RUB » Department of Philosophy » Philosophy of Language and Cognition

Dr. Erica Cosentino

Postdoctoral Fellow

Department of Philosophy
Ruhr University of Bochum
Universitätsstraße 150
Room GA 04/45
44780 Bochum, Germany

Phone: +49-(0)234-32-23159
Fax: +49-(0)234-32-14463
Secretary: +49(0)234-32-26739
Email: erica.cosentino@rub.de; ericacosentino2@gmail.com


My main research interests are in the Philosophy of Language and Mind, Philosophy of Psychology and Cognitive Science. I am particularly interested in two topics: episodic memory (and its connection to mental time travel), and the neuro-psychological basis of language processing. I have also been writing on the following issues: the role of sensory-motor information in semantic processing, language evolution, memory and the self, mindreading and navigation in space.


I received my PhD in 2008 from the University of Palermo with a thesis on the role of episodic memory in the emergence of a temporally extended self and its relation to language acquisition and evolution.

I am a member of the project “The Interaction of Bayesian Pragmatics and Lexical Semantics in Linguistic Interpretation: Using Event-Related Potentials to Investigate Hearers’ Probabilistic Predictions” of the Framework Program XPrag by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

 

Publications:

Monographs    

Cosentino, E. (2012). La mente narrativa. I fondamenti simulativi della comprensione e produzione del discorso (The Narrative Mind. A Simulationist perspective on discourse processes). CORISCO, Roma.

Cosentino, E. (2012). La testa tra le nuvole. Il linguaggio tra realtà e immaginazione (Mind Wandering. Language between reality and imagination). Aracne, Roma.

Cosentino, E. (2008). Il tempo della mente. Linguaggio, evoluzione e identità personale (Mind’s Time. Language, evolution and personal identity). Quodlibet, Macerata.

 

Edited books

Cosentino, E., Rossi, M.G. (Eds.) (2011). Mente, linguaggio, evoluzione (Mind, Language, Evolution. Proceedings of the CODISCO 2010). Atti del IV Convegno 2010 del CODISCO, Coordinamento dei Dottorati italiani di Scienze Cognitive, CORISCO, Roma.

Cosentino, E., Vazzano, S. (Eds.) (2007). I segni del soggetto. Tra Filosofia e scienze cognitive (Self’s signs. Between Philosophy and Cognitive Science). Carocci, Roma.
 

Journal articles

Cosentino, E. (2020). Self-control, mental time travel, and the temporally extended self. In A. Mele (ed.), Surrounding Self-Control, Oxford University Press, pp. 434-452.

McCarroll, C., Cosentino, E. (2020). Rewarding one’s Future Self: Psychological Connectedness, Episodic Prospection, and a Puzzle about Perspective. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 11(2), 449-467.

Cosentino, E. (2019). Artifacts and affordances. Synthese, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-019-02297-4.

Ferretti, F., Adornetti, I., Chiera, A., Cosentino, E., Nicchiarelli, S. (2018). In search for a paradigm: the origin of language from biolinguistics to embodied cognition. Topoi 37, 219–234.

Cosentino, E., Baggio, G., Kontinen, J., & Werning, M. (2017). The time-course of sentence meaning composition. N400 effects of the interaction between context-induced and lexically stored affordances. Frontiers in Psychology 8, 818. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00813.

Werning, M., & Cosentino, E. (2017). The interaction of Bayesian pragmatics and lexical semantics in linguistic interpretation: Using event-related potentials to investigate hearers’ probabilistic predictions. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 3504-3509). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Reuter, K., Werning, M., Kuchinke, L, & Cosentino, E. (2017). Reading Words Hurts: The impact of pain sensitivity on people’s ratings of pain-related words. Language and Cognition, 9, 3, 553–567.

Cosentino, E. (2016). Affordances in language. On the role of motor information in the meaning of nouns. RSL Italian Journal of Cognitive Sciences, 5, 9, 135-150.

Cosentino, E., Werning, M., and Reuter, K. (2015). Reading Words Hurts: The impact of pain sensitivity on people’s ratings of pain-related words. In R. Dale et al. (Eds.), Mind, Technology, and Society: proceedings of the 37th annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2015). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society, pp. 453–458.

Cosentino, E., Ferretti, F. (2015). Cognitive foundations of the narrative self. Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia, 6(2), 311-324.

Cosentino, E. (2014). Embodied pragmatics and the evolution of language. Humana.Mente Journal of Philosophical Studies, 27, 61-78.

Cosentino, E., Baggio, G., Kontinen, J., Garwels, T., and Werning, M. (2014). Lexicon in action: N400 effect on affordances and telicity. In P. Bello et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society, pp. 2079-84.

Cosentino, E., Ferretti, F. (2014). Communication as navigation. A new role for consciousness in language. Topoi, 33, 1, pp. 263-274.

Cosentino E., Adornetti I., Ferretti F. (2013). Processing narrative coherence: Towards a top-down model of discourse. Open Access Series in Informatics (OASICS). Special Issue “2013 Workshop on Computational Models of Narrative”, 32, pp. 61–75.

Ferretti, F., Adornetti, I., Cosentino, E., Marini, A. (2013). Keeping the route and speaking coherently: the hidden link between spatial navigation and discourse processing. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 26(2), 327-334.

Ferretti, F., Cosentino, E. (2013). Time, Language and Flexibility of the Mind. The role of MTT in Linguistic Comprehension and Production. Philosophical Psychology, 26 (1), 24-46.

Cosentino, E. (2011). Self in time and language. Consciousness and Cognition, 20(3), 777-83.

Cosentino, E. (2011). Il Mental time travel: una prospettiva evolutiva (Mental Time Travel from an Evolutionary Point of View). Sistemi Intelligenti, XXIII(3), 495-513.

Cosentino, E., Ferretti, F. (2011). Avviso ai naviganti: la coscienza orienta il linguaggio (Information for Navigators: Consciousness directs Language). Sistemi Intelligenti XXIII(1), numero monografico su "Filosofia e scienze cognitive", a cura di Massimo Marraffa, pp. 93-112.

Cosentino, E., Ferretti, F. (2011). Il linguaggio, in M. Marraffa, A. Paternoster (a cura di), Scienze cognitive. Un'introduzione filosofica (Cognitive Science. A Philosophical Introduction). Manuali Universitari, Carocci, Roma, pp. 127-143.

Ferretti, F., Cosentino, E. (2011). No naturalization without evolution. Fogli di Filosofia, 2, pp. 91-108.

Cosentino, E. (2011). Uomini, scimpanzè e pulcini. Le implicazioni della psicologia comparata per lo studio della mente umana (Humans, chimpanzees, and chicks. The implications of Comparative Psychology on human mind). In: Cosentino, E., Rossi M.G. (a cura di) (2011), Mente, linguaggio, evoluzione. Atti del Convegno 2010 del CODISCO, Coordinamento dei Dottorati italiani di Scienze Cognitive, CORISCO, Roma, 235-243.

Cosentino, E. (2010). Le sensazioni del tempo immaginato. Una prospettiva sul linguaggio (Imagined Time Feelings. A perspective on Language). Bollettino Filosofico, 26, 126-143.

Cosentino, E., Ferretti, F. (2009). Linguaggio e soggettività (Language and Personhood). In: M. Di Francesco, M. Marraffa (a cura di), Il soggetto. Scienza della mente e natura dell’io (The Subject. Science of the Mind and Nature of the Self). Bruno Mondadori, Milano, pp. 119-145.

Cosentino, E. (2009). Il problema mente-corpo nel dibattito contemporaneo (Mind-Body Problem in the contemporary debate). Paradigmi. Rivista di critica filosofica, 2, pp. 123-132.

Cosentino, E. (2008). Tempo e autoconsapevolezza. Per una prospettiva evolutiva (Time and self-consciousness. An Evolutionary Perspective). In: A. Falzone e M. Campochiaro (a cura di), Cultura, evoluzione, simulazione. Atti del Convegno del CODISCO (Coordinamento dei Dottorati italiani di Scienze Cognitive), CORISCO, Roma, pp. 271-280.

Cosentino, E. (2007). Come nasce un soggetto: mental time travel e identità (How the Self emerges: mental time travel and identity). In: E. Cosentino, S. Vazzano (a cura di). I segni del soggetto. Tra filosofia e scienze cognitive, Carocci, Roma, pp. 30-44.

Cosentino, E. (2005). Rappresentazioni implicite e processi cognitivi (Implicit Representations and Cognitive Processes). Bollettino Filosofico, XXI, pp. 241-250.

Cosentino, E. (2004). Semantica e pragmatica. L’autismo e la Sindrome di Williams (Semantics and Pragmatics. Autism and Williams Syndrome). Ou. Riflessioni e provocazioni, XV (1), pp. 213-218.
 

Edited journal issues

Ferretti, F., Adornetti, I., Chiera, A., Cosentino, E., Nicchiarelli, S. (2016), Origin and evolution of language. An interdisciplinary perspective. Topoi. An International Review of Philosophy.

Cosentino, E. (Ed.) (2012), Un conto aperto. Il neoculturalismo dopo la svolta cognitiva. Proceedings of the XVIII National Conference of the Society of Philosophy of Language (Reckoning with culture. Neoculturalism after the cognitive turn). Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio, May 2012.