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Defining Cognitive Science speaker series

Thursday September 18, 2:30pm

WMC 3250

Title: Cognitive Science & Spiritual Experience Across Cultures 

Postdoctoral Research Scientist--Department of Anthropology

Stanford University

Abstract: Interdisciplinary research often promises novel insights, but what does collaboration across fields actually look like in practice? In this talk, I will describe ongoing work at the intersection of psychology and anthropology on how people perceive and reason about phenomena they cannot see. I will first reflect on the methodological and theoretical challenges of working across disciplines, describing how different frameworks for evidence, explanation, and inference can be productively combined. I will then turn to recent empirical projects: large-scale cross-cultural surveys of spiritual experience, and studies examining the relationship between practices of prayer and the phenomenology of perception. Together, these projects highlight how cognition is scaffolded by culture and practice, and how interdisciplinary approaches can enrich our understanding of mind and experience.