Cognitive Development Society
Fifth Biennial Meeting
October 26-27, 2007
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Report of Susan Gelman, president, and Kristi Schonwald, conference coordinator
Program
The program included invited talks, symposia and poster sessions. The two invited
speakers, Rob Goldstone from Indiana University and Patricia Kuhl from the University of
Washington, gave plenary lectures to the assembled attendees. Two invited symposia were
also given in the plenary format: Linda Smith organized a symposium in memory of Esther
Thelen and Henry Wellman organized the presidential symposium. The remainder of the
program consisted of 12 symposia chosen by a program committee, two poster sessions
comprised of posters accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, and a lunch workshop for
students.
Symposia. Twenty-five symposia were submitted for consideration by the program
committee (David Klahr, Karen Adolph, and Martha Alibali). Twelve symposia were
aceepted (48% acceptance rate), and the accepted symposia were assigned to one of four
sessions with three concurrent symposia.
Posters. One hundred and eighty posters were displayed on full-size poster boards in
two sessions of 90 each. In addition, about 10 alternate posters were displayed on a table in a
small format (letter-size) at each of the two poster sessions. Posters were accepted on a firstcome, first-serve basis and the available spaces were taken by the end of May, two-and-a-half
months before the deadline.
Lunch Workshop co-sponsored with APA. A lunch workshop on the “Five Burning
Questions of the Professoriate” was coordinated with the APA Science Directorate. Targeted
to the needs of graduate and post-doctoral students who will soon be seeking academic jobs,
a panel discussion was led by Stephanie Johnson of the APA with five other faculty.
Twenty-five students attended.
Attendees
CDS 2007 attracted 395 attendees (2005 attendees totaled 405) to its fifth meeting in
Santa Fe, New Mexico. Of these attendees, about half (190 attendees) were students and half
were faculty or other professionals. While the majority of attendees came from institutions in
the United States, forty attendees came from Canada, and another twenty were from other
foreign countries.
Student/Membership status
Student Members
190
Regular Members
165
Non-Members
35
Invited speakers
5
Total
395
U.S./International Origin
U.S.A.
335
Canada
40
Europe
14
East Asia(Japan, Korea) 5
So. America
1
Total
395
Minority Outreach
Susan Gelman served as chair of the Minority Outreach efforts. There were 10 requests for
funding, one of which was later declined by the applicant. All of the 9 remaining requests
were funded, at amounts ranging from $275 to $500. Total CDS contributions were $3,944.