Thursday 13th November, 6.30pm – Cambo House
Mad Hatter, Grey Matter Winter Talk Series
On Thursday 19th February 2015,
6.30-8pm, Dr Lynne Duncan & Dr Conny
Gollek, from the Languages &
Learning Lab at Dundee University will share their research on language
development
Tickets £3.00 to include a glass of wine
All cats are animals, but not all
animals are cats – how children learn the meaning
of words
Children naturally acquire the language spoken in their
environment while growing up. They don’t have to be taught or even encouraged
to try. Merely exposing them to social interactions enables most children to
develop speech. Around the age of 12 months, infants begin to utter words and
understand their meaning. They start with individual words, split into terms
for objects, people, actions and social routines and rapidly acquire a large
vocabulary.
But how children add meaning to an utterance is widely
debated. How do they find out that the “cat” is the family cat and doesn’t mean
“patting” (her head) or “scratch”. How do children then come to understand the
family cat can be referred to as “the cat” or “Milly”? And how are even more
complex relations like sister, daughter and cousin, when all applied to one
person, mastered?
Research into word learning presents us with a variety of
theories. One view is that children have an innate set of word learning
principles which they apply to make sense of novel words. Another is that young
children are early mind-readers, trying to read the context of conversation and
the speaker’s reference to determine meaning. The talk is going to address
these and further theories around children and their understanding and use of
words.
Dr Lynne Duncan
After completing her undergraduate degree in the School of Psychology,
University of St. Andrews, Dr Duncan was awarded an MRC studentship to study
for a PhD on the topic of developmental dyslexia. She has been conducting
research and lecturing in the School of Psychology at the University of Dundee
since 1999. In 2009, she held a post as a Visiting Lecturer in the Unité de
Recherche sur l’Evolution du Comportement et l’Apprentissage at the Université
Charles-de-Gaulle Lille 3 in France
Dr Duncan’s current research takes a cross-linguistic perspective on
language development in relation to visual word recognition and developmental
dyslexia. Recent studies have investigated the influence of speech rhythm on
phonological development and the relationship between orthographic depth and
rates of reading acquisition in a wide range of European languages including
Danish, Finnish, Greek, Icelandic, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian Spanish and
Swedish
Dr Conny Gollek
Dr Gollek’s general interest in research focuses on
development in preschool children. She graduated from the University of
Stirling in 2014 with a PhD in Developmental Psychology. Her research thesis
was concerned with word learning effects in preschool children. Before this,
she graduated with a First class Honours degree in Applied Psychology from
Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh in 2010, being awarded the Watt Medal.
Dr Gollek is currently employed
as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Dundee. The project she is involved
in aims to develop a measure to assess language and literacy in preschool
children and examine the effectiveness of early interventions. The project runs
in cooperation with Fife council and Education Scotland.
The third
and final event of the Mad Hatter, Grey Matter
Winter Series will take place in March and we are delighted to be
offering a very fascinating and exciting conclusion to the first Winter Series.
On Saturday 14th March 2015,
2-5pm, Professor Ian Deary and Dr Robin Morton,
from the Centre for Cognitive Ageing & Cognitive Epidemiology, Edinburgh
University, will provide an afternoon of fascinating insight into The Living
Brain
“The
Living Brain”
Tickets £12 to include
afternoon tea
There will be a showing of a short film /The Living Brain, which tells the inspiring story of William and Jean and their involvement in two unique studies of the ageing brain in Edinburgh (The Lothian Birth Cohorts 1921 and 1936). The film will be followed by a facilitated discussion about what the brain means to us, different kinds of intelligence which change differently with age and what the implications of this are for all of us. Some brain changes with age are inevitable, but there may be some things we can do to limit those changes
There will be a showing of a short film /The Living Brain, which tells the inspiring story of William and Jean and their involvement in two unique studies of the ageing brain in Edinburgh (The Lothian Birth Cohorts 1921 and 1936). The film will be followed by a facilitated discussion about what the brain means to us, different kinds of intelligence which change differently with age and what the implications of this are for all of us. Some brain changes with age are inevitable, but there may be some things we can do to limit those changes
After the presentation, visitors will have the opportunity
to test their own brains and interact with virtual and 3D printed brains from
our brain box (@brainboxone <http://twitter.com/brainboxone>).
Dr Robin Morton,
Knowledge Exchange, Communications & Impact Manager, University of
Edinburgh
Prof Ian J. Deary FBA, FRSE, FMedSci, is
a Scottish psychologist
known for work in the fields of intelligence, cognitive ageing, cognitive epidemiology, and personality.Deary is Professor of Differential Psychology at The University of Edinburgh. He is Director of the Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology and co-Director of the Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre
To stay up-to-date on these and other Mad
Hatter, Grey Matter events please follow @MHGMFestival OR Email madhattergreymatter@gmail.com
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