Each year in May since 1982, Western Canadian universities have jointly hosted a conference known as BASICS (Banff Annual Seminar in Cognitive Science). The 31st meeting of BASICS will be held in 2012 on Friday, May 4 and Saturday, May 5.

The conference will begin Friday afternoon with an invited talk at 5:15; four other talks will be presented on Saturday. There will be a poster session and reception Friday evening after dinner, and another poster session will be held Saturday before dinner. Submissions for the poster sessions are invited on any aspect of cognitive science. (Each participant should submit no more than one poster.) If you plan on presenting a poster, please list the title and authors on the registration form and send it in before April 6. Graduate and postdoctoral students are especially encouraged to present. (Information for poster presenters is available here.)

As in the past, the invited presentations are like colloquia and allow a scientist ample time to lay out a course of research, rather than simply to discuss the results of one or two experiments. An extensive question period and break follows each 60 minute presentation and provides sufficient time for detailed questions and discussion.

The speakers for this year’s conference will be:

BASICS will be held this year at the Inns of Banff. A block of rooms at the Inns has been reserved for the conference dates at the conference rate of $99/night (Canadian) for a single or double occupancy, excluding tax. This block of rooms will be held until April 4, 2012, although rooms may be available for some period of time after that date.

To book a room at The Inns, you should:
  • visit the website, http://www.bestofbanff.com;
  • under “Reservations,” select Inns of Banff for the destination;
  • enter “basics2012” as the promotional code;
  • and enter the other information needed to complete your reservation.

To register for the conference, please fill out the form here. The registration fee is $70 (Canadian) for faculty and $25 (Canadian) for students. Registration fees may be paid online (via PayPal) or by check.

The conference program is available here.