Discourse Comprehension (P00498)

? Credit Points : 10 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : PPL-P-DCPSY

This course will cover a range of issues concerned with how humans interpret multi-sentence text. We will begin the course by considering the factors that affect the salience of entities in the mental representation of the discourse, exploring how these factors interact with the choice of referring expression to affect anaphoric reference.

The course will go on to consider the level of detail with which semantic information is encoded in the discourse representation, and how it can be modulated by linguistic and contextual information. We will then go on to consider how, and under what conditions, people infer information that is not explicitly mentioned in the text, and we will explore the relation between inference and recent evidence for embodied cognition. Throughout the course, emphasis will be placed on how experimental techniques can be used to address these questions.

Where relevant, we will discuss the interaction between discourse processing other levels of processing, such as syntactic parsing.

Venue
Lectures: S37, 7 George Square
Tutorials: 1.01 Dugald Stewart Building

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Psychology, (School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, Schedule I)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Block 3 only

? Contact Teaching Time : 3 hour(s) per week for 5 weeks

First Class Information

Date	Start	End	Room	Area	Additional Information
12/01/2009	16:00	18:00	Room S37, 7 George Square	Central

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Monday	16:10	18:00	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

Students will obtain an advanced understanding of the core issues in current research on discourse comprehension. They will understand some of the key findings relating to anaphoric reference, depth of processing, and inference, and they will appreciate the main experimental techniques that are used in the field.

Students will also be able to evaluate the primary scientific literature, critically and independently. These skills are essential for students to be able to design their own research projects and to write clear and persuasive scholarly reports.