Activities
08 - 12 May 2023Prof. Ivo Popivanov's talks
On Tuesday, 9 May 2023, Prof. Ivo Popivanov of the Department of Cognitive Science and Psychology at the New Bulgarian University gave a talk entitled "DIFFERENTIATING FACES FROM OBJECTS: A PILOT ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL STUDY". After providing an overview of face recognition studies involving behavioral methods (including eye tracking), Prof. Popivanov discussed invasive and non-invasive methods for electrophysiological measurement. He then presented results obtained by members of the renewed EEG lab at NBU, where researchers have used a 32-channel EEG system eWave by Sciencebeam to have participants distinguish between face-presenting and deliberately scrambled visual stimuli. Preliminary results and potentials for cooperation were considered.
On Thursday, 11 May 2023, Prof. Popivanov delivered a lecture entitled "TEST YOUR MEMORY - A SELF-ADMINISTERED INSTRUMENT FOR COGNITIVE SCREENING IN ELDERLY PEOPLE." The talk introduced a quick, self-screening tool for diagnosing dementia, known as "Test Your Memory (TYM)". Prof. Popivanov's team has translated the test from English into Bulgarian and has provided a preliminary validation of the test. Interesting question-and-answer sessions followed both talks.
22 March 2023
Prof. Anna Bonifazi's visit and talk
On Wednesday, 22 March 2023, Prof. Dr. Anna Bonifazi of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Cologne delivered a talk entitled "TEARS IN MUSIC: TOWARDS A COGNITIVE-SEMIOTIC ACCOUNT". The lecture offered results of a pilot investigation on a sample of 21 Western-music songs thematizing weeping - and ranging in genre and age. Her initial input consisted of recurrent themes in ancient Greek mentions of tears associated with performative events, such as the prominence of sound, interjections, strong self-referentiality, repetitions, and refrains. In her analysis of modern and contemporary songs and arias, she adopted a cognitive-semiotic approach that focused on the semiotic complexity derived from the integration of multiple modalities/modes (weeping, lyrics, music (including musical notation), and images, in different combinations), and on the cognitive mappings that stemmed from several observable metonymic, metaphorical and iconic cross-modal relations. The lecture inspired a vivid and interesting discussion, with both local and online audiences participating in the debate.
