Writing Workshop

1. Writing Workshop • Here are some typical writing style issues which people have trouble with.

2. Writing Workshop • Here are some typical writing style issues which people have trouble with. • Here are some typical writing style issues with which people have trouble.

3. Writing Workshop • Data is • Data are

4. Writing Workshop • Its a nice day. • It’s a nice day.

5. Writing Workshop • I’m going to try and find area V5. • I’m going to try to find area V5. • I propose to identify area V5.

6. Writing Workshop • A major stimulant within coffee, caffeine, and its effect on the nervous system is well documented. • Caffeine, a stimulant found in coffee, produces well-documented effects on the nervous system. • Caffeine is the principal stimulant found in coffee, and its effects on the nervous system are well documented. • Coffee contains caffeine, which is a stimulant with well-documented effects on the nervous system.

7. Writing Workshop • A major stimulant within coffee, caffeine, and its effect on the nervous system is well documented. • Caffeine, a stimulant found in coffee, produces well-documented effects on the nervous system. • Caffeine is the principal stimulant found in coffee, and its effects on the nervous system are well documented. • Coffee contains caffeine, which is a stimulant with well-documented effects on the nervous system.

8. Writing Workshop • My theory is that a similar area of the brain is used for language, more specifically word recognition, in both healthy and deaf individuals, however not the exact same areas due to different pathways the stimuli is processed through and alterations to brain development due to impairment. • My theory is that word recognition in healthy and deaf individuals engages similar brain areas, within limits imposed by developmental alterations and differences in processing constraints. • My theory is that word recognition in healthy and deaf individuals engages similar brain areas. However, I propose that developmental alterations and differences in processing constraints probably limit this functional overlap. • Two factors probably account for differences between deaf and hearing individuals. First, early development of the sensory systems is known to be influenced by the quality of available sensory input (e.g. Cynader, 1977). Thus, in the case of congenital deafness, early development of the auditory pathways is probably compromised. Distortions in subsequent development of language-processing areas probably follow. Second, because the sensory representations of spoken and signed language are entirely different, the initial processing steps required for word recognition must also be different. I therefore propose that word recognition in deaf and hearing brains shares only partially overlapping functional anatomy.

9. Language

10. Using Language • What is language for?

11. Using Language • What is language for? • Rapid, efficient communication • To accomplish this goal, what needs to happen in the brain?

12. Understanding Linguistic Input • To accomplish this goal, what needs to happen in the brain? • Encode input (speech, writing, other?) • Make neural representation(s) • transform the input (e.g. written word to internal sound) • This probably involves many intermediate steps • Associate input with meaning – access the lexicon • Lexicon – a mental representation of the meaning of words • Mental dictionary is a poor but useful analogy

13. Spoken Input • Phonology – how the word sounds; acoustic • Words are comprised of acoustic speech units called phonemes

14. Spoken Input • Phonology – how the word sounds; acoustic • Phonemes are not invariant – different acoustic inputs are “mapped” onto the same phoneme

15. Spoken Input • The Segmentation Problem: • The stream of acoustic input is not physically segmented into discrete phonemes, words, phrases, etc. • Silent gaps don’t always indicate (aren’t perceived as) interruptions in speech

16. Spoken Input • The Segmentation Problem: • The stream of acoustic input is not physically segmented into discrete phonemes, words, phrases, etc. • Continuous speech stream is sometimes perceived as having gaps

17. Spoken Input • The Segmentation Problem: • How do we solve the segmentation problem? Overlay additional information: • Prosody • Inflection, syllabic stress, pauses

18. Spoken Input • The Segmentation Problem: • How do we solve the segmentation problem? Overlay additional information: • Vision • Read lips! • Demonstrated by the McGurk effect

19. Written Input • Some terms: • Orthography – visual form of a word • Non-trivial problem! Like all objects, words can have many different instances of the same item • bird bird bird bird bird bird