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Why grad school is hard

My cohort of PhD students at the UC San Diego Cognitive Science department started with nine members and only two of us finished. This isn't an indictment of the department or those who left or moved. The department is great and so was my cohort. It's because grad school is hard. Most students figure it's hard, but going in ... (more)



Borovsky, A., Kutas, M., Elman, J. Getting it right: Word learning across the hemispheres, Neuropsychologia, 2013, 51(5) pp. 825-37
The brain is able to acquire information about an unknown word’s meaning from a highly constraining sentence context with minimal exposure. In this study, we investigate the potential contributions of the cerebral hemispheres to this ability. Undergraduates first read weakly or strongly constraining sentences completed by known or unknown (novel) words. Subsequently, their knowledge of the previously exposed words was assessed via a lexical decision task in which each word served as visual primes for lateralized target words that varied in their semantic relationship to the primes (unrelated, identical or synonymous). As expected, smaller N400 amplitudes were seen for target words preceded by identical (vs. unrelated) known word primes, regardless of visual field of presentation. When Unknown words served as primes, N400 reductions to synonymous target words were observed only if the prime had appeared under High sentential constraint; targets appearing in the LVF/RH elicited a small N400 effect and modulation of a subsequent late positivity whereas those in the RVF/LH elicited modulation on the late positivity only. Unknown words initially seen in Low constraint contexts showed priming effects only in a late positivity and only in the RVF/LH. Strength of contextual constraint clearly seems to impact the hemispheres’ rapid acquisition of novel word meanings. N400 modulation for novel words under strong contextual constraint in the LVH/RH suggests that fast- mapped lexical representations may initially activate meanings that are weakly, distantly, associatively or thematically-related. More extensive and bilateral semantic processing seems to occur at longer processing latencies (post-N400).
Amsel, B., Urbach, T.P., Kutas, M. Alive and grasping: Stable and rapid semantic access to an object category but not object graspability, NeuroImage, 2013, Vol. 77, pp. 1-13
How quickly do different kinds of conceptual knowledge become available following visual word perception? Resolving this question will inform neural and computational theories of visual word recognition and seman- tic memory use. We measured real-time brain activity using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) during a go/nogo task to determine the upper limit by which category-related knowledge (living/nonliving) and action-related knowledge (graspable/ungraspable) must have been accessed to influence a downstream deci- sion process. We find that decision processes can be influenced by the living/nonliving distinction by 160 ms after stimulus onset whereas information about (one-hand) graspability is not available before 300 ms. We also provide evidence that rapid access to category-related knowledge occurs for all items, not just a subset of living, nonliving, graspable, or ungraspable ones, and for all participants regardless of their response speed. The latency ofthe N200 nogo effect by contrast is sensitive to decision speed. We propose a tentative hypothesis of the neural mechanisms underlying semantic access and a subsequent decision process.

Featured Classes
Fall 2013:
  • COGS119: Programming/Experimental Res.
    This course will help students in the behavioral sciences (cognitive science, psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and related fields) learn how to program experiments and analyze and present data. Prerequisites: COGS109 or CSE 7.

Research Opportunities (199s)
  • Brain Activity Underlying Access to Sensory and World Knowledge During Sentence Comprehension
    We study how the human brain processes language, including at the single word level and sentence level. Our primary methodology in this pursuit is to record event-related potentials (ERP) from the scalp. These brain potentials can provide a real-time window into the neural processes underlying language comprehension. One of our ...
    (click for details)
  • Language Acquisition & Sound Recognition
    Dr. Sarah Creel's LASR lab is seeking enthusiastic, motivated, and reliable undergraduate research assistants to assist with several studies involving preschoolers and adults. Successful applicants will receive course credit and gain valuable experience with language & music research including learning eye tracking methodology. Research assistants will have the opportunity to ...
    (click for details)
  • Psycholinguistic research
    Computational Psycholinguistics Lab. Language use is like walking: it seems effortless to us, but one when one studies it carefully it is remarkable how successful we are at it. We study how language comprehension and production unfold in real time through psycholinguistic experiments: how knowledge of one's native language's grammar, ...
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  • Language Development and Remediation in Children
    We are evaluating two interventions for dyslexia that involve training the temporal dynamics of the visual system (magnocellular pathway) and the auditory system, and whether the two interventions together have super-additive effects. As a Research Assistant, you would be traveling to one or two of five participating local elementary schools ...
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  • Research on Aging and Development Laboratory
    EEG/ERP Studies of Sensory and Attentional Processing in Typical and Atypical Development. We are studying attention and sensory processing in children and adults with typical and atypical development (e.g., autism). Students will learn to design experiments and collect and analyze Event-Related Potential (ERP) data. Each quarter's emphasis will be slightly ...
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  • Speech Production Adaptation to Individual Speakers
    When speaking to another person, we tailor our speech production based on information we know about that person: for example, you probably don't use the same vocabulary with a professor as you do with a 2-year-old. This project will investigate how specific this adaptation in the speech production system is. ...
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  • Research on the embodiment of number and mathematics
    Research on the embodiment of number and mathematics How do we think about entities that are so abstract that they can't be seen, touched, or heard? In the Embodied Cognition Lab, we investigate cognition from the perspective of the embodied mind, studying the ways in which our understanding of the ...
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  • UCSD Reading Study
    Are you interested in working with children, and studying neuroscience and cognitive science? This is a great opportunity to learn how to motivate and instruct children, do research and receive 199 credit. What This Study Involves: • Working with elementary school students on computer-based interventions designed to promote neuroplasticity and ...
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  • Abstraction and Embodiment
    The Embodied Cognition lab is interested in understanding cognition from the perspective of the embodied mind, investigating how the peculiarities of our bodies and how our experiences in and interactions with the world around us give rise to our understanding of abstract concepts such as time. We are seeking motivated ...
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Recent News & Links (see all)


Cognitive Science Undergraduate Honors Thesis Presentations

 

 

You are cordially invited to the

 

Cognitive Science Undergraduate Honors Thesis Presentations

 

Friday, June 14, 2013

at 9:00am - 11:10am in Cognitive Science Building, room 003 

 


Art of Science Learning Incubator for Innovation

The Balboa Park Cultural Partnership invites you to participate in the NSF-funded Art of Science Learning Incubator for Innovation. The Art of Science Learning project uses the arts to spark creativity in science learning and to develop a skilled workforce in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).


New article by Prof. Rafael Nunez and Dr. K Cooperider

Prof. R. 

Núñez's & Dr. K. Cooperrider's article 'The tangle of space and time in human cognition' is on the cover of the current (May) issue of /Trends in Cognitive Science/. http://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/issue?pii=S1364-6613(13)X0005-1


Want to Learn “R” for Free?

Feel like ripping your hair out while dealing with data in Ecel or SPSS?  Want to avoid paying for MatLab and still be able to process vast amounts of data?  R is one of the most powerful programming languages available for scientists!


UC Berkeley Cognitive Science Conference

The Cognitive Science Student Association cordially invites you and your colleagues to the fifth annual California Cognitive Science Conference on May 4th 2013, at the beautiful UC Berkeley campus. This year, we are excited to explore “Learning and Memory: The Enlightened Mind,” through the lens of Artificial Intelligence, Developmental Psychology, Neurobiology, Cognitive Linguistics, Education, and Philosophy of Mind.


Department Events (see all)

CRL talk

Tue, May 28th, 4:00pm-5:00pm (CSB 280)
(5 days, 8 hours from now)


David Tingley (CogSci Wa!)

Mon, Jun 3rd, 12:00pm-12:30pm
(1 week, 4 days from now)


CRL talk

Tue, Jun 4th, 4:00pm-5:00pm (CSB 280)
(1 week, 5 days from now)


Campus-wide Events (see all)

Henry Abarbanel (INC talk)

NERVOUS SYSTEMS FROM THE BOTTOM UP

Methods for transferring information from experiments to
models have been given an exact statistical physics setting. Using
this framework we analyzed data from experiments on individual
neurons. We will discuss ideas for extending this to experiments on
networks, now being designed for execution in the Margoliash laboratory at the University of Chicago.

Henry Abarbanel
Department of Physics
UCSD and Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Institute for Neural Computation Chalk Talk Series
http://inc.ucsd.edu/contactus.html
(click for details)

Thu, May 23rd, 12:30pm-1:30pm (San Diego Supercomputer Center, East Annex South Wing, Level B1, EB-129)
(4 hours, 41 minutes from now)


Mikael Heimann (Psych talk)

Imitation as a social and cognitive 'measure': what I have learned from infants and children with autism - so far

Imitation is needed for learning about our world and is, aside from language, probably the most important tool for taking in the culture surrounding us. Imitation also creates a sense of connectedness in a social interaction and for children with autism, an imitation based intervention makes the social situation more salient. Based on the research I have been involved ...
(click for details)

Thu, May 23rd, 4:00pm-5:00pm (The Crick Conference Room Mandler Hall, Room 3545)
(8 hours, 11 minutes from now)


Paula Tallal (CHD talk)

Do Learning Styles predict Aptitude and Learning Outcomes?

Teaching to individuals’ perceived learning style in hopes that they will achieve greater academic success is common practice within the field of education. Not only does the learning styles concept have widespread acceptance among educators, but also among the general public. The most common hypothesis about the instructional relevance of learning styles is the meshing hypothesis, by which instruction is best provided in a format that matches the preference of the ...
(click for details)

Fri, May 24th, 11:00am-12:00pm (Applied Physics & Math Building, Room 5420 (5th floor))
(1 day, 3 hours from now)


Memorial Day Observance

Mon, May 27th
(3 days, 16 hours from now)