Author Archives: Kenny
I’ll be talking about some early-stage joint work with Tim O’Donnell (MIT) on the effects of irregulars on learnability. “Irregular forms make learning easier”, 11am-12.30, DSB 1.17.
Joint LEC/P-workshop talk by Dan Silverman (San Jose State University), on “Evolution of the speech code: higher-order symbolism and the linguistic Big Bang”. Tuesday 29th May, 11am-12.30, DSB 1.17.
Bonus Friday talk by Doug Martin (Aberdeen University), “On the origin of stereotypes”. Doug is a social psychologist using iterated learning to study the processes by which social stereotypes are formed – slightly outside the LEC’s remit, but should be fun. Friday 25th May, 11am-12, DSB 1.17.
Talk by Tessa Verhoef (University of Amsterdam), “Does iconicity influence the emergence of combinatorial structure in artificial whistled languages?”. Tuesday 22nd May, 11am-12.30, DSB 1.17.
There will be no LEC meeting, due to the clash with the LEL Postgraduate Conference.
Note unusual venue. Joint LEC/P-workshop talk by Morgan Sonderegger (University of Chicago), on “Longitudinal phonetic and phonological dynamics on reality television”. Abstract below. Tuesday 8th May, 11am-12.30, DSB 3.10/3.11. Morgan Sonderegger (University of Chicago) “Longitudinal phonetic and phonological dynamics on reality television” There has been much recent interest in to what extent an individual’s phonetics [...]
We will discuss a Nisbett & Miyamoto paper on cultural influences on perception (full details below). Tuesday 1st May, 11am-12.30, DSB 1.17. Nisbett, R. E. & Miyamoto, Y. (2005). The influence of culture: holistic versus analytic perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 467-473. Available here.
Alan Nielsen will be leading a discussion of a recent paper by Monaghan et al, titled “The arbitrariness of the sign: Learning advantages from the structure of the vocabulary” (full details below). Tuesday 24th, 11am-12.30, DSB 1.17. Monaghan, P., Christiansen, M.H., & Fitneva, S.A. (2011). The arbitrariness of the sign: Learning advantages from the structure [...]
Sean Roberts and Justin Quillinan will discuss a side-project they have been working on, comparing working memory in chimps and humans (see http://www.replicatedtypo.com/the-qhimp-qhallenge-working-memory-in-humans-and-chimpanzees/4947.html for background). Tuesday 17th, 11am, DSB 1.17.