6 reasons to go to the Measuring Behavior conference

This coming May, the 12th edition of the Measuring Behavior conference will take place. Over the years it has grown from just a small workshop, to a fully-fledged international scientific conference with a high reputation. There are so many conferences to go to. What makes Measuring Behavior special?

1. Multidisciplinary conference

Behavior is a wide concept encompassing many disciplines. In practice neuroscientists, psychologists, UX researchers, ethologists, and all the other specialties represented at Measuring Behavior have their own traditions and ways of doing research. However, often they face the same problems and can learn a lot from each other.

One of the great strengths of the meeting is that the conference has both sessions which go into depth for researchers focusing on one topic, as well as broader symposia in which delegates can take advantage of the knowledge of other disciplines.

2. Joint meeting

The coming meeting will be a joint one between Measuring Behavior and the International Symposium on Behavioral Methods. Professor Jarosław Barski, from the Medical University of Silesia, is the local Chair for Measuring Behavior and has organized the International Symposium on Behavioral Methods for many years, so he is uniquely qualified to ensure that in May all the delegates will benefit from the coming together of the two conferences.

3. Kraków

We are very fortunate to be meeting in one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Kraków is famous for its huge medieval market place (adjacent to the conference location) as well as its castle, historic Jewish district and cathedral. The city center is a UNESCO world heritage site.

4. Demonstration showcase

In addition to the usual types of sessions like symposia, workshops and posters, one of the unusual features of Measuring Behavior is that there is a special format for the presentation of inventions and prototypes. Both academics and companies can give interactive demonstrations of their new software and hardware. This program element is often the most appreciated by delegates. Incidentally, although Noldus helps organize the conference, it is open to all and Noldus' competitors are also exhibitors and will often demonstrate their products.

5. Publications 

In addition to the short abstracts which presenters submit for the Program, the conference also has a full peer-reviewed Proceedings of short papers (open access and with ISBN). Because of the multi-disciplinary nature of the delegates, we are very flexible about the length of the Proceedings papers allowed, with submissions from one to seven pages being accepted.

For those who wish to write full papers in journals, we have arranged special issues of the Journal of Neuroscience Methods and Frontiers in Psychology. Some of the individual symposia also offer the possibility to publish in special issues as well.

6. Interesting keynotes

We are fortunately to have three very interesting professors giving keynote speeches. Frederic Dehais studies flight safety and he will give a talk about neuroergonomics: monitoring the brain in complex real-life situations. Chris de Zeeuw will bring us up to date on the latest techniques for measuring learning and memory. Liesbeth Zandstra will present about going from food perception to behavior.