Mental simulation and language comprehension
COGS 238 / LING 238
Reading Presentations

We have about half an hour for each reading, though depending on the assignments for any given day, we might have a little more or less. I suspect that the most productive use of your half hour will break down something like this:

• Very brief (like 5 minute) summary of the main points of the paper. Everyone else will have read it, so treat this as a reminder. You'll probably want to cover the background very briefly, along with the hypothesis, how it was tested, and what the results were.

• Slightly longer editorial/critical assessment.
  • How does this work fit in with the other stuff we’ve read, with the state of knowledge in the field in general, or with stuff you know about. In what ways is it novel, transformational, redundant, uninformative?

  • How are the methods? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Do they satisfactorily operationalize the research question? Are they externally valid? Are they sound? Unsound? Are there confounding factors? Are they sketchy? Are they the best ones to use for this research question?

  • Results. Do they convincingly answer the research questions? Are they interpreted appropriately? Are there important things that the author(s) didn’t notice or mention?

• Your editorial/critical assessment should lead into an open discussion of the work, which you’ lead. If you’rafraid people won't have anything to say, you might want to bring some discussion questions to seed the conversation.

Visual aids, like a handout or slide show help a lot both in structuring your ideas and in conveying them. So I recommend them.