Postgraduate Course: Language Behaviours, Brains and Cognition: Principles and Approaches (PSYL11073)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 10 |
| Home subject area | Psychology |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | We will consider speaking, listening, and reading in relation to brains and cognition.
In this course we will review the techniques and the approaches that are available for studying how brains underwrite language behaviours. We will look at the principles of all types of imaging, at response time experiments, at cognitive impairment, and computational cognitive modelling. These approaches will be discussed in the context of the latest empirical research.
This is a stand-alone course but has also been designed as a precursor to Language, Behaviours, Brains and Cognition: Data and Theories. The goal is to reflect an Edinburgh view of language research. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
| To understand how psychologists and other cognitive scientists confront the multidimensional nature of human language behaviours experimentally and theoretically. To understand the strengths and weaknesses of a particular approach, or cluster of approaches, with respect to the rest of the field. The student may use this course to select a research paradigm for further work at MSc project level or potentially at PhD level. |
Assessment Information
| One 2500 word essay |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Lecture 1 Reading, listening and speaking; the nature of the problem
Lecture 2 Language exotica; some of the wilder shores of language use
Lecture 3 Systematicity, the brain, and language
Lecture 4 Reading, listening and speaking; the nature of the brain¿s solution
Lecture 5 The nature of theorising and modelling; how we abstract
Lecture 6 What can all of the imaging techniques tell us?
Lecture 7 Connectionist modelling approaches
Lecture 8 Eye movements and reading
Lecture 9 Impaired readers, listeners and speakers
Lecture 10 Interfacing with formal linguistics; syntactic processing |
| Transferable skills |
Students will acquire the capacity to find material in the research literature and to evaluate it with respect to the current goals of the field; they will gain practice in synthesising information and re-presenting it. |
| Reading list |
There is no set textbook. The suggested readings will be a mix of influential older research papers and current research papers, and will be electronically available at the start of the course. |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Richard Shillcock
Tel: (0131 6)50 4425
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Toni Noble
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188
Email: |
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