Previous Seminars in the Psychology Seminar Series
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Tuesday, December 15th 2009, 5pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21
Professor Michal Kopelman (Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London).
Title:
'Memory disorders in the Law Courts'
Abstract:
The talk will touch on a number of issues including - amnesia for offences, false confessions (as a kind of confabulation), automatism and its inadequate definition, the 'slippery slope' of neuroscientific approaches to criminality, and the vulnerability in the Courts of those with genuine brain disease or learning disability, the difficulty of diagnosing absence status epilepticus, and stalking. All these issues will be illustrated by case examples.
The talk will be followed, in our interdisciplinary seminar tradition, by commentaries from a neurologist (Prof Charles Warlow), a psychiatrist (Dr Alan Carson) and an academic lawyer (speaker TBC), followed by a general discussion and a wine reception.
Monday, November 30th 2009, 5pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21
Professor Robert Plomin (Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London).
Title:
Genetics of learning abilities and disabilities.
Monday, November 23rd 2009, 4pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21
Bhismadev Chakrabarti (University of Cambridge).
Title:
Understanding emotions: Clues from genes, brains, and autism.
Abstract:
Darwin's seminal contribution to the systematic study of expressions of emotion laid the groundwork for the field of affective neuroscience, which was not to be brought back to life until about a hundred years later. The development of real-time neuroimaging techniques in the last two decades has vastly changed the nature of our investigations on how we perceive expressions of emotions in others. In my talk, I shall present some of our behavioural and neuroimaging studies on this topic, focussing particularly on individual differences, both at a psychometric and genetic level. Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) are extremely informative in this line of investigation, since people with ASC often show some degree of impairment in processing emotion expressions. I hope to show how some of the insights gained from our studies could be relevant to understanding ASC.Monday, November 16th 2009, 5pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21
Dr Kees van Oers (Netherlands Institute of Ecology).
Title:
Avian personality: causes and consequences of behavioural consistency in the great tit.
Abstract:
Animals within populations show consistent individual variation in their behavioural response to social and non-social challenges. Describing the causes and consequences of this variation is currently one of the major issues in behavioural ecology. Sets of correlated behaviours expressed consistently within individuals indicate an individual's 'personality', analogous to a human's personality. Recent identification that many wild populations of animals consist of mixes of personalities has shifted traditional thinking of behavioural evolution.Since different behaviours are correlated, individuals are not completely flexible in how they react to a certain challenge. Therefore they cannot optimize their behaviour in each context separately, but have to compromise to optimise fitness over the whole range of contexts has evolved. Because of these behavioural compromises there is more than one optimal solution how to cope with environmental challenges, giving rise to adaptive variation in personality phenotypes.
In this presentation I will try to give insight in how animal personality research may change our thinking of behavioural variation and evolution. I will illustrate, with examples of a well studied model system for animal personalities, what we already know and how some newly developed methods could help us to better understand behavioural evolution in natural populations.
Monday, November 9th 2009, 5pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21
Stephen J Suomi (National Institute of Child Health & Human Development).
Title:
Risk, resilience, and gene X environment interactions in primates.
Abstract:
Recent research with both humans and rhesus monkeys has provided compelling evidence of gene-environment (G x E) interactions throughout development. For example, a specific polymorphism of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene is associated with deficits in infant neurobehavioral functioning, poor control of aggression and low serotonin metabolism during juvenile and adolescent development, and excessive alcohol consumption in early adulthood in monkeys reared with peers but not in monkeys reared by their mother. One interpretation of these findings is that secure attachment relationships somehow confer resiliency to individuals who carry alleles that may otherwise increase their risk for adverse developmental outcomes ('maternal buffering'). Similar patterns of apparent 'buffering' have been demonstrated for G x E interactions involving several other genes with functionally equivalent polymorphisms in both humans and rhesus monkeys. Recent research has suggested that much of this 'buffering' may be taking place in the context of early face-to-face interactions between rhesus monkey mothers and their infants. Moreover, the allelic variation seen in these genes in rhesus monkeys and humans but apparently not in other primate species may actually contribute to their remarkable adaptability and resilience at the species level.Monday, November 2nd 2009, 5pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21
Professor James Tresilian (University of Warwick).
Title:
In one end and out the other, or bottled-up and released? Contrasting accounts of interceptive control.
Abstract:
Since the early days of behavioural science it has been usual to distinguish stimulus-elicited behaviours from those that arise from internal processes without an external stimulus. Both reflexes and interceptive actions are examples of stimulus elicited behaviours, though reflexes are involuntary whereas interceptions have an essential voluntary element. Regardless of the role of volition, two types of elicited behaviour can be distinguished: (i) a type in which the response is in some sense pre-prepared and then released or triggered by the stimulus and (ii) a type in which the response does not pre-exist but is a continuous transformation of the stimulus input.Konrad Lorenz's account of fixed action patterns provides an example of the former type, stretch reflexes and pupillary reflexes provide examples of the latter. Are interceptive actions one of these types and if so, which one? Until recently it had been supposed that they were type (i), but more recently this view has been changing and there is now something of a consensus favouring type (ii). I will present the results of some recent work that restores the status quo. Thank goodness.
ANNUAL COMBE LECTURE
Friday, October 23rd 2009, 5pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21
Professor Thomas J. Bouchard, Jr., Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota
Title:
The Traditional Moral Virtues Triad (Authoritarianism, Religiousness and Conservatism). The Role of Obedience: Psychological and Evolutionary Consideration
Abstract:
Religiousness and its strongly associated traits of Authoritarianism and Conservatism form a cluster called the Traditional Moral Values Triad (TMVT). These traits have been denigrated by academics since their condemnation by Marx, Freud and Nietzche, early scholars in the social sciences whose influence continues to be pervasive. The possible positive attributes of these traits are seldom discussed. I provide evidence that "Obedience to authority" is the construct that ties the TMVT together and argue that the higher order construct implied by the correlations should be called Traditionalism. Religiousness, rather than being an opiate of the masses (Marx) or a universal neurosis (Freud) is in part one manifestation of an underlying human evolutionary adaptation to sociality, namely the propensity to obey authority. Herbert Simon's theory of the evolution of docility is revised and meshed with Johnathan Haidt's model of the evolution of morality to illustrate a plausible evolved mechanism underlying the propensity to "Obey Authority".Monday, October 5th 2009, 5pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Seminar Room F21
Dr Sara D. Hodges, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon
Title:
We think we understand: When empathic accuracy and perceptions of understanding diverge.
Abstract:
Empathic accuracy is the ability to accurately infer another person's thoughts or feelings, and methods have been developed to measure it objectively. Intuitively, it might seem that a perceiver who is more accurate at inferring a target person's thoughts, moment by moment, would also be perceived as understanding the target better. However, a series of studies suggests that empathic accuracy and perceived understanding are surprisingly independent. Empathic accuracy is influenced by the perceiver's level of motivation, how "transparent" the target's thoughts are, and the extent to which the target's thoughts are prototypical. In contrast, perceived understanding and rapport are influenced by perceptions of (but not necessarily actual) similarity between target and perceiver, and the intimacy and importance of the conversation, none of which are related to moment by moment accuracy in inferring the target's thoughts. Such accuracy may be a cognitive extravagance, potentially valuable in a narrow range of contexts, but apparently not essential for the success of many everyday social interactions, where humans may have dealt with - or sidestepped - the "other minds" problem in alternative ways.20th ANNUAL DREVER LECTURE
Monday, April 6th 2009, 5pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21
Professor Gerd Gigerenzer, Professor of Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin
Title:
Homo Heuristicus: Why Biased Minds Make Better Inferences
Abstract:
Heuristics are efficient cognitive processes that ignore information. In contrast to the widely held view that less processing reduces accuracy, the study of heuristics shows that less information, computation, and time can in fact improve accuracy. I review the major progress made so far: (1) the discovery of less-is-more effects; (2) the study of the ecological rationality of heuristics, which examines in which environments a given strategy succeeds or fails, and why; (3) an advancement from vague labels to computational models of heuristics; (4) the development of a systematic theory of heuristics that identifies their building blocks and the evolved capacities they exploit, and views the cognitive system as relying on an 'adaptive toolbox'; and (5) the development of an empirical methodology that accounts for individual differences, conducts competitive tests, and has provided evidence for people's adaptive use of heuristics. Homo heuristicus has a biased mind and ignores part of the available information, yet a biased mind can handle uncertainty more efficiently and robustly than an unbiased mind relying on more resource-intensive and general-purpose processing strategies.Thursday, March 26th 2009, 6pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Seminar Room F21
Professor Rolf de Zwaan, Erasmus University, Rotterdam
Title:
The role of sensorimotor representations in language comprehension.
Abstract:
Traditional theories view language comprehension as the construction and integration of strings of abstract symbols into a coherent representation. Theoretical considerations have revealed that such an approach is doomed to failure because the symbols do not make contact with the outside world, so that the representation itself is devoid of meaning.The solution to this grounding problem is to assume that language comprehension involves the use of representations that are grounded in bodily interactions with the world. I will discuss evidence from my lab for the involvement of such sensorimotor representations in standard language comprehension tasks.
Thursday, March 19th 2009, 4 pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Seminar Room S1
Professor Dorothy Bishop, University of Oxford
Title:
Language disorders in children: What can they tell us about genes and brains?
Abstract:
Some children have difficulty learning to talk despite having normal intelligence -- specific language impairment (SLI). It is commonly assumed that this is the result of parents not talking enough to their children. However, recent studies show that genes are strongly implicated in determining who will have a language disorder. Studying children with SLI not only helps understand their problems, but also raises important questions about genetic influences on language learning. Difficulty in retaining phonological sequences for short periods of time is a key deficit in many cases of SLI, and several genetic variants have been found that affect this skill. However, the notion that a single factor can explain common language disorders is not tenable either at the cognitive or the genetic level. Rather, SLI appears to reflect the combined influence of several risk factors acting together. This fits with a model of language as a highly canalized function.Monday, March 16th 2009, 4.15 pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21
Dr Michele Miozzo, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge
Title:
Morphology: a neurocognitive perspective
Abstract:
Psycholinguistic theories have traditionally proposed that morphological processing is supported by specific mechanisms. This idea has also been embedded into some of the current neurocognitive accounts of language processing. However, this idea has also been challenged by data from computer simulations and patients with acquired language deficits suggesting that morphological processing can emerge from the interaction between semantic and phonological mechanisms. The data presented in the talk reveal that morphological processing can be selectively impaired in conditions of brain damage. Overall, these data favour the hypothesis that specific brain mechanisms are devoted to morphological processing. Other aspects of these data clarify the role of frequency and productivity, revealing that combinatorial (stem+suffix) mechanisms apply in different languages irrespectively of the frequency of the inflected words or the productivity of the inflectional forms.Monday, March 2nd 2009, 4.15 pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21
Dr Edward de Haan, University of Amsterdam
Title:
Classical Neuropsychology informs clinicians and cognitive neuroscience
Abstract:
The traditional neuropsychological group study, in which a substantial cohort of patients is assessed on a test battery, has been described the “method of diminishing returns”. Single case studies and (functional) neuroimaging have taken pole position, as they are easier to carry out and appear to provide harder data. Here I will argue that there is still a role to play for the group study, both in clinical and basic science.Cognitive disorders are common after stroke and have been associated with long-term disability and post-stroke dementia. Unfortunately, little data exist on the differential prognosis of specific acute cognitive disorders because there is uncertainty about the reliability and predictive validity of early cognitive testing. Identification of patients at risk for long-term cognitive impairment, while patients are still residing on the stroke unit, could be of great importance for determining an appropriate discharge destination. We examined 111 patients with a first-ever stroke in the acute phase and after 6 to 10 months. The results show that early neuropsychological examination provided valuable and specific information on long-term cognitive performance.
Large scale neuropsychological studies allow for data analyses on specific subgroups of patients. Over the last decade, several studies have suggested that cerebellar damage might cause cognitive impairments in addition to motor deficits. Here I will report on data of 8 patients with lesions confined to the cerebellum. The aim was to substantiate the claim of cognitive deficits, and if so, to qualify the nature of the impairments. Patients with cerebellar lesion were impaired on the WAIS-similarities, verbal fluency and list learning (immediate recall, delayed recall & delayed recognition). The patients performed within the normal range on most of the other tasks. These findings suggest that cerebellar damage can affect cognitive functioning and that, in line with previous research, higher-order verbal processes may be particularly at risk.
Tuesday, February 24th 2009, 4.15 pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21
Dr Andy Field, Reader in Psychology, University of Sussex
Title:
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son": Verbal Fear Information and the development of fears in children.
Abstract:
Verbal information has long been assumed to play an important role in the development of fears and phobias. In fact, most modern theories of phobias incorporate this "indirect pathway" as a key component in fear acquisition. However, the evidence for verbal information as a pathway to fear has been based largely on retrospective reports that are likely to be biased by the inaccuracies of memory. This talk describes a body of research using an experimental paradigm that looks at the effect of verbal threat information on fears before they develop in childhood (see Field, Argyris & Knowles, 2001; Field & Lawson, 2003). Several experiments will be described that use this paradigm to show that verbal threat information changes implicitly- and explicitly-measured fear beliefs, create avoidance behaviour, physiological change, and attentional biases similar to those found in clinical anxiety. These effects also appear to be mediated by dispositional factors (such as behavioural inhibition). Furthermore, expectations created by verbal information appear to affect future learning through conditioning. These experiments are a first step in understanding how normal childhood fears develop into adult phobias.Monday, February 16th 2009, 4.15 pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21Dr Heather Ferguson
Dr Heather Ferguson
Title:
Eye-movements reveal on-line evidence for Theory of Mind processes during discourse
Abstract:
During conversation it is often necessary to infer other peoples' beliefs, intentions and emotions to understand and predict their behaviour (termed theory of mind - ToM). Although considerable research has examined the perception of mental states in general, conclusions on the specific processes involved in inferring, maintaining and selecting appropriate perspectives during communication have so far been limited by offline response-based methods. Further, the role of language in 'mindreading' tasks has only recently emerged as an important issue following neuropsychological evidence that traditional ToM brain areas are also active for linguistic coherence processes. In this talk, I will present a series of experiments that use established online techniques from psycholinguistics to examine issues such as the automaticity of belief attributions and the specific role of higher-level language (through comparisons with counterfactual conditionals) in ToM processes. Finally, I will discuss how these findings relate to evidence from social psychology in support of a gender bias in cognition.Monday, February 9th 2009, 4.15 pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21
Charlotte Stagg
Charlotte Stagg, Oxford Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain, Department of Clinical Neurology, University of Oxford
Title:
Neurochemical changes following transcranial stimulation
Abstract:
There is an increasing interest in transcranial stimulation techniques as therapeutic interventions in a variety of diseases. However, many of the mechanisms underpinning their action are only poorly understood. Here I will present the results of studies using Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) to investigate the neurotransmitter changes induced by both transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (TBS). In addition I will present some evidence using both MRS and other imaging modalities that the effects of tDCS in particular may be directly mediated by the same circuits that are involved in motor learning, suggesting a strong rationale for the use of the technique in rehabilitation.Monday, February 2nd 2009, 4.15 pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21
Dr Piers Cornelissen
Dr Piers Cornelissen, Department of Psychology, The University of York
Title:
Visual Word Recognition: Latest Insights from MEG
Abstract:
As with most complex behaviours, visual word recognition is thought to result from the dynamic interplay between the elements of a distributed cortical and sub-cortical network. To fully understand how visual word recognition is achieved therefore, we need to identify not only the necessary and sufficient compliment of nodes that comprise this network - its functional anatomy - but we also need to understand how information flows through this network with time and indeed how the structure of the network itself may change with time.In this talk, I will first review evidence from MEG studies of visual word recognition in which equivalent current dipole and synthetic aperture magnetometry (SAM) analyse have been used to elucidate these spatio-temporal dynamics. Then I will present new results from a study in which we have further explored Pammer et al.'s (2004) finding that the left pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the precentral gyrus (BA44/6) were activated very early during a visual lexical decision task, at around ~100-200ms post-stimulus. Pammer et al. (2004) found that this early IFG activity followed immediately after bilateral activation of the middle occipital gyri, and overlapped in time with the onset of activation in the LH mid-fusiform. Together, these findings suggest, and the new results confirm, that the interplay between the vision and language domains starts early during visual word recognition.
Finally, I will present new results from an MEG study of continuous reading in which words were presented as an RSVP (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation) stream (Kujala et al., 2007). Regardless of the stimulus rate, communication within a left-hemisphere long-range neural network occurred at a frequency of 8-13 Hz. DICS analysis (Direct Imaging of Coherent Sources) revealed several brain regions that have been previously reported as active in reading tasks, based on traditional contrast estimates in fMRI. Intriguingly, the face motor cortex and the cerebellum, typically associated with speech production, and the orbitofrontal cortex, linked to visual recognition and working memory, additionally emerged as densely connected components of the network.
The University of York
Dr Piers Cornelissen
Monday, January 26th 2009, 4.15 pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21
Professor Arnold Wilkins
Professor Arnold Wilkins, Department of Psychology, University of Essex
Title:
Eye-strain is brain strain - and we can reduce it.
Abstract:
The visual stimulation responsible for discomfort, aversion, eye-strain and headache has an excess energy where the visual system is generally most sensitive. There are consequences for the design of reading material, for reading disorders, and for the diagnosis and treatment of migraine. Near infrared spectroscopy is providing clues as to the neurological mechanisms involved.Professor Arnold Wilkins
University of Essex
Gillian Birrell Memorial Lecture
Monday, January 19th 2009, 5.00 pm, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21
Professor Steven Jones
Professor Steven Jones, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Spectrum Centre for Mental Health Research, Lancaster University
Title:
Psychological Treatment of Bipolar Disorder - Past, Present and Future
Abstract:
Bipolar disorder is a common severe and recurrent mental health problem which has until recently been neglected by clinical and academic researchers. It is associated with significant financial and emotional costs but also with experiences such as hypomania which are highly valued by individuals with experience of bipolar disorder. Although research into psychosocial treatments was neglected for many years there has been significant progress in the last decade indicating that a range of different forms of therapy are effective in addressing relapse. However, this important progress should not blind us to the importance of further improving therapy options for people with experience of bipolar disorder. In addition to presenting evidence for recent developments in therapy research I will discuss some of the challenges facing translational research in this area and note some recent initial data in new psychological interventions in bipolar disorder. I will finally note a number of new therapy studies in progress which build on what we have learnt from psychological research and information from service user colleagues and participants over the last decade of therapy development in this area.Links:
Professor Steven Jones
Lancaster University
Monday, December 15th 2008, 5.00 pm, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21 - Professor Robin Dunbar
Professor Robin Dunbar, Institute for Cognitive & Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford
Title:
Evolution of the social brain: from cognition to neural underpinnings.
Abstract:
There is now compelling evidence to suggest that primate (and, perhaps, more generally mammalian) brain evolution has been driven by the cognitive demands of social complexity (the "social brain hypothesis"). However, we know very little about either what brain mechanisms are involved or how cognition serves to translate brain processes into behaviour. I will review the comparative data on primate brain evolution that bear on this, and review some of the recent work on social group size and structure (with particular reference to humans) in the light of this. I will then try to suggest some ways in which social cognition might bridge the gap between brain and behaviour.Monday, December 8th 2008, 5.00 pm, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21 - Professor Robert H. Logie
Professor Robert Logie, Professor of Human Cognitive Neuroscience, The University of Edinburgh
Title:
Working memory, age, and use of the internet in cognitive research.
Abstract:
Behavioural studies of healthy young, ageing, and brain damaged adults have indicated that separate, domain-specific resources support temporary memory and on-line manipulation of visual appearance, location, and movement sequences within a multi-component working memory system. Other researchers have argued that working memory comprises temporary activation of long-term memory modulated by focused attention. From recent behavioural studies of intact and impaired visuo-spatial working memory function, including one study with 45,000 participants, I will argue that integrated temporary representations arise from strategic operation of modality specific systems operating largely independently of long-term stored knowledge. The talk will end with the description of a new project examining working memory and cognitive ageing in multitasking using computer simulated everyday tasks and virtual environments.Monday, December 1st 2008, 5.00 pm, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21 - Professor Ingrid Johnsrude
Professor Ingrid Johnsrude, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario
Title:
Friends and strangers at the cocktail party: how learning can aid speech comprehension
Abstract:
Speech perception is effortless in most everyday situations, despite us encountering talkers with a wide variety of speaking styles, rates, and voice characteristics. It is only when we encounter an extreme variant of normal speech - someone who talks very quickly or with a strong accent - that we are aware of having to adjust our perception, but every talker has his or her idiosyncrasies of speech that must be accommodated by the perceptual system. The efficiency with which we adapt to changes in the acoustic realization of speech is unmatched by even state-of-the-art computer speech recognition systems. How do we accomplish this feat? I will present recent work, using artificially degraded speech and naturally familiar voices, that demonstrates: 1) that experience with a particular type of acoustic degradation (simulating an accent, or speech transduced through a cochlear implant) can result in perceptual learning; 2) that this learning is lexically driven: knowledge of words is used to tune lower-level perceptual mechanisms so that subsequently presented degraded speech is perceived more clearly; and 3) once a voice is familiar (where familiarization probably involves the mechanisms of perceptual learning explored in points 1 and 2), what is known about the voice can be used to segregate it efficiently from other voices, improving comprehension of an utterance spoken by a target voice. Importantly, this is true not just when the target is a familiar voice, but also (under certain conditions) when it is a novel voice and the familiar voice is presented at the same time. I will conclude by discussing the relationship between processes of auditory perceptual organization and speech perception, and the significance of our work for understanding how older people in everyday (i.e., noisy) listening environments comprehend speech.Monday, November 24th 2008, 5.00 pm, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21 - Dr Karen Douglas
Dr Karen Douglas, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury
Title:
Strategic language use in interpersonal and intergroup communication
Abstract:
According to the linguistic category model (Semin & Fiedler, 1988), communicators use different levels of language abstraction ranging from concrete ("Kath hit Kim") to abstract ("Kath is aggressive") when they describe others' behaviours. Current theories suggest that without being aware of their linguistic choices, communicators use more abstract language to describe expected or stereotypical behaviours and concrete language to describe unexpected or counter-stereotypical behaviours (the linguistic expectancy bias or LEB; Wigboldus, Semin & Spears, 2000). Therefore, language abstraction is said to be one way in which people unconsciously 'pass on' stereotypes and other beliefs to others. However my own experiments show that communicators are able to recruit language abstraction when they have a conscious goal to manipulate an audience, by for example putting a positive or negative 'spin' on the events they are describing. Communicators are also, in some contexts, able to inhibit the linguistic expression of their biased beliefs when they are explicitly instructed to do so. Finally, this strategic use of language is not without consequences for describers. Recipients use language abstraction as a cue to help them detect interpersonal biases (such as liking and disliking) and communication goals (such as 'spin') in descriptions of others. Overall, the experiments indicate that communicators are able to use language abstraction more flexibly and strategically than current theories would suggest, in order to achieve important social objectives.Monday, November 10th 2008, 5.00 pm, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21 - Professor Ulrike Zeshan
Professor Ulrike Zeshan, International Centre for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies, University of Central Lancashire
Title:
Sign Language Typology - The Cross-linguistic Study of Sign Languages
Abstract:
This lecture introduces a new sub-discipline in linguistics, which draws upon theoretical backgrounds and methodologies from both sign language research and linguistic typology. Sign language typology is concerned with the systematic comparative study of sign languages, and as such has only just become a viable field of study. As information about grammatical structures is increasingly becoming available for a larger range of sign languages, we can, for the first time, undertake cross-linguistic investigation of structural target domains across a diverse sample of sign languages, with often surprising results.
In this lecture, I summarise some results from projects in sign language typology in recent years, covering the domains of interrogative, negative and possessive constructions across more than 30 sign languages from all over the world. The patterns of variation that we find compare with the findings of spoken language typology in interesting ways. I also focus in particular on sign languages found in village communities with a high incidence of hereditary deafness. Research results are illustrated with video examples from various sign languages.
The systematic comparison of a wide variety of sign language data allow us to make empirically substantiated inductive generalisations about what it means to speak of sign languages as a linguistic type. The approach also serves to address the question of linguistic universals in human language in a more informed way, covering the whole range of diversity in both signed and spoken languages.
Monday, November 3rd 2008, 5.00 pm, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21 - Professor Dan Everett
Professor Dan Everett, Chair of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Illinois State University
Title:
Lives and languages in the Amazon jungle: the fundamental role of culture in the evolution of the human language.
Abstract:
Levi-Strauss did his Brazilian fieldwork among two subgroups of the Kawahiv (Tenharim and Parintintin) in the southern Amazon basin. When Levi-Strauss knew them in the 1940s, these were quite 'primitive' groups (i.e., hunter-gatherers with little technology). Today they have members serving as city councilmen in local Brazilian cities. But another group in their area, the Piraha, have had a history utterly unlike that of the Kawahiv. This talk explores these differences and suggests an explanation for certain strikingly divergent features of Piraha language and culture. I argue in this talk (and in DON'T SLEEP, THERE ARE SNAKES) that these differences force us to rethink the nature of the relationship between culture and language.
Monday, October 27th 2008, 5.00 pm, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21 - Professor Mark Steedman
Professor Mark Steedman, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
Title:
Grounding Language in Action Representation
Abstract:
For both neuro-anatomical and psychological reasons, it has been argued for many years that language and planned action are related. I will discuss this relation and suggest a representation related to AI planning formalisms, drawing on linear and combinatory logic. This formalism gives a direct logical representation for the Gibsonian notion of "affordance" in its relation to action representation. This relation is so direct that it raises an obvious question: since higher animals make certain kinds of plans, and planning seems to require a symbolic representation closely akin to language, why don't those animals possess a language faculty in the human sense of the term? I will show that the recursive concept of the mental state of others that underlies propositional attitudes provides almost all that is needed to generalize planning to fully lexicalized universal natural language grammar. The conclusion will be that the evolutionary development of language from planning may have been a relatively simple and inevitable process. A much harder question is how symbolic planning evolved from neurally embedded sensory-motor systems in the first place, how action concepts can be learned from sensory motor data, and how such grounded action concepts might differ from standard logicist assumptions usually made in symbolic planners.
Monday, October 20th 2008, 5.00 pm, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21 - Dr Valérie Dufour
Dr Valérie Dufour, The School of Psychology, University of St Andrews
Title:
Temporal constraints on reciprocal transfers in primates
Abstract:
Bidirectional transfers of goods are frequent in primates and it has been suggested that some of those transfers rely on calculated reciprocity, where provider and recipient alternate role and keep track of what has been given and received. Role alternation means that there is a temporal distance between gifts and returns and the initial provider needs to anticipate the return of its favour. While great apes were recently shown to plan for the future, monkeys are still considered as being “stuck in time”. Therefore, they may not be able to cope with a delay between a gift and its return. In a series of experiments, I explore this question by studying the capacity of capuchins, macaques and chimpanzees to delay gratification in an exchange task.
Monday, October 13th 2008, 5.00 pm, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21 - Professor John Wearden
Professor John Wearden, School of Psychology, Keele University
Title:
Internal clocks and the perception of time
Abstract:
Since the 19th century, there has been much speculation about how people perform judgements of duration, and whether there is a “time sense” (Der Zeitsinn), by means of which duration is perceived. A possible “organ” for this putative time sense is some sort of internal clock, by which objective time is translated into internal, subjective time. The idea of an internal timer which “accumulates” duration has been very influential, and the talk will review evidence relating to this notion. Attempts to “speed up” or “slow down” the internal clock will be discussed, as well as the internal clock mechanism as an explanation of modality effects in timing, effects of emotional stimuli on time judgements, and temporal scaling. Recent evidence that a “central timer” is closely related to the speed of information processing will also be presented.
Monday, October 6th 2008, 5.00 pm, 7 George Square, Lecture Theatre F21 - Professor Friedemann Pulvermüller
Professor Friedemann Pulvermüller, MRC Programme Leader, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge
Title:
Brain embodiment for semantics; fine, but what about syntax?
Abstract:
Meaning is bound to symbols by means of distributed cortical circuits. Their formation can, in part, be explained by associative learning and innate properties of the nervous system, especially cortico-cortical long-distance connections. A key role in setting up these circuits is attributed to actions that also lead to correlated self-perception of the action-related sounds and images. In babbling and early word learning, this process of correlation learning may give rise to action-perception circuits for word forms distributed over perisylvian language cortex; and later-on, correlations between perceptions, speech acts and other actions can (again in part) account for the arbitrary linkage of symbol and referential meaning - for example in the case of verbs related to actions carried out with different parts of the own body.
But how would associative learning in an innate network structure account for the acquisition of syntax? First steps can be taken to clarify this issue by looking (instead of word-world correlations) at word-word correlations in language use. The pattern of co-occurrences of words includes information about lexical category membership. In networks mimicking aspects of relevant cortical structures, learning of grammatical strings and the substitutions between members of the same lexical categories leads to formation of syntactic binding circuits connecting categories of substituted elements. Such "rule circuits" predict neurophysiological brain responses that reflect grammaticality - rather than sequential probability - and whose activation is to a degree automatic. Neurophysiological evidence that grammar processes in the brain are discrete and act "like a reflex" (Fodor) will be presented to bolster the notion of discrete syntactic binding circuits.
Last modified 2009-12-22 09:43 AM
