Creative Minds: Cognitive Sources of Art and Discovery

Cognitio 2013

Young researchers conference in cognitive science

Montréal, June 26^th, 27^th and 28^th 2013

Cognitio is a young researcher’s conference held every other year at the Université du Québec à Montréal, under the auspices of its Cognitive Science Institute.

Over the past several years at Cognitio, many facets of the human mind were explored: decision making (2005), situated minds (2006), social cognition (2007), the evolution of minds and cultures (2009), and nonhuman minds, including animal, artificial and group minds (2011).

This time around, we will be focusing on the cognitive aspects of art and creativity. We aim to look at the cognitive nature of creativity and the brain processes that generate it or that are involved in its expression. We are interested in knowing to what extent creativity is controlled, spontaneous or unconscious, whether one has control on her own creative impulse and the impacts of training and practice on art production and on creative performance. Of course, art is an important form of human creative expression and it is an interesting project for cognitive scientists to find out if it involves the same parts of the brain or similar processes for each type of art (visual, oral, written, etc.) and if the creative processes in art share more than the name with creativity in other domains. Moreover, creativity occurs in many domains of human activity from industrial innovation to paradigm shifts in science; from coming up with better ways to carve stones to chiseling the perfect haiku.

Presentations including or about an artistic performance or production will be more than welcome, provided that there is a clear link with cognitive science.

Moreover, art and creativity is something that can be approached from various angles. These include, but are not limited to: neuroscience, psychology, artificial intelligence, anthropology, philosophy, musicology, etc. Many of the questions in this non-exhaustive list that follows could potentially benefit from a combination of these approaches:

• What is the evolutionary function of creativity and what role has it played in our development?
• Is creativity uniquely human? Are there elements of human creativity that are yet unknown in other species?
• Can creativity arise from a single mind, or does it need social interactions?
• What is the link between creativity and adaptation? Problem-solving? Curiosity? Can there be “non-creative” problem resolution?
• Is creativity monolithic, or rather involves a wide array of cognitive processes?
• What parts of the brain are involved in the creative process? What do lesions studies or pathologies reveal?
• Is there a scientific grounding to the idea that some of us are “left-brained” and others “right-brained”, and do these ideas really have a link with creative processes?
• What is the relationship between creativity and other cognitive processes? What are the cognitives steps and processes involved in a creative process? How is language used creatively? What role do linguistic processes play?
• What role does consciousness play in creativity? What role does memory or emotion play in creativity? And in art and aesthetics?
• What role does creativity play in the scientific process? How do we generate new scientific hypothesis or more radical paradigm shifts?
• Are art, innovation and science grounded in the same process(es)?
• What are the various ways in which we create art and react to it? How does the medium (visual, auditory, etc.) affect the perception of art ?
• What are the cognitive bases of the techniques pretending to improve creativity?

Submission of proposals for the conference is done through the EasyChair system. We are only asking for 600 words abstracts. EasyChair allows you to upload a separate document, but only the text entered in the "Abstract" field of your submission will be evaluated.

Deadline for submissions is March 3^rd March 17^th, 2013 (Dealine extended!)