Perspectives on Child Development: Social Learning and Interaction

Toruń, June 19–21-2025 (scientific sessions on June 20–21)
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń

Perspectives on Child Development: Social Learning and Interaction is an international, interdisciplinary conference organized by the Department of Cognitive Science and the Institute of Psychology at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland. The event will bring together researchers investigating how children understand the social world through interaction with others across individual, dyadic, and cultural levels.

Central to the conference are questions about how children evaluate the reliability of information from others, develop a theory of mind (ToM), coordinate emotionally and behaviorally with caregivers, and use language to navigate social environments. The program also includes contributions addressing neural and behavioral synchrony between children and caregivers and neurobiological foundations of social learning and cognition in early development.

The conference fosters interdisciplinary dialogue across developmental psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and related fields by exploring the developmental roots of trust, communication, mentalizing, emotional understanding, and cultural learning. Through keynote lectures, thematic sessions, and open discussions, the meeting will highlight both foundational and cutting-edge research on how social interaction shapes the developing mind.

We welcome empirical, theoretical, and methodological work from developmental science.

Confirmed keynote speakers include Prof. Paul L. Harris (Harvard University), Francisco Pons (University of Oslo), Fabrice Clément (University of Neuchâtel), Arvid Kappas (Constructor University), Tone Kristine Hermansen (University of Oslo), Alessandro Carollo (University of Trento), Arkadiusz Gut (Nicolaus Copernicus University), Marta Białecka (Nicolaus Copernicus University), Małgorzata Stępień-Nycz (Jagiellonian University), Ewa Haman (University of Warsaw), Agnieszka Pluta (University of Warsaw), Katarzyna Lubiewska (University of Warsaw) and Przemysław Tomalski (Polish Academy of Sciences), among others.

Arkadiusz Gut and Marta Białecka

Organisers

Call for Posters

We invite submissions for the interdisciplinary conference Perspectives on Child Development: Social Learning and Interaction poster session hosted by the Department of Cognitive Science and the Institute of Psychology at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland.

The conference will examine how children learn from and engage with others, emphasizing the roles of trust, communication, cognitive development, and cultural context. Contributions are encouraged on a range of topics, including

selective trust in early childhood,
children’s conceptualizations of the mind and its consequences,
behavioral and neural synchronization between child and caregiver,
the impact of language on social cognition,
cross-cultural patterns in attachment and information-seeking,
emotional reasoning in response to testimony,
and children’s interactions with artificial agents such as robots.

We welcome empirical, theoretical, and methodological work from developmental science.

Confirmed keynote speakers include

Prof. Paul L. Harris (Harvard University),
Francisco Pons (University of Oslo),
Fabrice Clément (University of Neuchâtel),
Arvid Kappas (Constructor University),
Tone Kristine Hermansen (University of Oslo),
Alessandro Carollo (University of Trento),
Arkadiusz Gut (Nicolaus Copernicus University),
Marta Białecka (Nicolaus Copernicus University),
Małgorzata Stępień-Nycz (Jagiellonian University),
Ewa Haman (University of Warsaw),
Agnieszka Pluta (University of Warsaw),
Katarzyna Lubiewska (University of Warsaw)
and Przemysław Tomalski (Polish Academy of Sciences), among others.

This call is particularly aimed at PhD candidates and early-career postdoctoral researchers.

To submit an abstract of a poster presentation you should:

The submitted abstract will be subject to a review procedure. You will be informed of its results by email.

The abstract should be no longer than 2500 characters including spaces (no more than 300 words).