Brown Bag discussion:
Dynamic updating of perceptual representations in situated language.
Dynamic updating of perceptual representations in situated language.
Dr. Michael Tanenhaus, University of Rochester
Monday, October 27th at 12:00 p.m., 230 Psychology
Abstract
I will review some of the classic visual world results, including evidence for goal and action-based affordances affecting the earliest moments of reference resolution. I’ll then focus on one of the challenges for situated language, dynamic updating of words and referential expressions. How do listeners coordinate and combine general knowledge (e.g., what a typical big cup looks like) with context-specific knowledge (this has been called the big cup, it can then be called, the cup or it, but the other cup can’t be called the cup). I’ll present evidence that listeners use visual/perceptual representations activated as a spoken word is heard to map words onto depicted referents; they do not generate names for displayed pictures unless there are memory demands. However, as a speaker refers to an object, we hypothesize that listeners process the unfolding speech with respect to expectations about the speaker will refer to that and related objects, and these expectations influence processes traditionally associated with “word recognition”. I’ll outline a program of research that uses this domain as a case study for examining in depth the associated perceptual processes and representations involved in processing language in natural contexts--and perhaps present some preliminary results.
Suggested Readings
Chigusa Kurumada, Meredith Brown, Sarah Bibyk, Daniel F. Pontillo & Michael K. Tanenhaus. (2014). Is it or isn't it: Listeners make rapid use of prosody to infer speaker meanings. Cognition, 133, 335-342.[.pdf]
Lynsey Wolter, Kristen Skovbroten Gorman & Michael K. Tanenhaus. (2011). Scalar reference, contrast and discourse: Separating effects of linguistic discourse from availability of the referent. Journal of Memory and Language, 65. 299-317[.pdf]
Michael K. Tanenhaus & Sarah Brown-Schmidt. (2008). Language processing in the natural world. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences, 363, 1105-1122.[.pdf]
Michael K. Tanenhaus, Chigusa Kurumada & Meredith Brown. Prosody and intention recognition.[.pdf]