Liane
M. Gabora
Curriculum Vitae
o Current Position and Contact Information
o Teaching and Student Supervision
o Lectures, Presentations, and Workshops
o Service
o Artistic Works, Performances, and Exhibitions
o Innovative, Commercializable Research
Assistant Professor of Psychology,
University of British Columbia
July 2005 – present
Address: University
of British Columbia
Okanagan campus, 3333 University Way
Kelowna BC, V1Y 1V7, CANADA
Phone: 250-807-9849 (work) / 250-763-7971 (home) / 250-575-0214 (cell)
Fax: 250-807-8001
Email: liane.gabora[at]ubc.ca
Web: www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/liane/
Citizenship: Canadian with USA Greencard
Ph.D., Cognitive Science, Brussels Free University, Belgium, June 2001.
Advisor: Diederik Aerts
Dissertation title: Cognitive mechanisms underlying the origin and evolution of culture
M.Sc., Biology, Queens University, Kingston Ont., 1988.
Advisor: Patrick Colgan
Dissertation
title: A model of the mechanisms underlying exploratory behaviour.
Honours
B.Sc., University of Western Ontario,
London Ont., 1986.
Double
major in psychology and physiology.
Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, January 2003 - June 2005.
Principal
Investigator: Eleanor Rosch
Postdoctoral Fellow in Cognitive Science, Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies, Brussels Free University, Belgium, June 2001 - January 2003.
Principal Investigator:
Diederik Aerts
Santa Fe Institute Summer School for Studies in Complexity, Santa Fe NM, Summer 1993. Project title: A computer model of cultural evolution and the underlying creative processes.
Summer Institute for Cognitive Science, Universit du Qubec Montral, Montreal Quebec, Summer 2003.
See also: Teaching Experience, Philosophy of Teaching, and Evidence of Teaching Effectiveness
o PSYO 121: Introduction to Psychology: Personal Functioning
o PSYO 317: Psychology of Creativity (designed course myself)
o PSYO 380B: Special Topics in Psychology The Evolution of Human Cognition (designed course myself)
o PSYO 380G: Special Topics in Psychology The Psychology of Humour (designing course myself for winter 08/09)
o Nancy Holmes Advanced Theory and Practice in Creative Writing class (CRWR 481), Oct 10, 2008.
o Mary Ann Murphys Sociology of Aging class (SOCI 280), Sept 25, 2008.
o Neil Cadger and Byron Johnstons Visual Forum class (CCS 100), Sept 24, 2008.
o Andrew Labuns Introduction to Engineering class (APSC 170), Jan 16, 2008.
o Bryan Ryleys Advanced Painting class (VISA 482), Sept. 19, 2007.
o Nancy Holmes Advanced Theory and Practice in Creative Writing class (CRWR 481), Oct 5, 2006.
o Andrew Labuns Introduction to Engineering class (APSC 170), Sep 27, 2006.
o Bryan Ryley and Fern Halperns Advanced Painting class (VISA 482), Sept. 20, 2006.
o PSYO 390/490: Five (past or present) Honours Project / Directed Studies students
o Advisor of graduate student for one year, member of advisory committee of one graduate student, and two students have applied for graduate work with me for 2009.
o Supervised undergraduate summer research student in 2006.
o Supervised six past and three present student research assistants.
o Flemish Government of Belgium Concerted Research Program. Jan. 2009 – Jan. 2014. Title: 'An Interdisciplinary Study of Creativity: Formal and Empirical Studies of Contextual Effects Across the Arts and Sciences' With co-PIs Diederik Aerts and Antoon van Braumbussche. 670,000 Euros = $1,076,052 CDN.
o UBC
Research Teaching Stipend, $20,000, Awarded May 2008.
o Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). May 2008 – May 2011. The cultural evolution
of integrated worldviews. $99,970, with $10,000 Research Teaching Stipend.
o UBC
Okanagan Internal Research Grant. Jan. 2007
– Jan. 2008. Title: Does appreciation of culture as an evolutionary
process lend meaning to life? $4,500.
o Fonds France Canada pour la Recherche, June 2006 – Dec. 2006. Title: What makes human cognition unique? Language as an auto-organisational process. With co-PI Anne Reboul, CNRS, Lyons, France. Status: One of three out of 22 projects chosen to represent UBC. $2,500.
o Foundation for the Future Research Grant, Dec. 2005 – Sept. 2008. Title: A computational model of the evolution and interaction of ideologies. $10,000 USD = $11,496 CDN.
o International
Research Community Grant, Nov. 2005 –
Nov. 2009. Title: The Construction of
Integrating Worldviews. Co-PI with Diederik Aerts, Free University of
Brussels, and thirteen others. Funded by the Fund for Scientific Research, Flanders (Belgium). 62,500.00 Euros = $86,982 CDN.
o Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies, Free University of Brussels Graduate Research Fellowship, Approx. $15,000/ year, 1998-2001.
o Center for the Origin and Evolution of Life, UCLA, Graduate Research Fellowship, Approx. $14,000/ year, 1991-1993.
o Department of Biology, Queens University, Queens Graduate Award, Approx. $12,000/ year, 1986-1988.
Note: Most publications listed below can be downloaded or accessed in html format here.
Gabora, L. & Aerts, D. A mathematical model of the emergence of an integrated worldview. Journal of Mathematical Psychology.
Gabora, L. (in press). Revenge of the 'neurds': Characterizing creative thought in terms of the structure and dynamics of memory. Creativity Research Journal.
Aerts, D., Broekaert, J. & Gabora, L. (in press). A case for applying an abstracted quantum formalism to cognition. New Ideas in Psychology.
DiPaola, S. & Gabora, L. (2009). Incorporating characteristics of human creativity into an evolutionary art algorithm. Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines, 10(2), 97-110.
Gabora, L., Rosch, E., & Aerts, D. (2008). Toward an ecological theory of concepts. Ecological Psychology, 29(1), 84–116.
Gabora, L. (2008). The cultural evolution of socially situated cognition. Cognitive Systems Research, 9(1-2), 104-113.
Gabora, L. & Aerts, D. (2007). A cross-disciplinary framework for the description of contextually mediated change. Electronic Journal of Theoretical Physics, 4(15), 1-22.
Gabora, L. (2006). The fate of evolutionary archaeology: Survival or extinction? World Archaeology, 38(4), 690–696.
Gabora, L. (2006). Self-other organization: Why early life did not evolve through natural selection. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 241(3), 443–250.
Gabora, L. (2005). Creative thought as a non-Darwinian evolutionary process. Journal of Creative Behavior, 39(4), 65–87. [nlin.AO/0411057]
Gabora, L. & Aerts, D. (2005). Evolution as context-driven actualization of potential: Toward an interdisciplinary theory of change of state. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 30(1), 69–88.
Aerts, D. & Gabora, L. (2005). A state-context-property model of concepts and their combinations I: The structure of the sets of contexts and properties. Kybernetes, 34(1&2), 151–175. [quant-ph/0402207]
Aerts, D. & Gabora, L. (2005). A state-context-property model of concepts and their combinations II: A Hilbert space representation. Kybernetes, 34 (1&2), 176–205. [quant-ph/0402205]
Gabora, L. (2004). Ideas are not replicators but minds are. Biology and Philosophy, 19(1), 127–143. [q-bio.PE/0402002]
Aerts, D., Czachor, M., Gabora, L., Kuna, M., Posiewnik, A., Pykacz, J. and Syty, M. (2003). Quantum morphogenesis: A variation on Thom's catastrophe theory, Physical Review, E 67, 051926. [quant-ph/0211105]
Gabora, L. & Aerts, D. (2002). Contextualizing concepts using a mathematical generalization of the quantum formalism. Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, 14(4), 327–358. [quant-ph/0205161]
Gabora, L. (2002). Amplifying phenomenal information: Toward a fundamental theory of consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 9(8), 3–29. [adap-org/9911003]
Aerts, D., D'Hondt, E., & Gabora, L. (2000). Why the disjunction in quantum logic is not classical. Foundations of Physics, 30(9), 1473–1480. [quant-ph/0007041]
Aerts, D., Aerts, S., Broekaert, J., & Gabora, L. (2000). The violation of Bell inequalities in the macroworld. Foundations of Physics, 30(9), 1387-1414. [quant-ph/0007044].
Gabora, L. (2000). From a double aspect theory of information to human consciousness. Consciousness and Cognition, 9(2), S78.
Aerts, D., Broekaert, J. & Gabora, L. (1999). Formal and informal representations of science. Foundations of Science, 4(1), 1–3.
Gabora, L. (1999). Weaving, bending, patching, mending the fabric of reality: A cognitive science perspective on worldview inconsistency. Foundations of Science, 3(2), 395–428.
Gabora, L. (1999). More on memes. Semiotic Review of Books, 10(2), 2–3.
Gabora, L. (1998). Autocatalytic closure in
a cognitive system: A tentative scenario for the origin of culture. Psycoloquy, 9(67).
Gabora, L. (1997). Taking memes seriously. Semiotic Review of Books, 8(2), May issue.
Gabora, L. (1997). The origin and evolution of culture and creativity. Journal
of Memetics: Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission, 1(1).
Gabora, L. (1996). A day in the life of a meme. Philosophica, 57, 901–938. Invited paper for special issue
on concepts, representations, and dynamical systems.
Gabora, L. & Hofstadter, D. (1989). Synopsis of a workshop on humor and
cognition. Humor, 2(4), 417–440.
Gabora, L. & Russon, A. (invited). The evolution of human intelligence. In (R. Sternberg
& S. Kaufman, Eds.) Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University
Press.
Gabora, L. & Holmes, N. (in press). Dangling from a tassel on the fabric of socially
constructed reality: Reflections on the creative writing process. In (A. Cropley, D. Cropley, J. Kaufman & M. Runco,
Eds.) The Dark Side of Creativity.
Gabora, L. & Kaufman, S. (in press). Evolutionary perspectives on
creativity. In (J. Kaufman & R. Sternberg, Eds.) Cambridge Handbook of
Creativity. Cambridge UK:
Cambridge University Press.
Gabora, L. (in press). Does understanding of culture as an evolutionary
process lend meaning to life? In
(D. Aerts, B. D'Hooghe & N. Note, Eds.) Worldviews, Science and Us:
Bridging Knowledge and Perspectives on the World, World Scientific, Singapore.
Gabora, L. & Aerts, D. (2008). A cross-disciplinary framework for the
description of contextually mediated change. In (I. Licata & A. Sakaji,
Eds.) Physics of Emergence and Organization, (pp. 10–134). World Scientific, Singapore.
Gabora, L. (2007). Mind. In (R. A. Bentley, H. D. G. Maschner, & C.
Chippindale, Eds.) Handbook of Theories and Methods in Archaeology, Altamira Press, Walnut Creek CA, (pp.
283–296).
Aerts, D., Czachor, M., Gabora L. & Polk, P. (2006). Soliton kinetic
equations with non-Kolmogorovian structure: A new tool for biological modeling?
Quantum Theory: Reconsideration of Foundations 3, American Institute of
Physics Publications, 810, 19–33.
Aerts, D., Bundervoet, S., Czachor, M., D'Hooghe B., Gabora L. & Polk
P. (2006). On the foundations of the theory of evolution. Systems Theory in
Philosophy and Religion, Vols I & II. Ed. M. Locker. Windsor, Canada: IIAS.
Gabora, L. (2002). The beer can theory of creativity. In (P. Bentley &
D. Corne, Eds.) Creative Evolutionary Systems, Morgan Kauffman, San Francisco CA,
147–161.
Aerts, D., Broekaert, J. & Gabora, L. (2002). Intrinsic contextuality
as the crux of consciousness. In (K. Yasue, M. Jibu & T. Della Senta) No
Matter, Never Mind, John
Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam (Vol. 33 of the series Advances in
Consciousness Research ISSN 1381–589X).
Gabora, L. (2000). Toward a theory of creative inklings. In (R. Ascott,
Ed.) Art, Technology, and Consciousness, Intellect Press, 159–164.
Gabora, L. (2000). Conceptual closure: Weaving memories into an
interconnected worldview. In (G. Van de Vijver & J. Chandler, Eds.) Closure:
Emergent Organizations and their Dynamics. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences,
901, 42–53.
Gabora, L. (1998). Memetics. In (Paul Bouissac, Ed.) The Encyclopedia of
Semiotics, Oxford
University Press, 405–408.
Gabora, L. (1995). Meme and variations: A computer model of cultural
evolution. In (L. Nadel & D. Stein, Eds.) 1993 Lectures in Complex
Systems, Addison-Wesley,
471–486.
Gabora, L. (in press). Review of 'Epigenetic principles of evolution' by Nelson R. Cajeb. Quarterly Review of Biology.
Gabora, L. (2007). Why the creative process is not Darwinian. Commentary on D. K. Simonton The
creative process in Picassos Guernica sketches: Monotonic improvements versus
nonmonotonic variants. Creativity Research Journal, 19(4), 361–365.
Gabora, L. (2007). Epigenetic and cultural evolution are not Darwinian.
Commentary on E. Jablonka & M. J. Lamb (2006). Evolution in Four Dimensions. Behavioral and Brain
Sciences, 30(4), p. 371.
Gabora, L. (2007). Perspectives on artistic creativity. Review of M. Turner
(Ed.) 'The Artful Mind: Cognitive Science and the Riddle of Human Creativity'. Philosophical
Psychology, 20(5), 669-674.
Provencal, A. & Gabora, L. (2007). A compelling overview of art therapy
techniques and outcomes: Review of 'Art Therapy has Many Faces'. Psychology
of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 1(4), 255-256.
Gabora, L. (2004). GAS doesn't turn the engine when states are sequential
or context-dependent. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27(6), 901–902. Commentary on D. Hull,
R. Langman & S. Glenn A general account of selection: Biology, immunology,
and behavior. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24(3), 511–528.
Gabora, L. (2000). Nonlinear science and the psyche: A review of F.
Orsucci, Ed. (2000). The Complex Matters of the Mind. Foundations of
Science, 5(3), 391–393.
Gabora, L. (2000). The interwoven conceptual matrix of the cultural
replicator. Commentary on Niche construction, biological evolution, and
cultural change by K. N. Laland et al. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23(1), 152–153.
Gabora, L. (1999). To imitate is human: A review of The Meme Machine by
S. Blackmore. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Systems 2(2). Reprinted with permission in
Journal of Consciousness Studies, 6(5), 77–81.
Gabora, L. (1999). Grounded in perception yet transformed into amodal
symbols. Commentary on Perceptual symbol systems by L. W. Barsalou. Behavioral
and Brain Sciences, 22(4), 577–660.
Gabora, L. (1999). Microtubules, anesthetics, and quantum consciousness: An
interview with Stuart Hameroff. Foundations of Science, 4(2), 205–223.
Gabora, L. (1994). The birth of a creative idea. Commentary on The
Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms by M. Boden. Behavioral and Brain
Sciences, 17(3), 543.
Gabora, L. (1993). Cultural transitions occur when mind parasites Learn new
tricks. Commentary on Origins of the Modern Mind by M. Donald. Behavioral
and Brain Sciences, 16(4), 761–762.
Gabora, L. (1993). Cultural learning as the transition mechanism in an
evolutionary process. Commentary on Cultural Learning by Tomasello et al. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16(3), 519.
Aerts, D., Aerts, S. & Gabora, L. (2009). Experimental evidence for quantum structure in cognition. In: P. Bruza, W. Lawless, K. van Rijsbergen, & D. Sofge (Eds.) Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Quantum Interaction, (pp. 59-70). March 2009, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, Saarbruken, Germany.
Gabora, L. (2008). Modeling cultural dynamics. Proceedings of the
Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Fall
Symposium 1: Adaptive Agents in a Cultural Context, Nov 7-9, The Westin Arlington Gateway, Arlington
VA, (pp. 18-25). Menlo Park, CA: AAAI Press.
Gabora, L. (2008). EVOC: A computer model of the evolution of culture. In
V. Aloutsky, B. Love, & K. McRae (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th
Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, July 23-26, Washington DC. North Salt Lake, UT:
Sheridan Publishing. DiPaola, S. & Gabora, L. (2007). Incorporating
characteristics of human creativity into an evolutionary art algorithm. In (D.
Thierens, Ed.), Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computing
Conference (GECCO), July 7-11, 2007, University College London, England, pp.
2442-2449. Gabora, L. (2007). Cultural evolution entails (creativity entails (concept
combination entails quantum structure)). Proceedings of the Association for
the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Spring Symposium 8: Quantum
Interaction, March 26-28,
Stanford University, pp. 106-113. Aerts, D., Bundervoet, S., Czachor, M., & Gabora, L. (2005). On the
foundations of the theory of evolution. In (G. E. Lasker, Ed.) Proceedings
of the Seventeenth International Conference on Systems Research, Informatics
and Cybernetics: Second Symposium on Systems Theory in Religion and Philosophy, August 3, 2005, Baden-Baden, Germany. Aerts, D., Czachor, M., Gabora, L., & Polk, P. (2005). Application of
quantum formalisms to biological rhythms. In (G. Adenier, Ed.) Proceedings
of the Third International Conference on Quantum Theory: Reconsiderations of
Foundations, June 7-12,
Vxj, Sweden. Gabora, L. & Aerts, D. (2005). Distilling the essence of an
evolutionary process, and implications for a formal description of culture. In
(W. Kistler, Ed.) Proceedings of Center for Human Evolution Workshop
#5: Cultural Evolution,
May 2000, Foundation for the Future, Seattle. Gabora, L. (2004). Two transitions in the evolution of human consciousness.
In (M. Zussman, Ed.) Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference of
the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, Berkeley, CA, 24-28 March. Gabora, L. (2003). Contextual focus: A cognitive explanation for the
cultural transition of the Middle/Upper Paleolithic. In (R. Alterman & D.
Hirsch, Eds.) Proceedings of the 25th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive
Science Society, Boston
MA, 31 July - 2 August. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Gabora, L. (2002). Cognitive mechanisms underlying the creative process. In
(T. Hewett and T. Kavanagh, Eds.) Proceedings of the Fourth International
Conference on Creativity and Cognition, 13-16 October, Loughborough University UK,
126–133. Gabora, L. & Aerts, D. (2002). Contextualizing concepts. In (C.
Faucher, Ed.) Proceedings of the 15th International FLAIRS Conference
(Special Track Categorization and Concept Representation: Models and
Implications), Pensacola
FL, 14-17 May 2002, American Association for Artificial Intelligence,
148–152. Gabora, L. (2000). Linkage disequilibrium in human creativity. In (R.
Ascott, Ed.) Proceedings of the Third International CAiiA-STAR Conference:
Consciousness Reframed, 17-20
August, Newport Wales. Gabora, L. (2000). From a double aspect theory of information to human
consciousness. In (A. Cleeremans, Ed.) Proceedings of ASSC4, International
Conference on the Unity of Consciousness: Binding, Unity, and Dissociation, 29 June - 2 July, Free University of
Brussels (ULB), Belgium. Gabora, L. (1999). Conceptual closure: Weaving memories into an
interconnected worldview. In (G. Van de Vijver & J. Chandler, Eds.) Proceedings
of Closure: an International Conference on Emergent Organizations and their
Dynamics, held by the
Research Community on Evolution and Complexity and the Washington Evolutionary
Systems Society, May 3-5, University of Gent, Belgium. Gabora, L. (1996). Culture, evolution, and computation. In (T. Furuhashi,
Ed.) Proceedings of the Second Online Workshop on Evolutionary Computation. Society of Fuzzy Theory and Systems. Gabora, L. (1992). Should I stay or should I go: coordinating biological
needs with continuously-updated assessments of the environment (a computer
model). In (S. Wilson, J. A. Mayer & H. Roitblat, Eds.) Proceedings of
Second International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior, Honolulu, MIT Press, 156–162. Gabora, L. & Colgan, P. (1990). A model of the mechanisms underlying
exploratory behavior. In (S. Wilson & J. A. Mayer, Eds.) Proceedings of
the First International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior, Paris, MIT Press, 475–484. Gabora, L. (invited to resubmit following revision). How does the creative
process work? Psychological Review. Gabora, L. Dawn of the Creative Mind: The Origin and Evolution of Human
Innovation. (Book manuscript) Gabora, L. & Lipo, C. Toward a cognitive evolutionary framework for
material culture. Gabora, L. Plausible cognitive mechanisms underlying two transitions in the
evolution of human creativity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Kaufman, S. & Gabora, L. How minds evolved to be creative and in what
sense creative thoughts evolve. Aerts, D., Aerts, S. & Gabora, L. In what kind of mathematical space do
concepts live? o
Department
of Psychology, Tufts
University, Medford, MA, October 17, 2008. Title of talk: How does the Creative
Process Work? o
Concat
workshop on Concepts and Categories, University of Leuven, Belgium, June 23, 2008. Title of talk: What kind of
Mathematical Space do Concepts Live in? (Presented jointly with colleague Sven
Aerts) o
Complexity
Perspectives on the Origins of Language, Culture, and Art: An International
Workshop, University of Leiden,
The Netherlands, June 19, 2008. Title of Keynote: The Origin and Evolution of Creative Culture. o
BC
Educational Technology Users Group (ETUG) Annual Spring Workshop, Emily
Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC, May 29, 2008. Title of Keynote: Creativity: Awakening the Spectrum of
Possibilities. o
Psychology
Departmental Seminar Series, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Feb 15, 2008. Title of
talk: How does the Creative Process Work? o
Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design
Seminar Series, Vancouver, BC, Feb 14, 2008. Title of talk: How does
the Creative Process Work? o
School of Interactive Arts &
Technology Seminar Series, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Simon Fraser University (Surrey campus),
Vancouver, BC, Feb 13, 2008. Title of talk: How does the Creative Process Work? o
Culture
in Evolutionary Perspective, an international workshop, Coach House, Green College, UBC Vancouver,
April 14-15, 2007. Title of talk: A non-Darwinian Model of Cultural Evolution. o
School of
Interactive Arts & Technology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Simon Fraser University (Surrey campus),
Surrey BC. February 21, 2007. Title of talk: Human Invention: From Handaxe to
Palm Pilot. o
UBC
Okanagan Biology Seminar Series, Kelowna, BC. Nov.
29, 2006. Title of talk: Self-other organization: Why Early Life did Not Evolve
through Natural Selection. o
Max
Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, July 10, 2006, Bonn, Germany. Title of talk: How
Creative Processes Drive World Change. o
Meeting of
the European Society for Creativity (Crea Universite), Universite Rene Descartes, July
4–6, 2006, Paris, France. Title of talk: Dawn of the Creative Mind. o
Workshop
on Memetics, April 4-5,
2006, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Arlington VA. Did not
attend in person but my powerpoint presentation was delivered by conference
host. Modelling the Invention and Diffusion of Ideas. o
Cognitive
Science Winter Lecture Series, January 18, 2006, Case Western Reserve University. Title of Talk: Dawn of
the Creative Mind. o
Workshop
on Music and Cognition, December
20, 2005, Institute des Sciences Cognitives, CNRS, Lyons, France. Title of Talk: Toward a Cognitive Theory
of Musical Inspiration. o
Cognition,
Brain, and Behavior Seminar, February 3, 2005, Department of Psychology, University of California,
Berkeley. Title of talk: Evolution of the Capacity for Creative Thought. o
Archaeology
Seminar Series, February
8, 2005, Department of Archaeology, University of California, Berkeley. Title
of talk: Evolution of the Capacity for Creative Thought. o
Multiple
Versions of the World: A Conference Celebrating the Centennial and Continued
Influence of Gregory Bateson. November 20, 2004, University of California, Berkeley. Title of poster:
Toward an Ecological Model of Concepts and the Evolution of Ideas. o
I.D.E.A.
Frontier: Industry, Design, Education and the Arts on the Frontier of
Innovation, June 4-6,
2004, St. Clair College, Windsor Canada. Title of keynote: The beer can theory of creativity. Title
of workshop: The Interplay of Freedom and Constraint in the Creative Process. o
USCKI
Incognito: A Symposium on Concepts, Consciousness and Cognition, May 12, 2004, Utrecht, Netherlands.
Title of talk: Two Transitions in the Evolution of Human Cognition. o
Meeting
of the Zazi Forum, June
4-5, 2003, San Diego, CA. Talk title: Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying
Creativity and Implications for Innovation. o
Intelligent
Sound and Music Systems Weekly Seminar, February 6, 2003, Centre for Computational
Creativity, University College London. Title of talk: Cognitive Mechanisms
Underlying Creativity. o
Weekly
Seminar on Cognition and Archaeology, February 6, 2003, Institute of Archaeology, City College London. Title of
talk: A Tentative Explanation for the Paleolithic Revolution. o
Paradigms
of Change, May 23-25,
2002, Center for Development Research, University of Bonn, Germany. Title of
talk: Do Ideas and Cultures really Evolve? o
Workshop
on Categorization, Recognition, and Perception, April 18-19, 2002, Department of Psychology,
University College London. Title of talk: Contextualizing Concepts. o
Workshop on
Cultural Evolution, May
17-18, 2000, Foundation for the Future, Seattle. Title of talk: Introducing
Contextuality into a Theory of Cultural Evolution. o
Subtle
Technologies Conference,
May 13-14, 2000, University of Toronto. Title of talk: Creativity as a Mirror
that Reflects and Reinforces the Self. o
Konrad
Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, February 8, 2000, Vienna. Title of talk: The
Origin and Evolution of Culture. o
Konrad
Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, February 3, 2000, Vienna. Title of talk: From
Double Aspect Theory to Human Cognition. o
Center
for Theoretical Study, Charles University, February 10, 2000, Prague. Title of talk: The
Origin and Evolution of Culture. o
Foundations
Lecture Series, July
1998, Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies, Brussels Free
University. Title of talk: The Origin and Evolution of Culture and Creativity. o
Tenth
Meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, 1995, University of California, Santa Barbara
CA. Title of talk: A Computer Model of the Cultural Evolution. o
Fourth
International Conference on Artificial Life, 1994, Boston MA. Title of poster: A Computer
Model of the Evolution of Culture. (Accepted on the basis of an abstract or paper. Note: Presentations published in conference proceedings listed
above are not listed again here.) o
Summer
Institute in Cognitive Sciences, June 31, 2008, Universit du Qubec Montral,
Quebec. Poster title: EVOC: A Computer Model of Cultural Evolution. o
40th
Annual Meeting of the Society for Mathematical Psychology, Vancouver, July
25-28, 2006. Title of poster: A Study of the State-context-property Model of
Concepts. o
Meeting of
the European Society for Creativity (Crea Universite), Universite Rene
Descartes, July 4–6, 2006, Paris, France. Title of talk: Dawn of the
Creative Mind. o
New Directions in Cognitive Science, Simon Fraser University, BC, February
3-4, 2006. Title of poster: A Study of the State-context-property Model of
Concepts. (Presented by my directed studies student Mark Eyjolfson.) o
New
Directions in Cognitive Science, Simon Fraser University, BC, February 3-4,
2006. Title of poster: Defocused Attention and Associative Priming. (Presented
by my PSYC 380A student Adam Saab. o
Congress
on Evolution, Epistomology, Language and Culture, May 26-28, 2004, Free
University of Brussels. Title of talk: Evolution of Worldviews through Context-driven Actualization of
Potential. o
Society for
the Anthropology of Consciousness Annual Meeting, March 24-27, 2004, University
of California, Berkeley. Talk title: Two Transitions in the Evolution of Human
Consciousness. o
Summer
Institute in Cognitive Sciences, June 29 - July 11, 2003, Universit du Qubec
Montral. Poster title: A Tentative Cognitive Explanation for the Cultural
Transition of the Paleolithic. o
Toward a
Science of Consciousness, April 10-14, 2000, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.
Talk title: Contextuality in Conscious Experience. o
Meeting of
the Society for Chaos in the Life Sciences, July 1999, University of
California, Berkeley. Talk title: Stability and Boundaries: Physical and
Psychological. o
Understanding
the New Dynamic: A Conference on Art, Technology and the Mind, January 19-20, 2006, Case Western
Reserve University, Cleveland. Artists and scientists invited to discuss
relationship between art and cognition. o
Entanglement
at the Human Scale,
February 17-20, 2000, held at The Popes House, hosted by University for
Humanist Studies, Utrecht Holland. (Prominent scientists invited to discuss
applicability of entanglement to psychological / social phenomena.) o
Do memes
account for culture? An International Workshop, June 1999, King's College, Cambridge University.
(Prominent scientists invited to discuss viability of meme concept.) o
Workshop on
Behavioral Plasticity, 1993, Santa Fe NM. o
Workshop
on Cultural Evolution,
spring 1997, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe NM. o
Journal of Mind and Behavior, Assessing Editor, July 2008 –
ongoing. o
Journal
of Mathematical Psychology, Co-editor of special issue (in progress;
invited June 2007). o
Foundations of Science, Associate Editor 1998 –
ongoing. o
Lake, Editorial Board Member, June 2006 – ongoing.
(A journal devoted to the interface between the arts, sustainability, and the
environment). o
Journal
of Memetics, Member of
advisory board. (Though I find memetics wrong.) o
Artificial
Life Digest, Co-editor,
1991 – 93. (An interdisciplinary forum on designs for software and robots
inspired by biological systems.) Peer Reviewed Journals o
Acta
Biotheoretica o
Artificial
Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing o
Cognitive
Systems Research o
Constructivist
Foundations o
Creativity
Research Journal o
Evolutionary
Economics o
Foundations
of Science o
Journal of
Creative Behavior o
Journal of
Consciousness Studies o
Journal of
Logic, Language, & Information o
Journal of
Mathematical Psychology o
Journal of Memetics o
Journal of
the Royal Anthropological Society (formally called Man) o
Proceedings
of the Royal Society: Biology Letters o
Psychology
of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts Reviewer for
Conferences o
Annual
Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (several years) o
Quantum
Interaction Symposium (several years) Grant Application
Assessment o
The Center
for Converging Sciences and Technologies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Membership on
Conference Program Committees / Organizing Committees o
American Psychological
Association (APA) Division 10 (Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the
Arts) Program Committee, Aug 2009, Toronto, Canada. o
Quantum
Interactions Symposium (QI-2009), March 2009, German Research Center for
Artificial Intelligence, Saarbruken, Germany. o
First
International Conference on Reputation, Gargonza Castle, Tuscany, Italy, March
2009. o
Quantum
Interactions Symposium (QI-2008), March 2008, Oxford University. o
Quantum
Interactions Symposium (QI-2007), March 2007, Stanford University. o
Memetic
Theory in Artificial Systems and Societies (METAS) Symposium, Knottingham
University, UK, 2005. Membership on
Other Scholarly Committees and Organizations o
Lake
Publishing Society,
Secretary/Treasurer, March 2008 – ongoing. o
Institute
for Scientific Methodology, Palermo Italy, Advisory Board Member, 2007 – ongoing. o
Association
for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), Member, 2007 – ongoing. o
Psychology
of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, Division 10 of American Psychology
Association (APA),
Member, 2006 – ongoing. o
Okanagan
Sustainability Institute,
Board Member, Sept 2005 – ongoing. o
Behavioral
and Brain Sciences, Associate,
1993 – ongoing. Service to
University (Committees, Boards, or Policy-making Bodies) o
UBC Okanagan
Library Liasion to Unit 4 (Psychology and Computer Science), Aug 2008 –
ongoing. o
UBC Okanagan
Psychology Graduate Studies Committee, March 2008 – ongoing. o
UBC Okanagan
Psychology Search Committee, Jan – April, 2008. o
UBC Okanagan
Philosophy Search Committee, October 2006 – April, 2007. o
Assessed
proposal for Graduate Program in Mathematics, UBC Okanagan, Oct 2006. o
UBC Okanagan
Philosophy Search Committee, October 2005 – April, 2006. o
UBC Okanagan
Psychology Curriculum Review Committee, Sept. 2005 – ongoing. o
UBC Okanagan
Cognitive Science Committee, Sept. 2005 – ongoing. o
UBC
Okanagan Psychology Search Committee. Aug. 2005. Found sessional instructors. o
Speaker
at the Philosophers Caf, hosted by the Unitarian Fellowship of Kelowna at the Kelowna Public
Library, Kelowna BC. Title of talk: Building a sustainable worldview as a step
toward building a sustainable world. o
Interviewed
04/04/08 by Bud Mortenson for an article on my work that appeared in June 2008
issue of UBC Reports (both paper version and web version). o
Article on
my Psychology of Creativity and Evolution of Human Cognition courses in
Sept 2005 issue of UBC Reports. o
Guest
lecture (in French) on the creative process to high school students as part of
the Le franais pour lavenir / French for the Future Program, April 2006. o
Zazi
Forum, member and
consulting partner, 2002 – present. http://www.zaziforum.com/ o
Frequently
contacted (e.g. by
representatives of DARPA in Washington, Institute for Creative Development in
Seattle, Cultural Strategies Institute in Seneca, Maryland, and Judith-Kate
Friedman from the Jewish Home of San Francisco) about applications of my work
to issues ranging from the cultural spread of terrorism to innovation in
industry to a program that fosters creativity in the elderly. o
Paintings exhibited at Ten Women
Gallery, Los Angeles, 1994. o
Paintings exhibited at Anastasias
Asylum Coffee House, Los Angeles, 1995. o
Paintings exhibited at Java Joes
Coffee House, Santa Fe NM, 1997. o
My animated
short film titled Self-referencial Face was presented at the Artificial Life VI
Conference at University
of California, Los Angeles, 1997. Gabora, L. (2004). The Glory of Groove, SoMa Literary Review. (abridged version) Gabora, L. (2003). Veils, SoMa Literary Review. (abridged
version) Gabora, L. (2003). Violation. Fiction, 16(2), 121–134. (Published by
Department of English, City College of New York). o My electronic music composition Stream
Not Gone Dry was performed at Royce Hall, University of California, Los
Angeles, Spring 1993. I have working prototypes of the
first two software projects, for which I am in the process of obtaining patents
and exploring commercialization potential. The third is under development. Complex information can be
understood at a glance when it is portrayed visually such as with a pie chart,
and animated pictures are even more effective. Accordingly, software exists for
dynamic visualization of everything from weather to stock market fluctuations.
However, the interior, psychological aspects of life are in even greater need
of visualization tools. It is impossible to develop a sustainable world unless
those who affect the world hold a sustainable, integrated worldview, but modern
life can push us toward an increased sense of fragmentation rather than
integration. The Visual Diary enable users to explore, realize, and share with
one another insights into themselves as individuals and collectives at
different levels. It provides a systematic yet creative way of expressing ones
interior life and relationships to people and other elements of ones world,
enabling people to portray and make sense of the often subtle, difficult to pin
down aspects of human experience. Users depict how their not just how their
inner worlds are unfolding and interacting with the inner worlds of others in
their lives, but where present thought patterns and behavior originated, or
what they could lead to. Goals of the Visual Diary project are to enable people
to explore alternative life paths, and to see in what sense they are part of a
process that connects them with others from the past, present, and future: the
process of cultural evolution. EVOC is a computer model of
cultural evolution that enables us to investigate how factors such as barriers
to cultural diffusion, the presence and choice of leaders, or changes in the
ratio of innovation to imitation affect the diversity and effectiveness of ideas.
It consists of neural network based agents that invent ideas for actions, and
imitate neighbors actions. The model is based on a theory of culture according
to which what evolves through culture is not memes or artifacts, but the
internal models of the world that give rise to them, and they evolve not
through a Darwinian process of competitive exclusion but a Lamarckian process
involving exchange of innovations. EVOC shows an increase in mean fitness of
actions over time, and an increase and then decrease in the diversity of
actions. Diversity of actions is positively correlated with population size and
density, and with barriers between populations. Slowly eroding borders increase
fitness without sacrificing diversity by fostering specialization followed by
sharing of fit actions. Introducing a leader that broadcasts its actions
throughout the population increases the fitness of actions but reduces
diversity of actions. Increasing the number of leaders reduces this effect.
Efforts are underway to simulate the conditions under which an agent
immigrating from one culture to another contributes new ideas while still
fitting in. WE is a psychologically informed
software program for reconstructing human material cultural history. The
program allows the user to enter the attributes of artifacts associated with
one or more distinct or interacting cultural groups. It provides information
about this pattern of artifact distribution that is not evident from the
attribute level because it reflects understanding at the conceptual level, such
as analogical transfer (e.g. of the concept HANDLE from KNIFE to CUP), or the
knowledge that two artifacts are complementary (e.g. MORTAR and PESTLE). The
program then postulates lineages, i.e. patterns of relatedness, amongst the
artifacts that takes into account both externally driven change (e.g. trade)
and internally driven change (e.g. blending of different traditions) using as
an initial data set decorated ceramics from Easter Island. The program has the
potential to be used for other elements of culture (e.g. gestures or
languages); indeed to reconstruct the cultural evolution of the various
interacting facets of human worldviews.Submitted or Under Revision
In Preparation
Lectures, Presentations, and Workshops
Invited Lectures
Conference / Workshop
Presentations
Conference / Workshops –
Invited Attendance but No Talk
Service
Journal Editorship
Reviewer/Referee
Publicity, Community Service,
and Applications of Research
Artistic Works, Performances,
and Exhibitions
Art and Film Exhibitions
Fiction
Music
Innovative,
Commercializable Research
Visual Diary Project
EVOC: A Computer Model of the
Evolution of Culture
WE: A Tool for Documenting
Worldview Evolution and Material Cultural History