ASSC July Newsletter
*You are receiving this newsletter TWICE because we are testing out a new way of sending out newsletters. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience caused by this test. Please let us know if this is the FIRST time you've received the newsletter.*
------------------------------
ASSC NEWSLETTER - July 2012
------------------------------
Dear Members of ASSC,
This newsletter includes:
- ASSC EVENTS:
1. ASSC16 Aftermath- from the Organizers
2. ASSC16 Aftermath- from the Student Committee
3. Call for New ASSC Committee Members
4. ASSC 17 Announcements
5. ASSC Consciousness Outreach
6. New ASSC Newsletter Platform
Newsletter URL: http://www.theassc.org/newsletters/assc_july_newsletter
----------------------
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
----------------------
All members of the ASSC are invited to submit items for inclusion in the newsletter that are of potential interest to the general membership to Chien-Hui (Lynn) Chiu (ccf79@mizzou.edu) by no later than the 10th of the month (subject: ASSC newsletter) Items should be in the form of ONE paragraph of plain ASCII text no longer than 250 WORDS, and should be of general relevance to the MAINSTREAM ACADEMIC study of consciousness. The submitting author must be a current member of the ASSC. Submissions that do not meet these requirements may be rejected without further correspondence.
----------------------
ASSC EVENTS
----------------------
1. ASSC16 AFTERMATH- FROM THE ORGANIZERS
Corresponding authors: Anil Seth (A.K.Seth@sussex.ac.uk) and Zoltan Dienes (zoltan.dienes@googlemail.com)
First, to all those who came to Brighton - thank you for coming and for
making ASSC16 what was truly a special week. Zoltan and I, and all the
local organizers, thoroughly enjoyed it, and we thought the academic
content was unusually excellent. As is often said, the success of the
ASSC meetings depends entirely on the active and enthusiastic
involvement of its membership, and we were not disappointed in the least
this year. We are sure that similar enthusiasm will ensure the success
of ASSC17 next year in San Diego!
*ASSC16 statistics*
Overall, 505 people attended ASSC16, having submitted 403 abstracts,
setting new records for ASSC meetings. We are particularly delighted
with this figure given the unfortunate clash with the also-excellent
Montreal summer school on consciousness. We enjoyed a strong media
presence, with several ASSC16 presentations already having been written
up in Nature and the New Scientist (see links below - and note that the
Nature write-up was for a poster, not a talk!). We'll keep track of
more media stories as they appear - and if you become aware of any based
on your ASSC16 presentations do please let us know.
http://www.nature.com/news/racial-bias-colours-visual-perception-1.10961
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2012/07/half-a-heartbeat-changes-our-r.html
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2012/07/alcohol-hypnosis.html
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2012/07/out-of-body-experience-highlig.html
(forgive the focus on Sackler Centre research ...)
*ASSC16 continue the conversation*
ASSC16 has finished but all the wonderful discussions need not. Continue
the conversation on Twitter (#ASSC16), on facebook
(www.facebook.com/assc16brighton), and especially on the ASSC forum,
which has dedicated spaces for each session and presentation (thanks
Kingson!): http://theasscforum.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/welcome.html.
Videos of some of the talks and sessions will also be made available soon.
*ASSC16 in the community*
An important innovation for ASSC16 was our emphasis on public events,
including an evening with Peter Naish discussing hypnosis, but most
strikingly our State-of-Mind public 'expo' on consciousness science,
which attracted over 1800 members of the public, of all ages and
backgrounds, in a single day. Thanks to this event ASSC16 really became
a citywide celebration of consciousness science. Our thanks to David
Schwartzman in particular for his vision and realization of this
project, with the able assistance of Hazelle Woodhurst and Emily
Collins. We will update the website www.consciousnessexpo.co.uk to
properly archive the event; in the meantime enjoy a short movie tour
here: https://vimeo.com/45527207
*ASSC16 would like to thank*
Very many people contributed to the success of ASSC16. We thank in
particular the scientific committee (Amanda Barnier, Olaf Blanke, Olivia
Carter (particular thanks for her enormous help over the year),
Frederique de Vignemont, David Edelman (ASSC17 co-chair), Katalin
Farkas, Sid Kouider, Joelle Proust - as well as Zoltan and I); the
student committee (Adrienne Prettyman, Kingson Man, Fauve Lybaert); the
local organizing committee (Hugo Critchley, Andy Mealor, Nick Medford,
Ryan Scott, David Scwhartzman, Jamie Ward, Hazelle Woodhurst - and me
and Zoltan); all the researchers at the Sackler Centre (Adam Barrett,
Lionel Barnett, Daniel Bor, Sarah Garfinkel, Eugenia Radulescu, Nicolas
Rothen, Keisuke Suzuki, Hazel Anderson, Cass Gould, Rebecca
Semmens-Wheeler, Tom Wright); our graphic design and art team (Kate
Genevieve, Aneurin Wright, Alex Peckham); the staff at The Dome (Morgan
Robinson, Delphine Cassara); our magician (Mark Mitton); a whole army of
about 60 student volunteers regrettably too numerous to name; the ASSC
board and the Mind Science Foundation for generous travel scholarship
funding, and the University of Sussex and the Dr. Mortimer and Theresa
Sackler Foundation for their essential support. Special thanks go to
Hazelle Woodhurst and David Schwartzman for their superlative
adminstrative help over the last year.
----------------------
2. ASSC16 AFTERMATH- FROM THE STUDENT COMMITTEE
Corresponding author: Adrienne Prettyman (adrienne.prettyman (at) gmail.com)
*Let's Continue the Discussion*
ASSC may be over, but the discussion continues! Join us on the ASSC forums to comment on talks at ASSC16. Each session has its own discussion page, and presenters can upload talk materials on their presentations. If you couldn't make it to Brighton, this is a great way to get involved!
Join the discussion: http://theasscforum.blogspot.ca/
Questions or comments contact kingson.man (at) gmail.com
*Poster Competition Winners*
With a record number of participants, this year we had 5 winners across three categories: Neuroscience, Psychology & Philosophy.
The winners are:
Neuroscience:
- Marnix Naber (Philipps University, Germany & Harvard University, US)
"Reflexes Objectify Changes in Awareness during Perceptual Rivalry"
with Stefan Fraessle & Wolfgang Einhaeuser
- Corinne Bareham (MRC - Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK)
"Losing your Left Side of the World by Dozing Off: Auditory Spatial Neglect-Like Effects in Drowsy Normal Participants"
Psychology:
- Simandeep Poonian (The University of Queensland, Australia)
"Intentional Binding in Self-Made and Observed Actions: Implications for Sense of Agency"
with Ross Cunnington
- Hiroshi Ueda (University of Tokyo & Japan Society for the Promotion of Science)
"Perceptual, Rather than Physical, Disappearance of a Fixation Point Determines the Magnitude of the Gap Effect"
with Kohske Takahashi & Katsumi Watanabe
Philosophy:
- Adrienne Prettyman (University of Toronto)
"Is There a Diffuse Mode of Attention?"
Congratulations to our five winners! If you are a winner and have not been contacted about your prize, please email A.D.Mealor (at) sussex.ac.uk for more information.
Special thanks to our volunteer poster judges:
Tristan Bekinschtein
Heather Berlin
Gabriella Bottini
Andrew Brook
Emery Brown
Kevin Connolly
Esa Diaz-Leon
Steve Fleming
Christophe Lopez
Michael Madary
Albert Newen
Morten Overgaard
Pasha Parpia
Jobst Ricke
Jerome Sackur
Natasha Sigala
Simon van Gaal
Robert Norman Vangulick
Masatoshi Yoshida
*ASSC 16 Mentor Event*
This year, 10 mentors and 40 students sat down to a catered lunch to discuss tips for making a career in the study of consciousness. Thanks to this year's mentors for helping to make the mentor program a success!
Sue Blackmore
Ned Block
Axel Cleeremans
David Edelman
Andreas K. Engel
Christof Koch
Thomas Metzinger
Josef Perner
Geraint Rees
Anil Seth
*ASSC 16 - Call for Pics*
Thanks to everyone who made ASSC 16 a success! If you have pictures from the conference or student events, please email them to adrienne.prettyman (at) gmail.com so that we can share them on the website.
----------------------
3. CALL FOR NEW ASSC COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Corresponding author: Sundeep Teki (sundeep.teki@gmail.com)
Further information: http://www.theassc.org/assc_committees
Deadline: Aug. 21st, 2012
The ASSC is a member run society that benefits greatly from the active
involvement of members in its multiple committees. These committees
perform a variety of different functions that are critical for the
day-to-day running of the ASSC. All members are eligible to serve.
New members are currently required for the CONFERENCE, ELECTIONS, STUDENT,
and MEMBERSHIP committees. For an overview of the various committees visit the
website http://www.theassc.org/assc_committees.
Members terms on the committees are staggered, with an equal number of new
members being appointed each year after the conference. If you would like
to join one of the committees or have any questions, please send your application
with the following information to Sundeep (sundeep.teki@gmail.com):
1) A para (~200 words) detailing your background
2) A para (~200 words) indicating which committee you would like to join and
what you think that committee should try to achieve.
3) CV as a pdf or word document (less than 3 pages).
Submissions close Aug. 21, 2012.
----------------------
4. ASSC17 ANNOUNCEMENTS
Corresponding author: David Edelman (david_edelman@nsi.edu)
The 17th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of
Consciousness will be held in San Diego, California from July 11th-15th,
2013. The venue for ASSC 17 will be the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and
Marina located on Harbor Island along beautiful San Diego Bay--a short cab
ride to the fine dining and attractions of downtown San Diego and the
colorful Gaslamp district. We hope that you'll be able to join us next
year in San Diego for ASSC 17! Please check out
http://theassc.org/assc_17 periodically for updates.
----------------------
5. ASSC CONSCIOUSNESS OUTREACH
Corresponding author: Lynn Chiu (ccf79@mizzou.edu)
Latest research articles at your fingertips! Access consciousness research from the ASSC website:
http://theassc.org/latest_journal_articles
Journals include: Journal of Consciousness Studies, Consciousness and Cognition, Brain and
Behavioral Science, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, and new uploads at PhilPapers: Consciousness.
Please recommend related journals by emailing suggestions to Lynn Chiu (ccf79@mizzou.edu).
Keep up with instant consciousness-related news around the world by following ASSC at:
ASSC Students Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheASSC
ASSC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theASSC
----------------------
6. NEW ASSC NEWSLETTER PLATFORM
Corresponding author: Lynn Chiu (ccf79@mizzou.edu)
The ASSC newsletter is gradually moving to a new platform. We will be sending the newsletters via our website at http:/theassc.org
If you have a membership account, you will receive the newsletter in your email mailbox. To access past issues of the newsletter, please check out the newsletter link at: http://theassc.org/assc_newsletters, which, in the future, will only be available for ASSC members.
----------------------
Keep up with instant consciousness-related news around the world by following ASSC at:
ASSC Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheASSC
ASSC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theASSC