Results 1 - 10
of
78
Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition
, 1991
"... This book was an attempt to synthesize various sources of information--neurobiological, psychological, archeological and anthropological, among others--about our cognitive origins, in the belief that the human mind co-evolved in close interaction with both brain and culture. I should make clear from ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 337 (0 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
This book was an attempt to synthesize various sources of information--neurobiological, psychological, archeological and anthropological, among others--about our cognitive origins, in the belief that the human mind co-evolved in close interaction with both brain and culture. I should make clear from the start that I have no illusions about my ability to become expert in all of the disciplines touched on by this enterprise; accordingly my effort should be regarded with suspicion by all; at best, it will probably prove to be no more than a guide to some of the important questions that remain to be settled. This precis focuses on my core theory and disregards most of the background material reviewed at length in the book itself. My central hypothesis is that there were three major cognitive transformations by which the modern human mind emerged over several million years, starting with a complex of skills presumably resembling those of the chimpanzee. These transformations left, on the one hand, three new, uniquely human systems of memory representation, and on the other, three interwoven layers of human culture, each supported by its corresponding set of representations. I agree with multilevel evolutionary theorists like Plotkin (1988) who believe that selection
Integrating topics and syntax
- In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 17
, 2005
"... Statistical approaches to language learning typically focus on either short-range syntactic dependencies or long-range semantic dependencies between words. We present a generative model that uses both kinds of dependencies, and can be used to simultaneously find syntactic classes and semantic topics ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 180 (21 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
Statistical approaches to language learning typically focus on either short-range syntactic dependencies or long-range semantic dependencies between words. We present a generative model that uses both kinds of dependencies, and can be used to simultaneously find syntactic classes and semantic topics despite having no representation of syntax or semantics beyond statistical dependency. This model is competitive on tasks like part-of-speech tagging and document classification with models that exclusively use short- and long-range dependencies respectively. 1
Processing syntactic relations in language and music: An event-related potential study.
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
, 1998
"... Abstract In order to test the language-speci city of a known neural correlate of syntactic processing [the P600 event-related brain potential (ERP) component], this study directly compared ERPs elicited by syntactic incongruities in language and music. Using principles of phrase structure for langu ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 139 (14 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
Abstract In order to test the language-speci city of a known neural correlate of syntactic processing [the P600 event-related brain potential (ERP) component], this study directly compared ERPs elicited by syntactic incongruities in language and music. Using principles of phrase structure for language and principles of harmony and key-relatedness for music, sequences were constructed in which an element was either congruous, moderately incongruous, or highly incongruous with the preceding structural context. A within-subjects design using 15 musically educated adults revealed that linguistic and musical structural incongruities elicited positivities that were statistically indistinguishable in a speci ed latency range. In contrast, a music-speci c ERP component was observed that showed antero-temporal right-hemisphere lateralization. The results argue against the language-speci city of the P600 and suggest that language and music can be studied in parallel to address questions of neural speci city in cognitive processing.
Factors affecting strength of perceived foreign accent in a second language.
- Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,
, 1995
"... This study assessed the relation between non-native subjects' age of learning (AOL) English and the overall degree of perceived foreign accent in their production of English sentences. The 240 native Italian (NI) subjects examined had begun learning English in Canada between the ages of 2 and ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 89 (5 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
This study assessed the relation between non-native subjects' age of learning (AOL) English and the overall degree of perceived foreign accent in their production of English sentences. The 240 native Italian (NI) subjects examined had begun learning English in Canada between the ages of 2 and 23 yr, and had lived in Canada for an average of 32 yr. Native English-speaking listeners used a continuous scale to rate sentences spoken by the NI subjects and by subjects in a native English comparison group. Estimates of the AOL of onset of foreign accents varied across the ten listeners who rated the sentences, ranging from 3.1 to 11.6 yr (M=7.4). Foreign accents were evident in sentences spoken by many Nl subjects who had begun !earning English long before what is traditionally considered to be the end of a critical period. Very few NI subjects who began learning English after the age of 15 yr received ratings that fell within the native English range. Principal components analyses of the NI subjects' responses to a language background questionnaire were followed by multiple-regression analyses. AOL accounted for an average of 59% of variance in the foreign accent ratings. Language use factors accounted for an additional 15% of variance. Gender was also found to influence degree of foreign accent.
Who did what and when? Using word- and clause-level ERPs to monitor working memory usage in reading
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
, 1995
"... ERPs were recorded from 24 undergraduates as they read sentences known to differ in syntactic complexity and working memory requirements, namely Object and Subject Relative sentences. Both the single-word and multiword analyses revealed significant differences due to sentence type, while multiword E ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 75 (6 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
ERPs were recorded from 24 undergraduates as they read sentences known to differ in syntactic complexity and working memory requirements, namely Object and Subject Relative sentences. Both the single-word and multiword analyses revealed significant differences due to sentence type, while multiword ERPs also showed that sentence type effects differed for Good and Poor comprehenders. At the single-word level, ERPs to both verbs in Object Relative sentences showed a left anterior negativity between 300 and 500 msec postword-onset relative to those to Subject Relative verbs. At the multiword level, a slow frontal positivity characterized Subject Relative sentences, but was absent for Object Relatives. This slow positivity appears to index ease of processing or integration, and was more robust in Good than in Poor comprehenders.
Sensitive Periods in the Development of the Brain and Behavior,” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(8): 1412-1425, 2004 Lewit and Coate, The Potential for Using Excise Taxes to Reduce Smoking,” 1
- Lewit, Coate & Grossman, “The Effects of Government Regulation on Teenage Smoking
, 1982
"... & Experience exerts a profound influence on the brain and, therefore, on behavior. When the effect of experience on the brain is particularly strong during a limited period in development, this period is referred to as a sensitive period. Such periods allow experience to instruct neural circuits ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 74 (0 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
& Experience exerts a profound influence on the brain and, therefore, on behavior. When the effect of experience on the brain is particularly strong during a limited period in development, this period is referred to as a sensitive period. Such periods allow experience to instruct neural circuits to process or represent information in a way that is adaptive for the individual. When experience provides information that is essential for normal development and alters performance permanently, such sensitive periods are referred to as critical periods. Although sensitive periods are reflected in behavior, they are actually a property of neural circuits. Mechanisms of plas-ticity at the circuit level are discussed that have been shown to operate during sensitive periods. A hypothesis is proposed that experience during a sensitive period modifies the archi-tecture of a circuit in fundamental ways, causing certain pat-terns of connectivity to become highly stable and, therefore, energetically preferred. Plasticity that occurs beyond the end of a sensitive period, which is substantial in many circuits, alters connectivity patterns within the architectural constraints established during the sensitive period. Preferences in a cir-cuit that result from experience during sensitive periods are illustrated graphically as changes in a ‘‘stability landscape,’ ’ a metaphor that represents the relative contributions of genetic and experiential influences in shaping the information pro-cessing capabilities of a neural circuit. By understanding sen-sitive periods at the circuit level, as well as understanding the relationship between circuit properties and behavior, we gain a deeper insight into the critical role that experience plays in shaping the development of the brain and behavior. &
On the distinctiveness, independence, and time course of the brain responses to syntactic and semantic anomalies
- Language and Cognitive Processes
, 1999
"... We evaluated the distinctiveness, independence, and relative time courses of the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited by syntactically and semanticallyanomalous words. ERPswere recorded from13 scalp electrodes while subjects read sentences, some of which contained a selectional restriction ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 61 (9 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
We evaluated the distinctiveness, independence, and relative time courses of the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited by syntactically and semanticallyanomalous words. ERPswere recorded from13 scalp electrodes while subjects read sentences, some of which contained a selectional restriction violation (semantically anomalous), a verb tense violation (syntactically anomalous), or a doubly anomalous word that violated both selectional restriction and verb tense constraints. Semantic anomalieselicited a monophasic increase in N400 amplitude, whereas syntactic anomalies eliciteda late positive shift with an onset around 500 msec and a duration of several hundred msec. Doubly anomalous words elicited both an increase in Requests for reprints should be addressed to Lee Osterhout, Department of Psychology,
Early speech perception and later language development: Implications for the “critical period.” Language Learning and Development
, 2005
"... In this article, we present a summary of recent research linking speech perception in infancy to later language development, as well as a new empirical study examining that linkage. Infant phonetic discrimination is initially language universal, but a decline in phonetic discrimination occurs for no ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 55 (12 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
In this article, we present a summary of recent research linking speech perception in infancy to later language development, as well as a new empirical study examining that linkage. Infant phonetic discrimination is initially language universal, but a decline in phonetic discrimination occurs for nonnative phonemes by the end of the 1st year. Exploiting this transition in phonetic perception between 6 and 12 months of age, we tested the hypothesis that the decline in nonnative phonetic discrimination is associated with native-language phonetic learning. Using a standard behavioral measure of speech discrimination in infants at 7.5 months and measures of their language abilities at 14, 18, 24, and 30 months, we show (a) a negative correlation between infants’ early native and nonnative phonetic discrimination skills and (b) that nativeand nonnative-phonetic discrimination skills at 7.5 months differentially predict future language ability. Better native-language discrimination at 7.5 months predicts accelerated later language abilities, whereas better nonnative-language discrimination at 7.5 months predicts reduced later language abilities. The discussion focuses on (a) the theoretical connection between speech perception and language development
On the time course of visual word recognition: An event-related potential investigation using masked repetition priming
, 2006
"... & The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the time course of visual word recognition using a masked repetition priming paradigm. Participants monitored target words for occasional animal names, and ERPs were recorded to nonanimal critical items that were full repetition ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 50 (4 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
& The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the time course of visual word recognition using a masked repetition priming paradigm. Participants monitored target words for occasional animal names, and ERPs were recorded to nonanimal critical items that were full repetitions, partial repetitions, or unrelated to the immediately preceding masked prime word. The results showed a strong modulation of the N400 and three earlier ERP components (P150, N250, and the P325) that we propose reflect sequential overlapping steps in the processing of printed words. &
Neurological basis of language and sequential cognition: Evidence from simulation, aphasia and ERP studies
- Brain and Language
, 2003
"... The current research addresses the hypothesis that certain aspects of sequential cognition have made substantial contributions to the human language processing capability, from a functional neurophysiology perspective. We first describe a cognitive sequence processing model that was developed based ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 36 (10 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
The current research addresses the hypothesis that certain aspects of sequential cognition have made substantial contributions to the human language processing capability, from a functional neurophysiology perspective. We first describe a cognitive sequence processing model that was developed based on the functional neuroanatomy of primate cortex and basal ganglia. We demonstrate how this model is capable of simulating the behavior of human infants in extracting serial, temporal and abstract structure from language-like sound sequences as revealed in recent psycholinguistic experiments. We then demonstrate how, through training, this model can perform adult level syntactic comprehension, based on dissociated processing streams for open vs. closed class words. The model subsequently predicts: (1) that impaired syntactic processing (as in agrammatic aphasia) will be associated with impairments in corresponding non-linguistic cognitive sequencing tasks, and (2) that neurophysiological processes (as revealed by ERPs) involved in syntactic processing should also be involved in the corresponding non-linguistic cognitive sequencing tasks. Data confirming these predictions are reviewed. We conclude that the study of sequential cognition will provide a new paradigm for the investigation of the neurophysiological bases of language.
