The next psychology colloquium is scheduled for this Wednesday March 31st at 3:30pm via Zoom. Dr. Sandra Waxman from the Psychology Department of Northwestern University will be presenting her work titled “How (and how early) do infants link language and cognition?.” We hope that you will join us!
Dr. Waxman will be available to meet (via WebEx) with students and faculty on March 31st, starting at 11:30am. If you are interested in setting up such a meeting, please contact Letty Naigles at letitia.naigles@uconn.edu by March 26th, 2021.
Abstract: Language is a signature of our species. To acquire a language, infants must identify which signals are part of their language and discover how these are linked to the objects and events they encounter and to their core representations. For infants as young as 3 months of age, listening to human vocalizations promotes the formation of object categories, a fundamental cognitive capacity. Yet this precocious link emerges from a broader template that initially encompasses vocalizations of both human and non-human primates, is exquisitely sensitive to exposure and is rapidly tuned specifically to human vocalizations. In this talk, I’ll focus on the joint contributions of ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’ as infants discover increasingly precise links between language and cognition. I’ll also discuss the place of this uniquely human link in considerations of cognitive and developmental science.
Event link for attendees:
https://zoom.us/j/98565287815?pwd=anpXYVJja21uYm10RjRxR21IMDhPZz09
Meeting ID: 985 6528 7815
Passcode: 20210331
The remaining colloquium scheduled is listed below. All talks will take place online at 3:30pm on Wednesdays unless otherwise noted.
April 21st, 2021
Dr. Sapna Cheryan
Department of Psychology, University of Washington
April 28th 2021
Dr. Brandy Simula
Georgia Institute of Technology
Invited by Science of Learning & Art of Communication (SLAC)
For more information, contact: Merrisa Lin at merrisa.lin@uconn.edu