[AUDITORY] Cognitive Science Arena for Beginners: Bressanone (IT), February 28 - March 01, 2014

[Massimo Grassi <massimo.grassi@xxxxxxxx>]

(apologies for multiple postings but forward the message to those who
might be interested)

Dear colleague,

We are pleased to invite you to the second edition of the Cognitive
Science Arena for Beginners (CSAB). The conference will be held in
Brixen (Bressanone, Italy) in February 28th-March 1st, 2014.

The key-ideas of the CSAB are the following:
[1] young speakers only (students, doctoral students and post-doctoral
students, researchers with a fixed-term contract...);
[2] long time for talks and discussion: 20 minutes talk + 10 minutes
discussion for each speaker;
[3] talks only (no poster session);
[4] no parallel sessions;
[5] in progress and high-risk research are welcome.
[6] several anonymous reviewers: at the end of each talk, attendees can
write their comments, critics and suggestions to the speaker. Comments
will be later given to the speaker to provide each speaker with a strong
feedback.

Our aim is to set a conference where talks are made in a friendly and
cooperative environment with the audience challenging the speaker in a
fruitful debate. The goal of CSAB is to provide a competent and useful
âboot campâ for the speaker where anyone can practice the skill of
giving a talk and develop his/her research based on suggestions of the
audience. Along this line, highly innovative research ideas as well as
âin progressâ research are encouraged.

Topics include (but are definitely not limited to):
developmental cognition and education, language, memory, perception,
psychometrics, neuroscience, social and clinical psychology, etc.

Abstracts
Participants willing to present a talk at CSAB must submit an abstract
through the conference website. Abstracts will be selected on the basis
of the principle "first come first served". The deadline for the
abstract submission is January the 30th, 2014.

Spirit and mood
The idea of CSAB is to reverse the usual format of scientific
conferences. Young researchers first: they play the starring role (no
talks from senior researchers are allowed), they pay no fees (senior do)
and they compete for a prize for the best talk voted by the audience.
We would like to bring together the brightest and youngest minds now
working in cognitive science and to give them a fruitful and cooperative
environment. For this reason, the scientific committee will be also
recruited within young senior researchers.

Suggested accommodations
- Accademia Cusano: http://www.cusanus.bz.it/it/index.asp
(We reserved several rooms there, up to January, the 30th: when booking
just specify the name of our conference).
- Youth hostel: http://brixen.jugendherberge.it/cs.asp?st=1&sp=it
In any case, we suggest to book early: the conference is held within a
holiday season.

Registration fees
The CSAB has no registration fees for students, doctoral students and
post-doctoral students. A fee of 50 euro will be asked to senior
researchers. This fee will be used to cover part (or all) of the
conference expenses.

âValiant 2014â Prize
During the presentations, the audience votes for the âbest CSAB talkâ.
At the end of the conference, the best speaker will receive a
certificate and a monetary award.

Language
The official language of CSAB is English.â

Social events
CSAB includes two social events. We are planning to arrange for a sleigh
ride (held the first *night* of the meeting: be prepared!) and for a
wine & cheese buffet at the end of the conference.

A tip for all
Bressanone is well known ski-resort. Enjoy this chance and come to the
conference appropriately equipped.

Conference website
More information, abstract submission and registration forms
can be found here:
http://cogsci.altervista.org/

Contacts:
Staff: cogsci.begin@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:cogsci.begin@xxxxxxxxx>

The organisers:
Demis Basso: demis.basso@xxxxxxxx <mailto:demis.basso@xxxxxxxx>
Chiara Begliomini: chiara.begliomini@xxxxxxxx
<mailto:chiara.begliomini@xxxxxxxx>
Massimo Grassi: massimo.grassi@xxxxxxxx <mailto:massimo.grassi@xxxxxxxx>
Sara Mondini: sara.mondini@xxxxxxxx <mailto:sara.mondini@xxxxxxxx>

Supporting institutions:
- Centre for Applied Cognitive Neuroscience (CeNCA)
- Department of General Psychology, UniPD
- Faculty of Education, UniBZ
- Associazione Italiana di Psicologia - Sezione Sperimentale

See you in Bressanone!
The CSAB team