"Different isn't bad. It's just different."
—Lauren Potter
There is great value and great challenge to be found in studying cognitive differences.
Many revolutionary findings within the field of Cognitive Science are the result of studying cognitive differences. With time, cognitive differences quickly became organized into "normal" versus "abnormal" patterns of cognition. However, it's worth questioning what it means to be "normal." What approaches and populations have been used to determine "normal"? How well do those populations represent the world at large? Could such an investigation reveal there are no "normal" or "abnormal" cognitive patterns, but simply different patterns of cognition?
In an effort to appreciate (and question) the study of cognitive differences, the objective of our conference is two-fold. We seek to (1) examine what the concept of "normal" human cognition has looked like in the past, and what it could look in the future, and (2) expose our audience to different patterns of cognition, namely, the cognitive patterns associated Primary Progressive Aphasia.