This closed meeting was chaired by Herbert Terrace, Janet Metcalfe, and Betsy Sparrow of Columbia’s Psychology Department, and was co-sponsored by The University Seminar on Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience.

The gathering, held in the Academy's Library, focused on the antecedents and the development of the cognitive skills of agency and joint attention.

The conference participants were a diverse group of scholars who investigate these issues from a variety of perspectives.

Some have argued for the uniqueness of agency and joint attention in humans while others believe that some of the precursors of these skills exist in non-human primates.