EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

DATE: Lecture is at 4-6 p.m. April 9; symposium is at 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. April 10

LECTURE: Walter Mischel, the Robert Johnston Niven Professor of Humane Letters in Psychology at Columbia University, will deliver the 2014 Tanner Lecture on Human Values titled “Overcoming the Weakness of the Will.”

Mischel is internationally known as the creator of the “Marshmallow Test,” one of the most famous and important experiments in the history of psychology. His work has yielded surprisingly strong predictions for health and well-being, while also illuminating the processes and cognitive skills essential for willpower.

Beginning decades ago with Mischel’s “marshmallow test” experiments on delay of gratification with preschoolers, this lecture unpacks the conditions that enable self-control and the basic cognitive and brain mechanisms that underlie resistance to temptation and the regulation of emotions. He examines the implications of these discoveries for mastering self-control in everyday life, public policy and the conception of human nature.

PLACE: Rackham Auditorium, 915 E. Washington St., Ann Arbor

SYMPOSIUM: The 2014 Tanner Symposium will feature a panel of speakers from a range of fields discussing current research in the areas of volition and self-control and the effects of that research for issues of public policy. Audience members can pose questions to the panelists by emailing jgnguyen@umich.edu.

Speakers include Walter Mischel, professor of psychology at Columbia University; David Laibson, professor of economics at Harvard University; John Jonides, U-M professor of psychology and psychiatry; Chandra Sripada, U-M assistant professor of philosophy and psychiatry; and Ethan Kross, U-M assistant professor of psychiatry.

PLACE: Vandenberg Room, Michigan League, 911 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor

SPONSOR: Department of Philosophy in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

INFORMATION: http://bit.ly/1mI5Ks9 (lecture) and http://bit.ly/1gtqHBW (symposium)