Schedule of Events

Fall 2007 Colloquium Series

Larry Leonard

Purdue University (Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences)
Variability in the Use of Tense and Agreement Morphology by Children with Specific Language Impairment
Alvin Liberman Room (160 Bousfield Psychology Building)
Friday, September 21, 2007
4:00 PM
Cognitive Science Colloquium Series
Abstract

Children with specific language impairment often show an uneven profile within the area of morphosyntax. For example, in English, the use of tense/agreement morphemes stands out as an area of special weakness. In Swedish, both word order and the use of tense can be problematic. These weaknesses are resolved only gradually. Thus far, the theoretical frameworks that might account for the findings constitute only partial solutions. Some provide a very insightful description of the difficulty but do not explain the systematic, incremental changes seen over time; others provide a plausible account of the gradual change but lack the precision necessary to explain the differences across languages. An alternative view that incorporates the empirically supported claims of the previous approaches will be offered. The alternative assumes that many of the characteristics of the SLI profile, including crosslinguistic differences in the profile, can be traced to details in the input, and that children’s ability to interpret successively larger grammatical units in input sentences can lead to the gradual, incremental changes seen in the children’s morphosyntactic use. Observations supporting these assumptions will be provided, and their theoretical as well as clinical implications will be discussed.

Colin Phillips

University of Maryland (Linguistics)
How Grammars Leak
Arjona 317
Friday, September 28, 2007
4:30 PM
Linguistics Dept Colloquium

Ted Sider

New York University (Philosophy)
TBA
Family Studies 216
Friday, October 5, 2007
4:00 PM
Philosophy Department Colloquium

Cognitive Science Faculty Meeting

Faculty Meeting
TBA
Monday, October 8, 2007
4:00 PM
All Cog Sci faculty affiliates are invited to attend

C.L. (Larry) Hardin

Syracuse (Philosophy)
A Green Thought in a Green Shade
TBA
Friday, October 12, 2007
4:00 PM
Cognitive Science and Philosophy Colloquium
Abstract

Do we have good reasons to identify the colors that we see with spectral reflectances? Since our only access to colors is through sight, if we are to answer the question in the affirmative, we must establish the conditions under which we see the colors of objects as they really are. It turns out that there is a plurality of “normal” illuminants, yielding different color appearances for the same objects, with little to choose between them. Worse yet, there is now substantial empirical evidence that when presented with the same stimuli, “normal” observers do not agree on the colors that they see, and the disagreements are robust. The spectral reflectance account thus fails to get off the ground.

Hartry Field

New York University (Philosophy)
TBA
Family Studies 216
Friday, October 19, 2007
4:00 PM
Philosophy Department Colloquium

Mark Changizi

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Cognitive Science)
What Is Binocular Vision For, Anyway?
Alvin Liberman Room (Bousfield 160)
Friday, November 30, 2007
4:00 PM
Cognitive Science Colloquium Series
Abstract

The study of binocular vision typically amounts to the study of the perception of depth it gives us (stereopsis). However, people who have lost an eye tend to have notoriously good vision, and attempts to empirically document real-life performance deficits have led to mixed results. I'll describe a function of the binocular region that has not been appreciated in the literature, the ability to "see through" stuff. If you're an animal in a habitat with lots of clutter, then you can see more of your world by having forward-facing eyes, for although you become blind to what's behind you, the extra amount you can see in front makes up for it. If, however, you're an animal in a non-cluttered habitat, then you can see the most by having your eyes face sideways, having panoramic vision of what's around you and only a tiny binocular region. Evidence across mammals supports this, suggesting that it is the x-ray power of the binocular region, not stereopsis, that is crucial for understanding why our binocular regions are so large.