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Welcome to the Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsDec 29, 2009
New book on functional categories in learner language
Research on the spontaneous processes of both children learning their mother tongue and adults learning a second language has shown that early learner languages are based on lexical structures. At some point in acquisition this lexical-semantic system is given up in favor of a target-like functional category system. MPI researcher Christine Dimroth and Peter Jordens (VU Amsterdam) have just published a book on functional categories in learner language in November, 2009.
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Dec 18, 2009
Gesturing enhances speech comprehension
If you need to be understood, let your words and your hands do the talking. Gesturing while speaking helps people to understand your message quickly and clearly. In an international research collaboration, Spencer Kelly (Colgate University, Hamilton, USA), Asli Özyürek (MPI for Psycholinguistics and Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen) and Eric Maris (Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour) showed that gesture and speech mutually and obligatorily interact to enhance language comprehension. Their study will be published in the January 4, 2010 issue of Psychological Science.
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Dec 14, 2009
Step to the left, or step to the east?
Even the way people remember dance moves seems to depend on the culture they come from. While a German or other Westerner might think in terms of 'step to the left, step to the right', a nomadic hunter-gatherer from Namibia will think more in terms of 'step to the east, step to the west'. A new study by a cross-disciplinary team from the MPI's for Psycholinguistics and Evolutionary Anthropology shows that remembering movements of one's own body varies dramatically between cultures. The study will be published in the December 14th issue of Current Biology.
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Dec 08, 2009
How the body shapes language in the brain
Do people with different kinds of bodies understand language differently? Theories of embodied cognition suggest we understand action language by simulating actions in our minds. Understanding a verb like ‘throw’ involves unconsciously preparing for throwing, using brain areas that allow us to plan and execute this action. Researchers at the MPI for Psycholinguistics and the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour (Radboud University Nijmegen) have discovered that right- and left-handers, who perform actions differently, also use different areas of the brain for representing the meanings of action verbs. Their results will be published in Psychological Science in January 2010.
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Nov 26, 2009
Exploring ritual communication
Gunter Senft (MPI for Psycholinguistics and University of Cologne) and Ellen Basso (University of Arizona) have recently published an anthology on ritual communication. The volume examines how people create and express meaning through verbal and non-verbal ritual. 'A benchmark work in the exploration of ritual communication', according to Professor Emeritus Richard Bauman (Indiana University).
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Nov 17, 2009
Genetic tools shed light on linguistic diversity
150 years after Charles Darwin used language genealogies to explain the family tree model in biology, now the tables are being turned: researchers apply modern bioinformatic techniques to illuminate the history of languages. In a study published this week in the open-access journal PLoS Biology, MPI researchers Ger Reesink and Michael Dunn describe the promising possibilities of these genetic analysis tools for linguistic research.
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Nov 11, 2009
Foreign subtitles improve speech perception
Do you speak English as a second language well, but still have trouble understanding movies with unfamiliar accents, such as Brad Pitt's southern accent in Quentin Tarantino's 'Inglorious Bastards'? In a new study, published in PLoS ONE on November 11, 2009, Holger Mitterer (MPI for Psycholinguistics) and James McQueen (MPI and Radboud University Nijmegen) show how you can improve your second-language listening ability by watching the movie with subtitles. That is, if these subtitles are in the film's language! Subtitles in one's native language, the default in some European countries, are harmful to learning to understand foreign speech.
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Nov 06, 2009
The myth of language universals
There are about 7,000 languages around the world. Cognitive scientists often assume that languages are all built to a common pattern. This widespread assumption seems to be a myth: Not language universals, but diversity can be found on almost every level of linguistic organisation, Stephen Levinson (codirector MPI for Psycholinguistics) and Nicholas Evans (Australian National University) argue in a comprehensive article in October's issue of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. It's entitled: The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science.
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Oct 29, 2009
Traffic lights: like bananas or carrots?
When we see a colour that is somewhere between yellow and orange, we call it 'yellow' if it is on a banana, but 'orange' on a carrot. Our memory for what colours things are can help deal with the inherent ambiguity in the world, caused, for instance, by different lighting conditions. MPI researchers recently discovered that verbal labels influence our colour perception. Their results will be published in the November issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.
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