Aug
3
Fri
Philosophy of Psychology Workshop @ Columbia University Philosophy Dept. 716
Aug 3 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

PoPRocks (formerly known as ‘WoPoP’) is an ongoing series in the NYC area for early career researchers – typically grad students and postdocs – working on philosophy of psychology/mind/perception/cognitive science/neuroscience/… . We usually meet roughly once every 2 weeks to informally discuss a draft paper by one of our members. Typically presenters send a copy of their paper around 1 week in advance, so do join the mailing list (by emailing poprocksworkshop@gmail.com or one of the organizers) or email to ask for a copy of the paper. We aim for a friendly, constructive discussion with the understanding that the drafts discussed are typically work in progress.

Summer Program:

Friday May 25th – Stephan Pohl (NYU)

 716 Philosophy Hall, Columbia (Morningside Heights Campus)

Friday July 13th – Kate Pendoley (CUNY)

 716 Philosophy Hall, Columbia (Morningside Heights Campus)

 “What’s So Special About Cognitive Reappraisal? Problems with the empirical work on emotion regulation”

If you find that you are despondent over a minor rejection, or excessively guilty about making an inconsequential mistake, you might try to reduce the intensity of your emotion by ‘looking on the bright side’ and taking a different perspective on the situation at hand. The empirical literature calls this strategy of emotion regulation cognitive reappraisal, and it is the most studied form of emotion regulation. Cognitive reappraisal is also widely lauded in the empirical literature as the most effective strategy for regulating emotions, and enjoys a foundational role in cognitive behavioral therapy partially on this basis. However, my paper argues that the experimental design of most of these studies is ecologically invalid: Experimenters prompt and train subjects such that the subjects are not performing the kind of cognitive reappraisal that we use outside the laboratory. Hence these studies fail to illuminate the target phenomenon. Moreover, the empirical literature’s notion of effectiveness is overly narrow and fails to appreciate the important relationship between effectiveness, ecological validity, and healthiness in the domain of emotion regulation. In light of these concerns I suggest improvements to experimental design and propose a more nuanced notion of effectiveness. 

Friday August 3rd – Nicolas Porot (CUNY)

 716 Philosophy Hall, Columbia (Morningside Heights Campus)

Friday August 24th – Olivia Odoffin (Rutgers)

 Room TBA

Friday August 31st – David Barack (Columbia)

 Room TBA

Aug
24
Fri
Philosophy of Psychology Workshop @ Columbia University Philosophy Dept. 716
Aug 24 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

PoPRocks (formerly known as ‘WoPoP’) is an ongoing series in the NYC area for early career researchers – typically grad students and postdocs – working on philosophy of psychology/mind/perception/cognitive science/neuroscience/… . We usually meet roughly once every 2 weeks to informally discuss a draft paper by one of our members. Typically presenters send a copy of their paper around 1 week in advance, so do join the mailing list (by emailing poprocksworkshop@gmail.com or one of the organizers) or email to ask for a copy of the paper. We aim for a friendly, constructive discussion with the understanding that the drafts discussed are typically work in progress.

Summer Program:

Friday May 25th – Stephan Pohl (NYU)

 716 Philosophy Hall, Columbia (Morningside Heights Campus)

Friday July 13th – Kate Pendoley (CUNY)

 716 Philosophy Hall, Columbia (Morningside Heights Campus)

 “What’s So Special About Cognitive Reappraisal? Problems with the empirical work on emotion regulation”

If you find that you are despondent over a minor rejection, or excessively guilty about making an inconsequential mistake, you might try to reduce the intensity of your emotion by ‘looking on the bright side’ and taking a different perspective on the situation at hand. The empirical literature calls this strategy of emotion regulation cognitive reappraisal, and it is the most studied form of emotion regulation. Cognitive reappraisal is also widely lauded in the empirical literature as the most effective strategy for regulating emotions, and enjoys a foundational role in cognitive behavioral therapy partially on this basis. However, my paper argues that the experimental design of most of these studies is ecologically invalid: Experimenters prompt and train subjects such that the subjects are not performing the kind of cognitive reappraisal that we use outside the laboratory. Hence these studies fail to illuminate the target phenomenon. Moreover, the empirical literature’s notion of effectiveness is overly narrow and fails to appreciate the important relationship between effectiveness, ecological validity, and healthiness in the domain of emotion regulation. In light of these concerns I suggest improvements to experimental design and propose a more nuanced notion of effectiveness. 

Friday August 3rd – Nicolas Porot (CUNY)

 716 Philosophy Hall, Columbia (Morningside Heights Campus)

Friday August 24th – Olivia Odoffin (Rutgers)

 Room TBA

Friday August 31st – David Barack (Columbia)

 Room TBA

Aug
31
Fri
Philosophy of Psychology Workshop @ Columbia University Philosophy Dept. 716
Aug 31 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

PoPRocks (formerly known as ‘WoPoP’) is an ongoing series in the NYC area for early career researchers – typically grad students and postdocs – working on philosophy of psychology/mind/perception/cognitive science/neuroscience/… . We usually meet roughly once every 2 weeks to informally discuss a draft paper by one of our members. Typically presenters send a copy of their paper around 1 week in advance, so do join the mailing list (by emailing poprocksworkshop@gmail.com or one of the organizers) or email to ask for a copy of the paper. We aim for a friendly, constructive discussion with the understanding that the drafts discussed are typically work in progress.

Summer Program:

Friday May 25th – Stephan Pohl (NYU)

 716 Philosophy Hall, Columbia (Morningside Heights Campus)

Friday July 13th – Kate Pendoley (CUNY)

 716 Philosophy Hall, Columbia (Morningside Heights Campus)

 “What’s So Special About Cognitive Reappraisal? Problems with the empirical work on emotion regulation”

If you find that you are despondent over a minor rejection, or excessively guilty about making an inconsequential mistake, you might try to reduce the intensity of your emotion by ‘looking on the bright side’ and taking a different perspective on the situation at hand. The empirical literature calls this strategy of emotion regulation cognitive reappraisal, and it is the most studied form of emotion regulation. Cognitive reappraisal is also widely lauded in the empirical literature as the most effective strategy for regulating emotions, and enjoys a foundational role in cognitive behavioral therapy partially on this basis. However, my paper argues that the experimental design of most of these studies is ecologically invalid: Experimenters prompt and train subjects such that the subjects are not performing the kind of cognitive reappraisal that we use outside the laboratory. Hence these studies fail to illuminate the target phenomenon. Moreover, the empirical literature’s notion of effectiveness is overly narrow and fails to appreciate the important relationship between effectiveness, ecological validity, and healthiness in the domain of emotion regulation. In light of these concerns I suggest improvements to experimental design and propose a more nuanced notion of effectiveness. 

Friday August 3rd – Nicolas Porot (CUNY)

 716 Philosophy Hall, Columbia (Morningside Heights Campus)

Friday August 24th – Olivia Odoffin (Rutgers)

 Room TBA

Friday August 31st – David Barack (Columbia)

 Room TBA

Sep
20
Thu
Temporal Discounting in Psychology and Philosophy: Four Proposals for Mutual Research Aid – Meghan Sullivan (Notre Dame) @ CUNY Grad Center, rm 9205
Sep 20 @ 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

SWIP-Analytic Fall 2018 Events

Thursday, September 20, 4:00pm-6:00pm
CUNY Graduate Center, Room 9205
Meghan Sullivan (Notre Dame), “Temporal Discounting in Psychology and Philosophy: Four Proposals for Mutual Research Aid”

Thursday, October 18, 4:00pm-6:00pm
Location TBA
Amie Thomasson (Dartmouth), Title TBA

Thursday, November 8, 4:00pm-6:00pm
Location TBA
Jessica Wilson (Toronto), Title TBA

More details will be added as they become available. Click here to download the flyer as a PDF.

Sep
27
Thu
David Barack ‘Stream of Thought’ @ Columbia University Philosophy Dept. 716
Sep 27 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Many cognitive processes rely on the preservation of contents across mental transitions or processes. Inference, for example, is a certain sort of content preserving mental transition from premises to conclusions. Content preservation is also important in communicating the contents of perception for further processing and for the influence of desires and belief on action. But what is content preservation? …

Oct
11
Thu
Working Papers in Ethics and Moral Psychology @ Icahn School @Mount Sinai, Annenberg 12-16
Oct 11 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Working Papers in Ethics and Moral Psychology is a speaker series conducted under the auspices of the Icahn School of Medicine Bioethics Program. It is a working group where speakers are invited to present well-developed, as yet unpublished work. The focus of the group is interdisciplinary, with an emphasis on topics in ethics, bioethics, neuroethics, and moral psychology. The meetings begin with a brief presentation by the invited speaker and the remaining time is devoted to a discussion of the paper. The speakers will make their papers available in advance of their presentation to those who sign up for the Working Papers mailing list.

Upcoming Speakers:

11 Oct: Jordan Mackenzie, NYU

8 Nov: Susana Nuccetelli, St. Cloud State

13 Dec: Michael Brownstein, John Jay

14 Mar: Kyle Ferguson, CUNY

18 Apr: Jeff Sebo, NYU

23 May: Johann Frick, Princeton

Nov
8
Thu
Working Papers in Ethics and Moral Psychology @ Icahn School @Mount Sinai, Annenberg 12-16
Nov 8 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Working Papers in Ethics and Moral Psychology is a speaker series conducted under the auspices of the Icahn School of Medicine Bioethics Program. It is a working group where speakers are invited to present well-developed, as yet unpublished work. The focus of the group is interdisciplinary, with an emphasis on topics in ethics, bioethics, neuroethics, and moral psychology. The meetings begin with a brief presentation by the invited speaker and the remaining time is devoted to a discussion of the paper. The speakers will make their papers available in advance of their presentation to those who sign up for the Working Papers mailing list.

Upcoming Speakers:

11 Oct: Jordan Mackenzie, NYU

8 Nov: Susana Nuccetelli, St. Cloud State

13 Dec: Michael Brownstein, John Jay

14 Mar: Kyle Ferguson, CUNY

18 Apr: Jeff Sebo, NYU

23 May: Johann Frick, Princeton

Dec
13
Thu
Working Papers in Ethics and Moral Psychology @ Icahn School @Mount Sinai, Annenberg 12-16
Dec 13 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Working Papers in Ethics and Moral Psychology is a speaker series conducted under the auspices of the Icahn School of Medicine Bioethics Program. It is a working group where speakers are invited to present well-developed, as yet unpublished work. The focus of the group is interdisciplinary, with an emphasis on topics in ethics, bioethics, neuroethics, and moral psychology. The meetings begin with a brief presentation by the invited speaker and the remaining time is devoted to a discussion of the paper. The speakers will make their papers available in advance of their presentation to those who sign up for the Working Papers mailing list.

Upcoming Speakers:

11 Oct: Jordan Mackenzie, NYU

8 Nov: Susana Nuccetelli, St. Cloud State

13 Dec: Michael Brownstein, John Jay

14 Mar: Kyle Ferguson, CUNY

18 Apr: Jeff Sebo, NYU

23 May: Johann Frick, Princeton

Feb
28
Thu
Bryce Huebner: “Meditating and hallucinating: A socially situated and neuro-Yogācarin perspective” @ Wolff Conference Room, D1103
Feb 28 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

A number of philosophers working on Buddhist traditions have recently explored similarities between the cultivated experience of not-self, and the clinical experience of depersonalization. In this talk, I will offer some reflections on this theme. But my primary aim will be to push a similar kind of exploratory project one step further. Drawing on tools from cognitive and computational neuroscience, as well as insights from Yogācāra Buddhist philosophy, I will explore some of the most significant similarities and differences between anomalous experiences evoked by meditation, and anomalous experiences that are commonly labeled as hallucinations. I will then argue that understanding how such experiences are produced offers a powerful framework for thinking about the socially and historically situated nature of everyday experience.

Kate Pendoley, Philosophy of Psychology Workshop @ e's bar, btw 112/113th
Feb 28 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

PoPRocks (formerly known as ‘WoPoP’) is an ongoing series in the NYC area for early career researchers – typically grad students, postdocs, people who got their PhD within the last few years, advanced undergrads etc. – working on philosophy of psychology/mind/perception/cognitive science/neuroscience/… . We usually meet roughly once every 2-3 weeks to informally discuss a draft paper by one of our members. Typically presenters send a copy of their paper around 1 week in advance, so do join the mailing list (by emailing poprocksworkshop@gmail.com or one of the organizers) or email to ask for a copy of the paper. We aim for a friendly, constructive discussion with the understanding that the drafts discussed are typically work in progress.

Presenters Spring 2019

All presentations will be on Thursdays at 7-9pm in 302 Philosophy Hall, Columbia University (Morningside Heights Campus).

February 28th – Kate Pendoley (CUNY)

​March 14th – Amogh Sahu (Columbia)

April 18th – Nemira Gasiunas (Columbia)

If anyone else would like to present on other Thursdays, get in touch.