Predicting language, understanding adaptive behavior

Prediction has been considered an efficient processing mechanism in the domain of language comprehension and in adapting to others in communication situations. Two international experts, in psychology and linguistics, Dr. Martin Pickering (University of Edinburgh) and Dr. Antje Schweitzer (University of Stuttgart) will present their work on this issue. The symposium will be held on Wednesday, April the 1st 2020 in Lille at the Espace Baïetto (secteur MESHS) from 9 am to 11.30 am.
 

Program

9.00
Martin Pickering (University of Edinburgh, Department of Psychology, UK)

Prediction in Language

What do comprehenders predict and how do they use those predictions?  I first present a series of “visual world” experiments that suggest that comprehenders initially predict in an automatic, associative manner and then shift to predicting what the speaker or character under discussion is likely to say.  I argue that comprehenders predict by simulating the speaker, adjusting for differences between self and other, and then engaging aspects of the system that they use to produce language.

10.15
Antje Schweitzer (University of Stuttgart, Institute for Natural Language Processing, DE)

Phonetic convergence in conversational speech

In this talk I will discuss results of phonetic convergence studies on spontaneous speech. In contrast to experiments in more controlled settings, studies that investigate less artificial scenarios seem to find much more subtle and more variable convergence effects, and they often depend on extra-linguistic aspects such as social factors. Moreover there is also no established method of quantifying convergence in such scenarios, making comparison across studies difficult.

Free registration before March 11 , 2020 : registration link

Event supported by MESHS as part of "appel à projet Partenariat 2019-2020"

This event is funded by the French State and "le Conseil régional des Hauts-de-France" as part of CPER ISI-MESHS