The next psychology colloquium is scheduled for Wednesday - April 24th at 3:30pm in BOUS A106.
Dr. Maryellen MacDonald from the University of Wisconsin-Madison will be presenting her talk titled "Language Production is not Just for Producing Language". We hope that you will join us!
Abstract: Turning an internal idea into an overt linguistic signal—speech, sign, or writing—requires a complex set of cognitive processes. I will argue that our constant practice with these language production processes has at least three cognitive benefits that go well beyond production itself. First, utterance planning processes are biased toward effort minimization, which shapes what we say and therefore the statistical regularities in perceivers’ language environments. These patterns affect what we learn, so that some basic properties of child language acquisition and comprehension, often thought to reflect inherent design features of acquisition or comprehension systems, can instead be traced to consequences of how the production system works. Second, I’ll argue that language production planning serves the maintenance functions for verbal working memory, and I’ll present evidence for a reconceptualization of verbal working memory as emergent from language processes rather than part of a dedicated temporary store. Third, in part because of its role in working memory, language production provides unique benefits for learning. I’ll show how practice producing a new language yields better comprehension of that language than comprehension practice itself. Together, this work suggests that the act of planning and uttering linguistic signals has implications for language and cognition well beyond communicative functions.
psychology.uconn.edu
Contact soniya.assudani@uconn.edu for more info
For more information, contact: Soniya Assudani Patel at soniya.assudani@uconn.edu