Institute of Psychology RAS, The Interregional Association for Cognitive Studies, and the Russian Language Development Centre announce the Third International Conference on Cognitive Science (Biennale of Cognitive Science 2008), to be held in Moscow, Russia, June 20-25, 2008. This conference succeeds the First and Second Conferences on Cognitive Science held in Kazan' (2004) and St. Petersburg (2006) (see the Association's website: www.cogsci.ru). The conference aims to organize a multidisciplinary forum for scientists exploring cognition and its evolution; intellect; thinking; perception; consciousness; knowledge representation and acquisition; language as a means of cognition and communication; brain mechanisms of cognition, emotion and higher forms of behavior. Psychologists, linguists, neuroscientists, computer scientists, philosophers, anthropologists, specialists in education, artificial intelligence, neuroinformatics and cognitive ergonomics, as well as other researchers interested in interdisciplinary research on cognition are invited to participate in the conference.

The central topics of the conference are the various aspects of and approaches to development: from brain plasticity, genetics and evolutionary anthropology to language acquisition and cross-cultural differences. Within the framework of these problems, the following issues will also be discussed: the development of emotion, the effects of fatigue in working and learning, the affective modulation of cognitive processes, as well as the abnormal development of cognition and the corresponding neurogenetic and neuropsychological mechanisms. At the same time, papers on all other major issues in contemporary cognitive studies will be welcomed.

The conference program will include lectures by leading experts in multidisciplinary cognitive studies. Invited speakers include the Nobel Prize winners Gerald Edelman and Daniel Kahneman, as well as Marc Hauser, George Lakoff, Michael Tomasello, Anne Treisman, Stella Vosniadou and others. Some of these lectures will be named in honor of such outstanding students of cognition, brain and development as Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria.

In addition to sessions and workshops with oral presentations, special attention will be given to poster sessions; these are planned to incorporate most of the papers. The working languages of the Conference are English and Russian. Accepted abstracts will be published by the beginning of the Conference.

The deadline for abstract submission is December 1, 2007. Abstracts should be submitted online via the conference website: www.cogsci2008.ru

Organizers of the Conference hope to keep the registration fee to a minimum. A competition for Student Travel Fellowships is to be announced. For further details on abstract submission and Travel Fellowships see the conference website. The Program Committee will accept papers on the basis of interdisciplinary relevance, novelty and scientific significance. The Program Committee reserves the right to assign accepted papers to a particular session of the conference. Applicants will be notified of their status by March 1, 2008.

Organizing Committee Chair - Yuri I. Alexandrov (Institute of Psychology RAS, Moscow)
Program Committee Chair - Boris M. Velichkovsky (Dresden and Moscow Universities)
Conference Secretary - Olga E. Svarnik (Institute of Psychology RAS, Moscow)
org@cogsci2008.ru