This is the first seminar in a series to be offered by the Joint Research Centre for Language and Human Complexity and is co-organized by Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The Joint Research Centre was formally established in 2013, and consists of three partners: the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Peking University, and the University System of Taiwan. The seminar takes place on 4 afternoons, with 3 (or 2) lectures each afternoon. The lecturers come from all three partner universities.
The theme of the seminar is ‘Biological Foundations of Language’. Language is the hallmark of humanity, and is the primary vehicle through which humanity evolved from the simplicity of hunting and gathering to the complexity of modern civilizations. The topics covered in the seminar range widely from the genetic and neural bases of language to linguistic and human diversity in Yunnan. More particularly, the topics include introductions to technologies for eye tracking and brain imaging, as well as lectures on behavioural and physiological experiments on the Chinese language.
Lecturer: Prof. William S-Y. Wang (王士元)
Academician, Academia Sinica
Research Professor
Department of Electronic Engineering
Joint Research Centre for Language & Human Complexity
The Chinese University of Hong Kong http://www.ee.cuhk.edu.hk/~wsywang/
Topic: Language & Human Complexity: a Multidisciplinary Perspective Time: 14:00 — 15:00, 27 Feb. 2014 Venue: ERB_LT
Abstract: In this introductory lecture, I will discuss the importance of language in our private and public communications, within the dual perspectives of evolution theory and complexity theory. Language is a mental instrument for representing the world, unique to our species, whose evolutionary trajectory began with erect posture, over 3 million years ago. The trajectory accelerated sharply as our social and physical environments became increasingly diverse and complex. Language builds upon and integrates many biological and social behaviors, especially respiration, mastication, remembering, and reasoning. Language is a complex system with several interacting subsystems, such as phonology, grammar, lexicon, etc., each constantly adapting and self-organizing to changes in our daily lives.
Lecturer: Prof. Ovid Jyh-Lang Tzeng (曾志朗)
Academician and Distinguished Research Fellow
Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica
Chair Professor
National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan http://www.ling.sinica.edu.tw/v3-3-1_en.asp-auserid=19.htm
Topic: Gene to Cognition: Exploration into Human Complexity Time: 15:00 — 16:00, 27 Feb. 2014 Venue: ERB_LT
Abstract: To understand human behaviors, philosophers for thousands of years have made serious attempts to describe behavioral phenomena from above by deriving laws that explain objective phenomena in general (the nomothetic approach) and/or specific subjective phenomena which is meaning contingent and often unique (the idiographic approach). Scientists, on the other hand, prefer to examine behavioral phenomena on the ground by advancing precise measurements upon which to describe the functional relationship between stimulus input and response output in terms of a hypothetic-deductive research framework. This approach was successful at the proximal level but failed at the distal level description of the causal relationship between stimulus environment and their impact on the responses which are vicarious in nature. A single lens model was constructed to put the simple S-R associative account back to the evolutionary perspective. The model, based upon a lens metaphor, reminded researchers that a clear distinction of proximal versus distal stimulus in terms of the variant and invariant nature of the perceptive field must be recognized and taken into account in any theoretical development. A second lens was also added to describe the vicarious nature of the response hierarchy. Finally, in-between the double lenses, a dynamic and computational interface platform must be implemented to interpret the stimulus environment from the first lens with under both the proximal and distal consideration; at the same time, the platform computes necessary response alternatives, based on its various executive functions (e.g., attention, retention, working memory, comprehension, resource allocation, decision making, etc.), and make appropriate choice of appropriate reaction. The platform is dynamic in the senses of changing organizations through continuous neuronal network learning as a result of constant interaction with both lenses. The platform is the brain and the aims of cognitive neuroscience as a discipline is to understand the nature and the evolutionary (both phylogenetically as well as ontogenetically) developments of various brain functions.
The significance and prospect of neuroscience research have been a consensus in the international scientific community. Technical advancements in both the neuro-imaging and the functional genomics disciplines have profound impact on the approaches cognitive neuroscientists may now choose to answer the questions on how brain enables the mind and how mind changes the brain developments. The obvious capability for our youngsters to learn and acquire motor skills to walk, use language to express their thought and to discern right from wrong, as well as failure to do so, becomes essential questions for cognitive neuroscientists in their pursuit for understanding human nature. The formidable task of trying to understand the process of cognition becomes so challenging when the application of neuro-imaging techniques (fMRI, MEG, TMS, tDCS and their advanced analyses are rapidly in progress. The visualization of human brain in action at the Macro level intrigues its revelation at the Micro level, especially, for the scientists who currently work on the epi-genomic research problems, which go much beyond the Human Genome Project.
The aim of our course is to examine human language and human complexity from such a perspective, emphasizing the multi-methods and multi-tools approach of investigation into the human mind.
Topic: Linguistic Characteristics Affect Literacy Acquisition and Verbal Short-Term Memory of Chinese Characters Time: 16:30 — 17:30, 27 Feb. 2014 Venue: ERB_LT
Abstract: Chinese language, different from alphabetic ones, has abundant homophones and relatively opaque correspondence between orthography and phonology. These characteristics render phonology alone insufficient to differentiate Chinese characters, and have impacts on the cognitive processes underlying the acquisition and retention of verbal information in Chinese. In the lecture, I will provide empirical evidence to demonstrate that native Chinese readers relied both orthographic and phonological representations to retain verbal information in short-term memory. Neuroimaging results also indicated that Chinese readers, compared to native readers of alphabetic languages, recruit additional neural substrates to support the retention of their native non-alphabetic materials, which are likely to reflect the processing of both visual and orthographic retention. Further results from native alphabetic readers showed that their visual acuity and the capacity of visual short-term memory, in addition to their ability of statistical learning, correlated with their performance in Chinese literacy tests. These findings together suggest that despite general mechanisms supporting the acquisition and verbal short-term memory of typologically distinct languages, the characteristics of specific languages also play an important role in modulating the cognitive processes of these functions.
Lecturer: Prof. Jie-Li Tsai (蔡介立),
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology
National Chengchi University http://emrlab.nccu.edu.tw
Topic: Eye Movement Guidance in Reading Chinese Time: 14:00 — 15:00, 13 Mar. 2014 Venue: ERB_LT
Abstract: In contrast to alphabetic scripts, the structure and function of words are less transparent in sentences of Chinese written system. Chinese readers need to make use of the rich lexical information of characters and contextual constraint to correctly extract words in a sentence for reading comprehension. For alphabetic scripts, numerous studies have demonstrated that lexical properties and contextual constraint can drive the eyes to determine fixation durations and probabilities on words. Reading models have been proposed for eye movement control using words as the basic processing unit. There have not yet been studies and modeled encompassing these factors in Chinese. The lecture will give a brief review of the effects of word predictability and lexical properties of words in reading Chinese sentences. The advantage of analyzing the on-line measures of eye movements will be addressed for how it can provide a comprehensive understanding of the perceptual, lexical, and contextual constraints in reading Chinese.
Title: Electrophysiological Evidence for How Readers Make Use of the Contextual Information during Language Comprehension Time: 15:00 — 16:00, 13 Mar. 2014 Venue: ERB_LT
Abstract: Sentence comprehension depends on continuous prediction of upcoming words. However, when and how contextual information affects the bottom-up streams of visual word recognition is largely unknown. In this talk, I will present a series of ERPs studies to examine how contextual information modulates the processing of upcoming words in young adults and health elders. The first study manipulated the predictability (high versus low cloze probability) and word frequency of the final word in sentences. Data from young adults revealed a significant interaction between predictability and frequency at the anterior N1 component and predictability effects on P200 and N400. These findings suggest that contextual information facilitates visual-feature and orthographic processing in the early stage of visual word processing, and semantic integration in the later time course. However, health elders showed no effect on early ERP components and a much reduced and delayed predictability effect on N400. The second study manipulated the semantic constraint of Chinese classifiers and the cloze probability of their pairing nouns. The data demonstrated the constraining effect of classifiers on P200 and N400 in young adults, but not in elders. Moreover, for the following nouns, the young adults showed a graded cloze probability effect on N400 (implausible > low cloze > high cloze), whereas the elders showed a different pattern of cloze probability effect (implausible = low cloze > high cloze). These findings suggest that the ability to use the contextual information is compromised with age. Possible applications for other clinical populations, such as aphasic and dementia, will also be discussed.
Title: Multi-Models of Speech Physiology in Mandarin Time: 14:00 — 15:00, 21 Mar. 2014 Venue: YIA_LT8
Abstract: In the speech chains, the physiological mechanism is very important, because it is between the neuron activities in brain and the speech sound which is the surface of speech communication. The modeling of speech physiology will not only help us to discover the principles of speech but also benefit the speech teaching and learning, speech pathology, and speech engineering. In this presentation, the model of lips, the model of vocal tract, the model of vocal folds and the model of breathing in Mandarin are introduced. With these models, samples of lips and phonation types are synthesized by physiological parameters for speech perception. In addition, the systems based on these models for speech teaching and learning, voice assessment and virtual display of traditional oral cultures in China are introduced.
Topic: Language Diversity and Human Diversity in Yunnan Time: 15:00 — 16:00, 21 Mar. 2014 Venue: YIA_LT8
Abstract: In this talk, language diversity and human diversity in Yunnan are outlined, and then their importance to the world is highlighted. Taking the Bai language and the Bai people as the case, it is shown that different perspectives from linguistics, historical documentation and genetics may provide different cues for our understanding of language diversity and human diversity; meanwhile, they have their own limits, for instance, historical linguistics can hardly date language split; many historical events are out of documentation; genetics seldom deals with micro-history. Therefore, an interdisciplinary approach is necessary to uncover the whole history in Yunnan, and also in the world.
Topic: Neural Basis of the Left Visual Field Superiority for Processing Chinese Characters Time: 16:30 — 17:30, 21 Mar. 2014 Venue: YIA_LT8
Abstract: In this talk, studies to examine the left visual field (LVF) superiority for processing Chinese characters will be reported. Chinese characters were simultaneously, bilaterally presented to the participants, one in the LVF and one in the RVF. On the same (visual) presentation frame, there was a central cue (< or >) accompanying the two characters to indicate which character (the LVF one or the RVF one) to attend and process for lexical decision. For robustness checking, frequency of the characters was included as a variable and varied (low, medium, and high). Behavioral data of reaction time and accuracy, across all three frequency levels, showed robust, stable LVF superiority. That is, characters presented in the LVF were processed with higher efficiency and accuracy. Our findings are consistent with the findings previously reported (Tzeng et al., 1979). By using fMRI, neural basis of the LVF superiority for processing Chinese characters will be examined.
Lecturer: Prof. Gang Peng (彭剛)
Research Associate Professor
Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages
Joint Research Centre for Language & Human Complexity
The Chinese University of Hong Kong http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/lin/new/people/penggang/index.html
Topic: The Impact of Language Diversity on the Brain Time: 14:00 — 15:00, 10 Apr. 2014 Venue: ERB_LT
Abstract: There are more than 6000 languages spoken in the world. Each of these represents the world in a unique way, with its own stock of sounds, words and phrases, and its own grammatical constructions. How do these different systems of representation influence our perception and behavior? This question was well framed as Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, or linguistic relativity. Recent brain-imaging techniques allow us to investigate this question by directly examining responses of brains underlying different languages. In this lecture, I will discuss how different writing systems (probably together with other social factors such as pedagogical medium for schooling) influence sensitivity in distinguishing valid Chinese characters and their highly similar counterparts in a rapid viewing task. I will also discuss that inventory size of tones in languages affects sensitivity in detecting an oddball tone dispersed in a sequence of lexical tones. These findings suggest that language modulates our perception beyond the behavior level.
Lecturer: Prof. Ching-Po Lin (林慶波)
Professor
Brain Connectivity Lab
Institute of Neuroscience
National Yang-Ming University http://bclab.ym.edu.tw
Topic: An Introduction to Modern MRI Technologies in Brain Studies Time: 15:00 — 16:00, 10 Apr. 2014 Venue: ERB_LT
Abstract: In this introductory lecture, I will discuss the basic of MRI and some common used images including anatomy, structural and functional imaging. Students will learn how we acquire MRI data and how we apply modern MRI for brain studies. Advantages and limitation of each imaging methods will be introduced too. I will also introduce some aging and dementia studies. These studies will serve as examples for students to learn how we apply these imaging technologies and experiment design to study our hypothesis of the works.
Topic: Spoken Language Technologies and Applications Time: 16:30 — 17:30, 10 Apr. 2014 Venue: ERB_LT
Abstract: Spoken language technology (SLT) refers to the use of computational principles and methods in processing human speech, language or relevant information. The primary goal is to achieve better communication between human and computer or between human and human. SLT is also useful to linguistics study and research by providing efficient ways to analyze large amounts of real-world data. This lecture will start with a general introduction to computer processing of speech and languages. The capabilities and limitations of existing technologies will be discussed. A wide variety of potential applications of SLT will be described. These applications cover the areas of linguistic analysis, language acquisition, second language learning, speech and language disorders.
