International Travel: The Social Cognition Network of Europe, Padova, Italy, Fall 2003

Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Abstract

The principal investigator will attend the fifth meeting of the European Social Cognition Network in Padova, Italy, September 4-7, 2003. The meeting is sponsored by the European Science Foundation, and a special invitation was extended to this U.S.-based researcher. The primary objective of the trip will be to foster greater international interaction in the development and promulgation of social cognition research and to facilitate integration of the rapid progress being made by American and European scholars who study social-cognitive processes. The PI will make a featured presentation at the meeting and will interact in formal and informal ways with many of the approximately 80 attendees at the meeting. A special goal will be to offer constructive feedback and encouragement to young scientists in attendance at the meeting. These objectives have clear intellectual merit, as they pertain to the integration, consolidation, and stimulation of high-quality research on a wide variety of issues in social cognition, a field that is central to social psychology more generally. The broader impact of the proposed activity will likely be considerable and will surely extend beyond the meeting itself. Particularly with respect to the goals of enhancing international contact and interaction and encouraging the development of young scholars, conferences such as this one can have a major impact on scientific progress.