What: The Physics Education Research Group in the Department of Physics hosts seminar speakers from diverse fields such as science education, psychology, cognitive science, and anthropology.

When: Seminars usually begin at 4:00 PM every Wednesday during the Fall 2008 Semester

Where: Seminars are usually held in the Physics Department in room 1304

Confirmed Speakers For Fall 2008:

          ** This talk will be in PHYS 4220 # 3:30 PM** 

November 19: Linda B. Smith from the Cognitive Development Lab at Indiana University

"Thinking and learning close to the sensory-motor surface creates knowledge that transcends the here-and-now"

Abstract: Cognition, behavior, and development all happen in real time, through sensory-motor interactions with a physical world. In his classic theory of the emergence of cognition, Piaget proposed that infant cognition was grounded in these sensory-motor interactions and, indeed, limited by its very sensory-motor nature. One phenomenon that Piaget used to illustrate these ideas was the object concept as manifested in a task that has come to be known as the A not-B task. Infant’s perseverative searches for hidden objects in that task suggested object representations tightly tied to the here and now of perceiving and acting. In this talk, I will present evidence that Piaget was right; infant performance in the classic tasks used to measure the object concept are deeply tied to sensory-motor processes. I will then argue and present evidence that this seeming example of the sensory-motor nature of immature is revealing about a fundamental aspect of all of human cognition and its tie to the physical world through the sensory-motor system. In making this case, I will present an overview of the dynamic field model, new evidence on infant performance in the A-not-B task, and an extension of that model to and new evidence on children’s binding of names to objects. 

Recommended Readings for Nov. 19 Seminar

•  Smith, L. B., Thelen, E. (2003) Development as a dynamic system. TRENDS in Cognitive Science, 7, 343-348. [PDF]
• Sheya, A. & Smith, L. B. (submitted) Development through Sensory-Motor Coordinations [PDF]

December 3: Robert Lent, Department of Counseling and Personnel Services, University of Maryland 

Confirmed Speakers for Spring 2009:

          February 5: Chandralekha Singh, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh

          March 26: Randi Engel, School of Education, UC Berkeley

          April 2: Eric Brewe, Science Education, Florida International University (March)

April 23rd: Anna Sfard, Division of Science and Mathematics Education, University of Haifa, Israel

Megan Bang, TERC, Cambridge, MA (February)

Janet Coffey, Curriculum & Instruction, University of Maryland (TBD)

Seminars of interest elsewhere on campus

Cognitive science colloquium, Thursdays 3:30-5:30, Biosciences Research Building 1103

Tentative Speakers for the 2009-2010 Academic Year

Steve Pollock, Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder