Ingela Visuri, Senior Lecturer, Religious Studies, Dalarna University
Abstract: In this talk, Ingela Visuri will present her ongoing research project on live action role play (larp) and autism. Anecdotal reports suggest that autistic individuals are attracted to – and perhaps even overrepresented in – imagination-based hobbies, such as larp, Cosplay and MMORPGs (online role-playing video games). Studies are however wanting since previous hypothesis testing suggests that imagination would be reduced in autism. This project instead takes off in interviews with experienced, autistic larpers as well as observations of autistic teenagers who take part in educational larps in Sweden. The presentation focuses methodological aspects of studying autism, and some preliminary results on why larp appears to be an optimal, autistic space for social and theoretical learning are discussed from a cognitive point of view.
Qian Janice Wang, Assistant Professor, Department of Food Science, Aarhus University
Abstract: Eating is the most life-critical multisensory experience we encounter on a daily basis. Besides the food itself, the contribution of sensory information from the eating environment has however been widely neglected and under-exploited in answering the essential question of why people eat what they do. To conceptualise the merging of sensory information coming from the food itself and from the environment, I define a framework of virtual and augmented flavours, whereby digital or physical sensory cues can either enhance what is already present in the food (augmented flavour), or introduce new flavours not in the food (virtual flavours). In this talk, I will discuss examples of visual and auditory cues which give rise to virtual and augmented flavour “illusions”, highlighting how multisensory integration takes place in our everyday eating experiences.
Janeen Loehr, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan
Abstract: When people perform joint actions together, their individual actions (e.g., moving one end of a heavy couch) must be coordinated to achieve a collective goal (e.g., moving the couch across the room). Joint actions pose significant challenges for understanding people’s sense of agency, that is, their sense of generating and controlling actions and their effects on the world. Namely, each person engaged in a joint action can have a sense of agency not only at the individual level (a sense that “I did that” or “You did that”), but also at the collective level (a sense that “We did that together”). In this talk, I will discuss a series of studies aimed at uncovering the cues that elicit different forms of collective-level agency in musical joint action, including shared agency (a sense that agency is distributed among co-performers) and united agency (a sense that co-performers are acting a single unit). These studies employed a mixed-methods approach ranging from experimental manipulations of collective-level agency in duet music performance through qualitative investigations of people’s first-hand reports of united agency across a variety of musical settings. Implications of our findings for models of agency in joint action will be discussed.
Federico Mancinelli, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Trieste, Italy
Abstract: Recurrent patterns of unstable and ill-functioning interpersonal relationships are a crucial theme in borderline personality disorder (BPD). In the spirit of second-person neuroscience (Schillbach), I designed two novel paradigms to study multiple aspects of this disorder in the context of two-person interactions. These paradigms could constitute (after due refinement) useful instruments to disentangle, and measure, the underlying computational signatures of BPD symptoms. In this talk, I will first briefly introduce the audience to BPD, then delve into the novel paradigms, to ultimately give an overview of preliminary results from a first wave of behavioural studies.
Christian Suhr, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University
Abstract: The HEART OPENINGS project focuses on the experience and cultivation of love in religious and contemplative practice. Christian Suhr (PI) invites for a discussion of the project, which is planned to be conducted over five years (2021-2026) in collaboration with Buddhists, Christians and Muslims in Denmark, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Egypt – possibly also including additional contemplative communities in other parts of the world. Using audiovisual and microphenomenological methods, HEART OPENINGS seeks to examine the sensory and emotional structures of concrete experiences of love. Through participant observation and life history interviews, the project will examine and compare how the cultivation and experiences of love impact and emerge from people’s everyday lives across different contemplative and religious traditions.
Chiara Fini, Sapienza University of Rome
Abstract (excerpt): Abstract concepts might be acquired more through the linguistic inputs and less through the sensorimotor experience because of their higher complexity, heterogeneity and the lack of a physical referent. The major role played by the linguistic component is testified by evidence showing the involvement of the mouth during the processing of abstract meanings. Inner Speech (IS) might be associated with the involvement of the mouth: through the internal dialogue we might access complex meanings and/or we might prepare ourselves to a real social dialogue aimed to dispel any doubts about our knowledge (social metacognition).
Katherine Young, King's College, London; MQ Fellow
Abstract: I will present findings from two large-scale (>30,000 participants) research studies that have been examining mental health in young people and adults across the UK during the pandemic. We show that around 50% of participants report experiencing a perceived worsening in their mental health from before to after the beginning of the pandemic. However, in a subsample (n=12,000) of participants with pre-pandemic mental health data, we observe no meaningful overall changes in symptoms of anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. Perceived changes in the absence of symptom change may indicate a high degree of psychological distress. We also examined individual differences in risk of symptom change, finding that people with pre-existing mental health diagnoses, females, young people and those who are students or who are unemployed were at greatest risk for worsening symptoms.
Martin Wurzer, PhD Student, Department of Management
Abstract here.
Katrin Heimann, Assistant Professor
Interacting Minds Centre and Dept for Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Cognitive Semiotics.
Abstract: On explicit demand I will take the opportunity to continue last week's focus on ongoing work within the art-research collaboration EER. In particular, my talk will present micro-phenomenological (MP) data on the experience of #weusedto, a website launched in May 2020 as a tool to explore how the Covid-19 pandemic disrupts lives around the world by prompting reflections about our past and present realities. I hope that the presentation will not only allow portraying and discussing MP as a tool in the design of human computer interactions but also as a means to document the experience of art-science-interventions and will bring us to talk about the further use of the data as well as the website and its concept as such.
The weusedto website: https://www.weused.to/
See more about the EER project here: https://www.eer.info/
Cordula Vesper, Associate Professor
Interacting Minds Centre and Dept for Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Cognitive Semiotics.
Abstract: The ability to work together and share experiences with one another is an essential characteristic of human nature. Whereas the focus of much joint action research regards the cognitive processes involved in achieving a concrete goal together, the desired outcomes of creative joint processes such as in dance or music improvisation seem less clearly defined. Often, it is the experience of social interaction itself that is at the core and that can be rewarding and transformative.
Sunlight graffiti, a 2012 artwork by Olafur Eliasson, is all about movement, dance, and, embodiment. As part of the IMC-headed interdisciplinary project Experimenting, Experiencing, Reflecting, we have turned it into a new art-science installation: a joint movement that is both aesthetic experience and experiment. In this talk, I will tell a story of trying to bridge fields as diverse as art and science, movement and visualization, subjective experience and social coordination, and I will present first results from our investigation of improvised movement co-creation in the context of art museums.
Ada Maria Barone, BSS, Aarhus University.
Abstract here.
Christian Truelsen Elbæk, BSS, Aarhus University.
Abstract here.
Talk by Miruna Vozaru, IT University of Copenhagen.
Abstract here.
Talk by Niels Christian Hansen, Center for Music in the Brain and AIAS.
Abstract here.
Talk by Sadi Shanaah and Mathias Osmundsen, Department of Political Science
Abstract here.
Talk by Simon Tobias Karg, PhD Student, Department of Management.
Abstract here.
Talk by Peter Fazekas, AIAS, University of Antwerpen.
Abstract here.
Talk by Carsten Bergenholtz, Dept. of Management.
Abstract here.
Talk by Johanne Sofie Krog Nedergård, PhD Student, School of Communication and Culture - Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics
Abstract here.
Talk by Benjamin Ilsøe, cand.scient.soc.
Abstract here.
Talk by Tom Aabo, Department of Economics and Business Economics, AU
Abstract here.
Talk by Simone Cecilie Grytter, Dept. of Public Health, KU
Abstract here.
Talk by Marco Hubert, Dept. of Management
Abstract here.
Talk by Dominik Deffner, MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology
Abstract here.
Talk by Michael Bang Petersen, Department of Political Science
Abstract here.
Talk by Rebekah Baglini (LICS) and Arthur Hjorth (MGMT)
Abstract here.
