The CUNY conference this year (held at MIT) has a special session on “Language processing and language evolution” (https://cuny2017.mit.edu/special-session).

In addition, there will be a pre-conference workshop on cognitive universals (see below) that may be of interest.

Pre-CUNY Workshop at MIT
http://cuny2017.mit.edu/pre-cuny-workshop-mit
Searching for cognitive universals: evidence from remote societies

March 29, 2017, 9am – 6pm

Humans are endowed with a rich arsenal of cognitive abilities. Some of these have been argued to be universal (present across cultures), while others appear to be affected by cultural factors. Research from non-industrialized societies is critical to our understanding of what constitutes the core of the human nature (e.g., Henrich et al., 2010). This workshop brings together some of the world’s leading scientists conducting research with remote tribes/societies across diverse cognitive domains, including language, color, numerical cognition, and music, to highlight some of the latest results that shed new light on what makes us human.

1. Language, syntax: Dan Everett, Bentley University
2. Language, syntax: Ray Jackendoff. Tufts University
3. Language, words: Lera Boroditsky, UC San Diego
4. Color: Bevil Conway, NIH
5. Color: Terry Regier, UC Berkeley
6. Number: Barbara Sarnecka, UC Irvine
7. Number: Julian Jara-Ettinger, Yale
8. Number: Liz Spelke, Harvard
9. Music: Josh McDermott, MIT

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