Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
Encyclopedia
The Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (commonly referred to as the ASSC) is a professional membership organization that aims to encourage research on consciousness
in cognitive science
, neuroscience
, philosophy
, and other relevant disciplines in the sciences and humanities, directed toward understanding the nature, function, and underlying mechanisms of consciousness. The organization was created in 1994 in Berkeley immediately after the first Tucson meeting by Patrick Wilken
. The original aim of the organization was to act as a framework by which the international academic community could generate meetings devoted to the academic study of consciousness. The original founding members included Bernard Baars
, William Banks, David Chalmers
, Stanley Klein, George Buckner, David Rosenthal, Thomas Metzinger and Patrick Wilken. Since 1994 the organization has put on eleven meetings and taken on a host of other activities, including an e-print archive and the online journal Psyche.
In 2008 the executive committee of the association was composed as follows: Michael Gazzaniga
(Past-President), David Rosenthal (President), Giulio Tononi
(President-Elect); and six Members-at-Large, Christof Koch
, Alva Noë, Susana Martinez-Conde, Paula Droege, and John-Dylan Haynes. In 2007 Christof Koch took over as Director and Chair of the Board from Patrick Wilken.
In addition to organizing annual meetings, the association promotes the academic study of consciousness in a number of other ways:
Consciousness
Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...
in cognitive science
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
, neuroscience
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, and other relevant disciplines in the sciences and humanities, directed toward understanding the nature, function, and underlying mechanisms of consciousness. The organization was created in 1994 in Berkeley immediately after the first Tucson meeting by Patrick Wilken
Patrick Wilken
Patrick Wilken is an editor at Cell Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States.He completed his doctoral studies at the University of Melbourne in 2001 under the supervision of Jason Mattingley and William Webster, where he developed models of visual short-term memory...
. The original aim of the organization was to act as a framework by which the international academic community could generate meetings devoted to the academic study of consciousness. The original founding members included Bernard Baars
Bernard Baars
Bernard J. Baars is a former Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology at The Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, CA., and is currently an Affiliated Fellow there. He is best known as the originator of the global workspace theory, a theory of human cognitive architecture and consciousness...
, William Banks, David Chalmers
David Chalmers
David John Chalmers is an Australian philosopher specializing in the area of philosophy of mind and philosophy of language, whose recent work concerns verbal disputes. He is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Consciousness at the Australian National University...
, Stanley Klein, George Buckner, David Rosenthal, Thomas Metzinger and Patrick Wilken. Since 1994 the organization has put on eleven meetings and taken on a host of other activities, including an e-print archive and the online journal Psyche.
In 2008 the executive committee of the association was composed as follows: Michael Gazzaniga
Michael Gazzaniga
Michael S. Gazzaniga is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he heads the new SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. He is one of the leading researchers in cognitive neuroscience, the study of the neural basis of mind...
(Past-President), David Rosenthal (President), Giulio Tononi
Giulio Tononi
Giulio Tononi is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin. He is an authority on sleep, and in particular the genetics and etiology of sleep.He is also interested in the nature of consciousness,...
(President-Elect); and six Members-at-Large, Christof Koch
Christof Koch
Christof Koch is an American neuroscientist working on the neural basis of consciousness. He is the Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology at California Institute of Technology, where he has been since 1986...
, Alva Noë, Susana Martinez-Conde, Paula Droege, and John-Dylan Haynes. In 2007 Christof Koch took over as Director and Chair of the Board from Patrick Wilken.
Activities
Since 1997, the ASSC has organised annual conferences to promote interaction and spread knowledge of scientific and philosophical advances in the field of consciousness research. The 2008 meeting was organized by Allen Houng and Ralph Adolphs, and held between the 19th and 22nd of June at the Gis Convention Center, National Taiwan University in Taipei. The June 2009 meeting will be held in Berlin, and organized by Michael Pauen and John-Dylan Haynes.In addition to organizing annual meetings, the association promotes the academic study of consciousness in a number of other ways:
- The association publishes the open-access journal PsychePsyche (journal)Psyche was a refereed electronic journal dedicated to supporting the interdisciplinary exploration of the nature of consciousness and its relation to the brain...
.
- The association provides a freely available e-print archive of papers relevant to the study of consciousness.
- the society also publishes occasional edited books on selected topics. To date three books have been published: ; ; and ;
- the society awards the annual William James PrizeWilliam James PrizeThe William James Prize for Contributions to the Study of Consciousness is an award given by the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness....
for an outstanding published contribution to the empirical or philosophical study of consciousness by a graduate student or postdoctoral scholar within five years of receiving a PhD or other advanced degree.