. 

Renatas Berniūnas, MSCA Postdoctoral Fellow, Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University

Abstract: In this talk, before going to my fieldwork to study “Minds in the wild: conceptualising and attributing the mental among Mongolians” (MSCA project), I want to address some conceptual issues pertaining to the notion of “mind” and to the Theory of Mind at large. As a cognitive anthropologist, I will evaluate the role of culture in understanding the folk concept and theory of mind. Often, culture has been dismissed or neglected in theorising and empirically studying ToM (or social cognition at large) in cognitive sciences and philosophy. Moreover, the English term “mind” has been employed to represent a universal category of human thought. However, there is little systematic non-English cross-cultural data about the very concept of the “mind” or how the mental sphere is categorised and organised. To illustrate some points, I will provide an example from Mongolia – the indigenous mental term “setgel” and its connection to the wider cultural context. 

Christopher Cox, PhD student, Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science & Semiotics and Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University; Department of Language & Linguistic Science, University of York

Abstract: What can we learn about human language from communicative exchanges in bush crickets and whales? Communicative sound exchanges play a crucial role in the lives of many biological organisms and take a mind-blowing variety of forms - bush crickets communicate with mates over short distances by producing sound pulses during the closing stage of their wing cycle, and elephants produce low-frequency vocalisations at such high amplitudes that they vibrate through the surface of the ground to be detected by other elephants up to 10 kilometres away. No matter the form, all of these types of exchanges need to take timing into account. Interacting animals have to account for when the others are communicating, in some cases to avoid overlap (e.g., cetacean and avian species) and in other cases to produce synchronous vocalisations (e.g., anuran and katydid species).

In human communicative exchanges, timing is also key. A lot of research tries to disentangle how we learn to speak effortlessly to each other, shift rapidly between being talker and listener, and display a surprisingly low number of overlaps. In this talk, I will first systematically review the studies on how the ability to take turns develops in young human infants and identify crucial issues in the current way of investigating this capability. To provide alternative perspectives, I will then systematically review how turn-taking has been investigated and mathematically modeled in non-human animals - where researchers cannot rely as strongly on personal intuitions as to how turn-taking takes place. Finally, I will present a first exploratory analysis of child-caregiver turn-taking dynamics using models inspired by the non-human animal literature.