From the movie Charly

From the 1968 movie Charly, directed by  Ralph Nelson:

Charly asks his teacher to punctuate the following:

"That that is is that that is not is not is that it is is"

She declares that it makes no sense. It's a beautiful moment when Charly, then, shows off for the first time and adds punctuation marks to reach the following meaningful sequence:

"That that is, is. That that is not, is not. Is that it? It is."

The Spinning Silhouette Optical Illusion

I never get bored with this illusion. With sheer mental power you can make her rotation shift direction. It takes some practice to do it!

 

The Cafe Wall Illusion

This is one of my favorite illusions. It was discovered by Dr. Richard Gregory. The horizontal lines appear to be bent, but they are in fact parallel, straight, horizontal lines.

New Lab Page

Our lab has a new url and website. Check it out.

Study of Color Discrimination and Memory

We are conducting a study of color discrimination and short-term color memory. I would be grateful if you would participate in the study. You'll need to use the left and right arrow keys to adjust the color of a square to fit the color of a second image. It will only take about 5-10 minutes. Click on the link below to begin.
www.synesthesiaresearch.com/study

Fordham's "Varieties of Understanding" Project

The Philosophy Department at Fordham University is pleased to announce its three-year “Varieties of Understanding” project.

The project will sponsor research in psychology, philosophy, and theology that will examine the various ways in which human beings understand the world, how these various types of understanding might be improved, and how they might be combined with one another to produce an integrated understanding of the world.

For more details, and for information on how to apply for funding, please see the project website.

The project is supported by a 3.56 million dollar grant from the John Templeton Foundation, with additional support from the Henry Luce Foundation, Fordham University, and the University of California, Berkeley.

CFP: Semantics and Philosophy in Europe 6

First Call for Papers

Semantics and Philosophy in Europe 6

It is our pleasure to announce the 6^th Semantics and Philosophy in Europe Colloquium (SPE6), which this year will take place in St Petersburg during the White Nights.

Place: Bobrinsky Palace, Smolny College, St Petersburg

Time: June 10-14, 2013

INVITED SPEAKERS

GNENERAL SESSION:

Barbara Partee (University of Massachusetts, Amherst / Moscow University)

Kjell Johann Saebo (University of Oslo)

SPECIAL SESSIONS:

[1] The Interface between Linguistic Semantics and Philosophy of Mind

Berit Brogaard (University of Missouri, Saint Louis)

Frances Egan (Rutgers University)

Scott Soames (University of Southern California)

Tutorial:

Robert Matthews (Rutgers University)

Friederike Moltmann (CNRS, Paris)

[2] The Status of Semantics in the History of Generative Grammar

John Collins (University of East Anglia)

Wolfram Hinzen (Durham/Barcelona)

Robert May / Adam Sennett (UC Davis)

Howard Lasnik (University of Maryland)

[3] Empirical Methods in the Investigation of Semantics

Erica Cosentino (Calabria/Bochum)

Tatiana Chernigovskaya (St Petersburg)

Natalia Slioussar (Utrecht/ St Petersburg)

Markus Werning (Bochum)

Abstract Submission Details:

Please send an anonymous two-page long abstract to: slioussar@gmail.com

On a separate page please specify whether the submission is for the general session or one of the special sessions and mention title and your name, affiliation, and e-mail address

Abstract Submission Deadline: March 22, 2013

Notification of Acceptance: April 5, 2013

Organizing Committee of SPE6:

Berit Brogaard, Tatiana Chernigovskaya, Wolfram Hinzen, Robert Matthews, Robert May, Friederike Moltmann, Markus Werning, Ede Zimmermann

Conference website: TBA

Synesthesia Survey

If you are a synesthete, please complete this synesthesia survey for our lab. Thank you.