BCS 261: Language Use and Understanding

Spring 2006

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Instructor

Professor Michael K. Tanenhaus (MKT)
Office: 420 Meliora
Phone: 275-5491

Teaching assistant

Dr. Anne Pier Salverda (APS)
Office: 421 Meliora
Phone: 275-6281

Course description

This course is a seminar-style upper-level class focusing on issues in language processing at the level of the word, the sentence, and discourse and conversation. We will examine selected topics in each of these areas for both language production, and language comprehension with speech and text. Most topics will be introduced with an overview lecture, typically by MKT, but occasionally by APS. This lecture will be accompanied by a general introductory reading—usually a short review. We will then read and discuss one or more primary articles for each class. Students in the class will be responsible for leading the discussion on most of the articles, which will involve preparing a handout to facilitate discussion. The format of the classes will vary. Sometimes we will critique an article, sometime we will focus on a controversy involving "dueling" papers, and sometimes we will try to design possible follow-up experiments that build upon one of the target articles or that combine ideas from several related articles. Each student will also write a paper based on a project (2 or 3 students can work together on a project) and present that work at a mini-conference towards the end of the semester. Grades will be based upon presentations of articles, participation in discussion, the project paper and two essays that are based on topics presented in class.

Schedule and Readings

• January 18

• W: Introduction and overview of class

• January 23 & 25: Visual word recognition: the role of sound

• M: Visual word recognition (MKT)
• W: Van Orden (1987) Memory & Cognition
  Seidenberg (2005) Current Directions in Psychological Science
  Anthony & Francis (2005) Current Directions in Psychological Science
• Lecture Notes: 1 2 3

• January 30 & February 1

• M: Word Production (MKT)
  Levelt (1999) Trends in Cognitive Science
• W: Brown & McNeill (1966) JVLVB
  Dell (1985) Cognitive Science
  Demonstration: Errors in tongue twisters

• February 6 to 15

• M: Spoken word recognition (APS)
  Dahan & Magnuson (in press). Spoken word recognition
  Salverda (2005). Introduction
• W: Feedback controversy:
  Norris et al. (2000) BBS
• M: Mirman, McClelland & Holt (2005) JML
• W: Categorical Perception: (APS will lead)
  Eimas et al. (1971) Science
  McMurray et al. (2002) Cognition
  McMurray & Aslin (2005) Cognition

• February 20 to March 1: Utterance Planning

• M: Utterance Planning (MKT)
  Bock (1995) Eimas & Miller (Handbook chapter)
• W: Syntactic persistence
  Bock paper (1986) Cognitive Psychology
  Branigan, Pickering, & Cleland (2000) Cognition
• M: Optional complements
  V. Ferreira (2003) JML
• W: Optional complements in comprehension
  Trueswell et al. (1993) JEP:LMC

• March 6 & 8: Sentence Processing

• M: Sentence Processing (MKT)
  Sentence comprehension essays:
  Tanenhaus (2004). Oxford Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science
  Gibson (2004). Oxford Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science
• W: Expectations:
  Altmann & Kamide (1999) Cognition
  Kutas & Hillyard (1984) Nature
  Arnold et al. (2004) Psychological Science

• March 13 & 15

• SPRING BREAK

• March 20 to 27

• M: Reference, memory, & inference
  Bransford & McCarrell (1974)
• W: Sachs (1967) Memory for Gist
  Bransford, Barclay, & Franks (1972) Cognitive Psychology
• M: Loftus & Palmer (1974) JVLVB
  Harris (1978) JEP: General

• March 29:

• W: Discussion of plans for projects

• April 3 and 5: Context, reference and parsing:

• M: Sedivy et al. (1999) Cognition
  Chambers et al. (2002) JML
• W: Chambers et al. (2004) JEP: LMC
  Tanenhaus et al. (1995) Science

• April 12 and 17: Conversation and Discourse

• W: Data collection: Tangram tasks
  Keysar et al (2000) Psychological Science
  Nadig & Sedivy (2002) Psychological Science
  Keysar, Linn, & Barr (2003) Cognition
• M: Discussion of student projects (optional)

• April 19: Common Ground

• M: Clark & Wilkes Gibbs (1986) Cognition
  Schober & Clark (1989) Cognitive Psychology

• April 24 and 26: Language and Thought

• M: Brown et al.
• W: Boroditsky
  Paprafagou et al. (ms) Hard copy will be distributed

• May 1 and 3: Presentations

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