[AUDITORY] Cognitive Science Arena: Brixen-Bressanone (IT), February 18-19th, 2022

[Massimo Grassi <massimo.grassi@xxxxxxxx>]

[Apologies for cross-posting, please distribute widely!]

Dear colleague,

we are pleased to invite you to the tenth edition of the Cognitive 
Science Arena (CSA).

For this edition we are planning an in-person meeting, held in Brixen 
(Italy) on February 18-19th 2022. In particular, we would like 
presenters of talks and posters to be in person in Bressanone (unless, 
at the moment of the conference, the person cannot travel to Bressanone 
because of SARS-COV2 restrictions). The conference will be also welcome 
for in person attendees. We will also online stream the talk sessions 
(it will be impossible for posters) for the attendees that would like to 
join from remote. Note that Italy currently uses the European green pass 
to screen the admittance of people to public places: you need to have it 
to enter into the building of the university. In the case that we have 
to cancel our in-person CSA, due to a recrudescence of the pandemic, we 
will move everything online as we did this year.

Spirit and mood
The aim of the CSA is to set a conference where young scientists can 
disseminate their scientific contributions in a friendly and cooperative 
environment, and challenge the senior scientists in a fruitful debate. 
In particular, highly innovative research ideas as well as 
research-in-progress are encouraged. The idea of the CSA is to reverse 
the usual format of scientific conferences. Young researchers first: 
they play the starring role (no talks or posters from senior researchers 
are allowed), they compete for a prize for the best talk and poster 
voted by the audience. We would like to bring together young and 
promising minds now working in cognitive science and provide them with a 
fruitful and cooperative environment.
Topics include (but are not limited to) all areas (and surroundings) of 
cognitive science: developmental cognition and education, language, 
memory, perception, psychometrics, anthropology, economics and social 
sciences, neuroscience, clinical psychology, and animal cognition, just 
to mention a few.

*NEW THIS YEAR* (DUE LAST YEAR, BUT POSTPONED TO THIS YEAR)
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Olivia Guest (Assistant Professor in 
Computational Cognitive Science at the Donders Centre for Cognition and 
the School of Artificial Intelligence, at Radboud University, 
Netherlands) will be our keynote speaker (Smart Talk) at CSA2022. Dr. 
Guest will give a talk on "How computational modeling can force theory 
building in psychological science".

The key-ideas of the CSA are the following:
[1] works by young scientists only (master students, PhD and post-doc 
students, and researchers with a fixed-term contract...);
[2] long time for each speaker: 15 minutes talk + 10 minutes discussion;
[3] "You will never talk alone" poster-session with dedicated time for 
each poster;
[4] "Short-talks for posters": poster presenters are asked to prepare a 
three-minutes talk (with PowerPoint-like presentations) that summarizes 
and introduces the audience to the content of the poster;
[5] “One minute for you!” The last minute of the discussion, the 
discussion stops and the audience is asked to write down (either via 
paper or Padlet) one or more comments to the presenter.
[5a] "Verba volant, scripta manent" (aka, several anonymous reviewers): 
attendees can write comments, criticisms and suggestions to the speaker 
via paper and pencil. Comments are delivered to the speaker at the end 
of the talk (or poster) session;
[5b] PADLET: we use padlet. Padlet (https://padlet.com/) is a virtual 
blackboard where you can write (anonymously or not: you decide!) 
questions, comments, criticisms, hurray, etc. while the speaker is 
giving his/her talk;
[6] In progress and high-risk research are welcome!

Type of contribution: talk and poster
CSA is accepting two types of contributions: talks and posters. Talks 
consist of a 15 minute-presentation, followed by a 10-minute discussion. 
The poster session is divided in two moments. On the first day of the 
conference (Friday), poster presenters are asked to give a three minutes 
talk that introduces the audience to the content of the talk. The 
following day (Saturday) takes place the “You will never talk alone 
poster session” with regular posters and dedicated time and discussion 
for each poster presented in day one. A note for participants: this type 
of poster session (i.e., short talk plus regular poster) is strongly 
recommended for in progress or research ideas (i.e., research that has 
no data yet).

Abstracts submission and selection
Participants must submit an abstract through the conference website 
(please, specify "talk" or "poster" when submitting). Abstracts will be 
selected on the basis of the principle "first come first served" until 
slots for talks and posters will be available. In case the number of 
submissions exceeds the availability, the scientific committee will 
operate a selection among the received contributions according to the 
following criteria: (i) limit the overrepresentation of one (or more) 
research group/institution (ii) increase diversity in the research 
topics. In addition, the scientific committee may change the type of 
submission (e.g., from talk to a poster) in the case the research 
submitted is more suitable for the other format. This is often suggested 
for studies with no data yet. *Abstract can be submitted starting from 
the 06/12/2021 12:00 to the 07/01/2022 12:00 (i.e., noon) CET*. The 
authors of the selected abstracts will be email-notified within one week 
after submission deadline, and will be asked to confirm their 
participation by replying to our email (those who will not reply on time 
will be excluded from the final program).

Registration fees
- 20 euros registration fee for participants presenting talks or 
posters. The fee has to be paid as soon as the participant is 
acknowledged about the selection of his/her contribution. This fee is a 
deposit and a commitment to participate at CSA. Note: the fee is not 
returned if the participant withdraws the contribution.
- 60 euro is asked to tenured researchers;
- no fee for students, doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers 
that attend to the conference without presenting any contribution.
The fees will be used to partly (or fully) cover the expenses of the 
conference (lunches, coffee breaks and “Cheers, cheese & wine” buffet).

“Valiant" and "Painter" awards 2022
During the conference, the audience will vote for the best CSA talk and 
poster. At the end of the conference, the best speaker and the best 
poster presenter will receive a certificate and a monetary award.

Language
The official language of CSA is English.

Social events
CSA includes two worldwide famous social events: the “Friday night 
sleigh ride” (not included in the registration fee) and the “Cheers, 
cheese & wine" buffet (included in the registration fee). The sleigh 
ride is usually held the first evening of the meeting (i.e., Friday): be 
prepared! Contact massimo.grassi@xxxxxxxx for further information. The 
"Cheers, cheese & wine" buffet is held at the end of the conference.

Suggested (i.e., cheapest) accommodations
- Youth hostel: http://brixen.jugendherberge.it/
- Cusanus Academie: https://www.cusanus.bz.it/de/information/index.asp

How to get to CSA:
The closest airports are Innsbruck (INN) and Verona (VRN). The city of 
Brixen-Bressanone is along the railway line connecting the two cities 
(see maps here: https://cogsci.unibz.it/cityinfo.html)

Conference website
More information, abstract submission and registration forms can be 
found here:
https://cogsci.unibz.it

Contacts & info:
cog.sci.arena@xxxxxxxxx
Facebook: Cognitive Science Arena

The organizing committee:
Demis Basso (University of Bolzano): demis.basso@xxxxxxxx
Milvia Cottini (University of Bolzano): milvia.cottini@xxxxxxxx
Massimo Grassi (University of Padova): massimo.grassi@xxxxxxxx
Giovanni Mento (University of Padova): giovanni.mento@xxxxxxxx
Manila Vannucci (University of Firenze): manila.vannucci@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Supporting institutions:
- Faculty of Education, University of Bolzano
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova
- Associazione Italiana di Psicologia

See you in Brixen!

The CSA team