Cognition and Language Workshop (CLaW): Aug 31-Sept 1

[Heather Simpson]

*Cognition and Language Workshop: Conference schedule*

**University of California, Santa Barbara, August 31-September 1 2013**

The schedule for the Cognition and Language Workshop (CLaW) is now
available: http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/claw/schedule.html

CLaW will feature 13 talks and 6 poster presentations, as well as a keynote
address from Luca Onnis (Associate Professor at University of Hawaii at
Manoa) on topics relevant to language and cognition from empirical
data-driven perspectives. CLaW is organized by SCUL (Studying the Cognitive
Underpinnings of Language), an interdisciplinary research group at the
University of California, Santa Barbara. See below for the keynote address
abstract.

If you would like to attend, please email claw.ucsb at gmail.com to register!
There is a $10 registration fee, payable on site.

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Abstract for keynote address:

Language is a complex ability comprised of multiple component skills. A
sizable body of research now suggests that language learning and processing
could be subserved by statistical learning (SL) abilities — implicitly
tracking distributional relations in sequences of events. Languages contain
many probabilistic regularities (for example, a listener who hears "the"
can predict that a noun will occur after it), so sensitivity to statistical
structure in the input can play an important role in mastering language.

The first generation of SL studies provided important proofs of concept'
that infants and adults can track statistical relations in miniature
artificial grammars, but the arguably simplified nature of these learning
scenarios could only offer indirect evidence that the same processes
underlie the discovery of a natural language. Recently, however, a series
of new studies have established more robust links between SL abilities and
language. In addition, this relationship can go both ways, as language
experience can modify individual preferences for statistical learning,
potentially affecting subsequent learning. I will provide an overview of
how corpus analyses, behavioral, and brain imaging methods can be combined
to further strengthen our understanding of the underpinnings of statistical
language learning.

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Heather Simpson
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Linguistics
Program Manager, Cognitive Science Program
University of California, Santa Barbara
hsimpson at umail.ucsb.edu