April 28, 2022 at 15:30 (MEZ - Online)
Title: Addressing Diversity in Cognitive Neurology: Challenges and opportunities
Speaker: Suvarna Alladi (National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore, India; invited by Thomas Lachmann)
Abstract:
With globalisation, societies have become increasingly sociodemographically diverse. Many aspects related to diversity impact cognitive neurology and dementia research, but currently remain unaddressed. Harmonising research across different cultures requires systematic cross-cultural studies. Neuropsychological tests have been developed for predominantly English- speaking Western populations. There is a crucial need to develop equivalent and appropriate tests in other cultures and languages. The impact of linguistic diversity and bilingualism on cognition in dementia is also grossly understudied. Efforts to address these gaps are essential to reduce the burden of cognitive disorders and dementia globally, but are challenging. In this talk I bring together cognitive neurology research from the diverse sociocultural context that prevails in India and present the insights that were derived by addressing the challenge of this diversity
Zoom Link: https://uni-kl-de.zoom.us/j/67922500720?pwd=RkpIMm1ZTTVKdUlPWkRWSHhuRTZnUT09
May 19, 2022 at 15:30 (MEZ - online)
Title: Neural correlates of memory development
Speaker: Noa Ofen (Wayne State University, US; invited by Daniela Czernochowski)
Abstract:
Episodic memory – the ability to encode, maintain and retrieve information, critical for everyday functioning undergoes robust changes between childhood to young adulthood. Advancement in the application of non-invasive neuroimaging methods fuels efforts to identify the neural correlates of memory development. Central findings using functional MRI point to the contribution of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) that appears to be more strongly recruited in adolescents and young adults compared to children and to patterns of interactions between the MTL and PFC in supporting memory development. Non-invasive methods are limited in providing both spatial and temporal resolution to investigate neuronal activity and interregional interactions. I will present findings from recent studies using intracranial EEG that provide unique insights about age differences in information flow between the medial temporal lobes and the prefrontal cortex that support the formation of memory for scenes. Pediatric intracranial EEG data is an invaluable tool to investigate the neural basis of memory and to yield novel insights into how information is coordinated in the brain to produce memory.
Zoom Link: https://uni-kl-de.zoom.us/j/67922500720?pwd=RkpIMm1ZTTVKdUlPWkRWSHhuRTZnUT09
June 02, 2022 at 15:30 (MEZ - in-person)
Title: Agreement attraction in Czech or why cross-linguistic research in psycholinguistics matters
Speaker: Jan Chromy (Charles University, Czech Republic; invited by Shanley Allen)
Abstract:
Agreement attraction is a phenomenon which has enjoyed quite some attention both in the study of language production and comprehension. For example, it has been shown that native speakers of English when reading sentences such as "The key to the cabinet(s) were rusty" tend to have a milder adverse reaction towards the ungrammatical plural verb (were) if the preceding noun is in a plural form (cabinets) than when it is in a singular form (cabinet). Similar findings have been shown on other, typologically different languages such as Spanish, Russian, Armenian or Greek. In this presentation, several experiments on Czech will be presented which consistently failed to find these attraction effects. Possible explanations of this cross-linguistic inconsistency will be discussed
Location: RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Building 57, Room 508
OR
Zoom Link: https://uni-kl-de.zoom.us/j/67922500720?pwd=RkpIMm1ZTTVKdUlPWkRWSHhuRTZnUT09
June 09, 2022 at 15:30 (MEZ - in-person)
Title: Is it language or culture? Explaining creativity in bilinguals
Speaker: Jeanine Treffers-Daller (University of Reading, UK; invited by Shanley Allen)
Abstract:
In the literature on the relationship between bilingualism and creativity there is a debate as to whether it is the daily use of two languages or the exposure to other cultures that furthers creativity. According to Kharkhurin and Li (2015) habitual code-switchers have greater creative potential than non-switchers, but there is also evidence that the effect of bilingualism on creative potential is mediated by the effect of biculturalism (Simonton, 2008).
This study applies a novel approach to shed light on the three-way relationship between creativity, bilingualism and biculturalism in that we keep the languages constant but vary the sociocultural background of the participants: All 166 participants were Turkish-English bilinguals, but they were based either in the UK (60), Cyprus (70) or Turkey (36). Among the UK-based participants, half were from Turkey and the other half from Cyprus, and among the Cyprus-based ones 40 were Turkish Cypriots and 30 immigrants from Turkey. The Turkey-based participants were university students of English. All participants completed the Abbreviated Torrance Task of Creativity (ATTA, Goff, 2002), as well as the Multicultural Identity Styles Scales (Ward et al., 2018), which reveals to what extent respondents blend elements from both cultures (e.g. “For me being British and being Cypriot are intermingled”), which is characteristic of Hybrid Identity Styles, or try to keep both identities separate and alternate between them (e.g. “I can be British or Cypriot depending on the circumstances”), which is typical for Alternating identity styles. To measure the effects of code-switching on creativity we developed a Code-Switching Frequency Task (CSFT, Treffers-Daller et al. 2019; 2020), which measures how often respondents encounter different types of Turkish - English code-switching in daily life.
Given the complexity of the relationship between variables, we used Generalised Additive Models (GAMs), a method allowing for modelling of non-linear relationships (Wood, 2017). Using non-linear modelling, we identified that the more participants identify with hybrid identity, the better the creativity scores they obtain. Code-switching practices interact with years spent in the UK or the US, giving rise to a complex relationship. The results suggest that code-switching impacts creativity performance, but more strongly in bilinguals who have less or no experience of living in the country of their L2. Our results also replicate the negative effects of age found in previous studies (Cosgrove et al., 2021). These findings support the view that bilingual language use is related to creativity, though not always in ways assumed in the literature. Substantial evidence was found for the view that multicultural identity impacts creativity and is likely to mediate the effect of language mixing.
Location: RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Building 57, Room 508
OR
Zoom Link: https://uni-kl-de.zoom.us/j/67922500720?pwd=RkpIMm1ZTTVKdUlPWkRWSHhuRTZnUT09
July 14, 2022 at 15:30 (MEZ - in-person)
Title: TBA
Speaker: Laura Gonnerman (McGill University, Canada; invited by Shanley Allen)
Abstract: TBA
Location: RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Building 57, Room 508
OR
Zoom Link: https://uni-kl-de.zoom.us/j/67922500720?pwd=RkpIMm1ZTTVKdUlPWkRWSHhuRTZnUT09
July 21, 2022 at 15:30 (MEZ - online)
Title: Sentence Production: From Perception to Speaking
Speaker: Andriy Myachykov (Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; invited by Alina Kholodova)
Abstract:
The world that we perceive and describe changes constantly. Because our descriptions of the world need to be accurate and consistent, we must assume that the content and the structure of the sentences we produce reflect accurately and consistently the world’s constantly changing nature. If so, a comprehensive production system needs to model the sentence generation process considering this basic assumption: Words, their linear arrangement, and the structures they are inserted in must somehow reflect the corresponding parameters of the described events. This system must include representation of salience as its integral component. The interplay between visual perception and the organization of spoken sentences involves constant, regular, and automatic mappings between elements of a visual scene and the structural arrangement of the constituents as well as the grammatical relations between them. Perceptual input contributes initially to this mapping process by prioritizing information for further conceptual and linguistic encoding. This information is systematically filtered, selected, and relayed based on a regular interface between the aspects of attention and their corresponding counterparts in the conceptual and linguistic structures. Bottom-up and top-down features of the interface include noticeability, importance, and relevance. As a result, linguistic output reflects in a regular way the event’s conceptual organization including the attentional state of the speaker. In my presentation, I will discuss the priming studies that show how the mapping between attentional focus and structural choice forms a part of a more complex sentence production mechanism that simultaneously considers lexical-semantic, structural, and visual accessibility traces.
Zoom Link: https://uni-kl-de.zoom.us/j/67922500720?pwd=RkpIMm1ZTTVKdUlPWkRWSHhuRTZnUT09