SPHS colloquium: Mike Jones, April 12

Please join us for a colloquium presented by the SPHS PhD Organization and the Department of Speech & Hearing Sciences!

 

The ‘Other’ Dimension of Words

by Mike Jones, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Indiana University
Dept of Psychological and Brain Sciences,

Cognitive Science Program, &

School of Informatics

 

Location: Speech and Hearing Building, Room C141

Time: Friday, April 12, 11 am - noon

 

ABSTRACT

Meaning is simultaneously the most obvious feature of language (we can all compute it rapidly and automatically), and the most mysterious aspect to study. In comparison to many areas of cognition, relatively little is known about how the mind computes meaning from experience. We can reasonably measure and model the characteristics of words based on their physical properties, such as frequency, orthography, phonology, etc. But lexical semantics is often seen as a mysterious ‘other’ dimension and is approximated with subjective ratings, hand-coded norms, or surface-level count algorithms. In this talk, I plan to do a tutorial on some recent advances in cognitive and statistical models of lexical semantic representation. These models attempt to learn rich semantic representations for words from statistical redundancies in text corpora. Time permitting, I will also cover some recent work on integrating perceptual and linguistic information in semantic models, compositional semantics, and some work from my lab applying the models to better understand cognitive processing in linguistic tasks from clinical populations.

SPHS colloquium by Caitlin Fausey, this Friday, March 29

Everyday visual statistics in the first two years of life

by Caitlin Fausey, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral research fellow

IU Dept of Psychological and Brain Sciences

 

Location: Speech and Hearing Building, Room C141

Time: Friday, March 29, 11 am - noon

 

ABSTRACT

The nature of input is fundamental to all theories of development. Traditional research has rested on relatively sparse measures of that input. But, advancing methods in analyzing large datasets are revealing structure that is not apparent in smaller samplings. Children in their first two years have approximately 9000 hours of visual experiences, experiences that surely shape the developing system. What are the basic properties of visual input and do these properties change with age? In this talk, I will describe ongoing projects designed to capture structure in visual input from (1) parent reports of early face, object and activity experience, (2) third-person views of in-the-lab play sessions between parents and infants across cultures, and (3) first-person views of infants’ lives at home. This ongoing research suggests that the statistical structure of the learning environment is dynamic and gated by young children's developmental level and cultural context.

 

Undergrad research opportunity

Registration and submission portals are now open for the 27^th Ohio Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference, to be held Saturday, April 27^th at Miami University in Oxford, OH!

 

Undergraduate researchers from any school or institution in the region are eligible and encouraged to submit an abstract for consideration (due April 15). All accepted submissions will be invited for delivery as oral presentations. Move beyond the typical poster presentation and gain valuable experience in a comfortable atmosphere of your peers and excellent faculty from across the region!

 

Even if they are not presenting, your students (and you!) should join us to support their peers presenting research. Registration is free and includes breakfast, lunch, and two special events:

 

Keynote address by Dr. Robert Bjork (UCLA):  Dr. Bjork is a highly-decorated Past President of APS and a leading researcher in learning and memory, especially as they relate to educational practice. His research has identified the most successful study techniques, distinguished between what we know and what we think we know, critically evaluated the role of learning styles, examined the efficacy of multiple-choice test formats, and much more. Dr. Bjork is an engaging and entertaining speaker sure to please both students and faculty, who will summarize this research in a keynote address titled "Managing One's Own Learning: Beliefs, Techniques, and Illusions."

 

Discussion panel: Getting into graduate school:  Faculty from Miami’s graduate program, as well as new and seasoned graduate students, will convene a panel to provide advice and answer any questions you might have about the graduate admissions process. This will take place concurrently with the faculty meeting, so students can make productive use of their time while waiting on you for a ride!

 

We would appreciate if you would help us to spread the word by forwarding this information to the students in your department, especially those that might have original research to present resulting from independent study, Honors theses, summer programs, or senior capstone and other coursework. Submissions will be accepted until April 15.

 

We encourage you to visit our website at www.MiamiOH.edu/OUPRC, or reply by email if you have any questions.

Assessing and Treating Speech Motor Impairment:

A Machine Learning Approach

 

Jun Wang, PhD

Callier Center for Communicative Disorders

University of Texas – Dallas

 

Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 11:00 in Room C141 Speech & Hearing

Although there is a critical need for objectively assessing the speech motor decline due to neurological diseases (e.g., amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS) and for assistive technologies for people with speech impairment, few options are available due to the logistical difficulty of tongue movement recording. This research investigated novel approaches for assessment and treatment for speech motor impairment, which leverage the recent advances of 3D motion capture technologies and the power of machine learning algorithms for data analysis. Machine learning classifiers (e.g., support vector machine and Procrustes analysis) were used to classify and quantify the articulatory distinctiveness of phonemes, words, and sentences based on tongue and lip movement time-series data. A novel measure, articulatory vowel space area, was derived and used for assessing the impaired speech motor control due to ALS. In addition, an online word and sentence recognition algorithm from continuous articulatory movement data was evaluated. Experimental results showed the potential of the machine learning algorithms for analyzing tongue movements for speech assessment and for the development of a silent speech recognition system that generates speech in response to silently produced articulatory movements.  

Crimson CORPS

The CAPS peer-to-peer support program, Crimson CORPS, is currently taking applications for new members. Any undergraduate IU student who’s interested in learning how to help other students or be a better friend is encouraged to apply.

Attached is information regarding applying for Crimson CORPS as well as an application.  If you would kindly forward this to your students, we would greatly appreciate your assistance. 

Deadline for application is January 14.  We are holding a callout on January 8 at 6pm at the IMU Whittenberger Auditorium for those wanting some additional information.  This information is also available on our website at www.crimsoncorps.iub.edu

 Thank you!

Crimson CORPS staff

Indiana University Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Research and Training Clinic

The Indiana University Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Research and Training Clinic currently has openings for those seeking treatment for problems with depression and anxiety. The CBT Clinic provides comprehensive diagnostic evaluations and CBT (a science-based psychological intervention) for mood and anxiety disorders to clients from the IU campus and surrounding community. Evaluation and treatment services are provided by doctoral level graduate students in the Clinical Science program under the supervision of Licensed Psychologists. Services are free of charge. To schedule an initial evaluation or for more information about our services, call our clinic at 812-855-2312, option 4 or visit our website: http://www.indiana.edu/~iuclinic/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-clinic/

IUB Timmy Global Health

IUB Timmy Global Health is having its Spring call-out and mass meeting on January 14, 2013 in the Chemistry Building 033  at 8pm. We have many events coming up, such as the Timmy 5K, Soccor Tournament, and the Tour de Timmy, and we're looking for people who are willing to help organize them! Come if you are interested in hearing about IUB Timmy and all we are doing this year!

If you have any questions, please contact dchauhan@indiana.edu.