Séminaire & Soutenance HDR Isabelle Dautriche
2023-01-13 10:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Paris) | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
10H Judit Gervain (University of Padoa, Italy & CNRS)
How do infants represent speech: the developmental origins of the embedded neural oscillations model
The proposal (Giraud & Poeppel 2012) that a hierarchy of embedded neural oscillations support speech and language processing in the brain has received ample evidence in adults. However, the developmental orgins of such a neural architecture remain to a large extent unknown. The talk will present EEG data from newborns and older infants showing that neural oscillations are already in place early in development and are shaped by prenatal and postnatal experience.
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11H Coffee break
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11H30 Luca Bonatti (University Pompeu Fabra, Spain)
The role of logic in infant cognition

Do infants have a logic in their mind, and what role could it have in their cognitive system? David Hume argued that no novel content can arise by simply inspecting ‘relations of ideas’ — what we would now call logic, but only by knowing ‘matters of fact’ – objects, events, causal relations. This creates a puzzle: how is it possible that a system that adds no novel knowledge be useful to our cognition of the world? I will argue that the puzzle is a bit less puzzling if one thinks that knowledge is not acquired not only by adding novel information, but also by reducing uncertainty. I will present experiments with adults and infants suggesting that elementary logical processes are indeed spontaneously triggered in different contexts, and precisely serve the role of reducing uncertainty by eliminating possibilities.
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12H30 Lunch ILCB
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14H Soutenance HDR, Isabelle Dautriche (CNRS & Aix-Marseille University)
How children learn the meaning of words
One central task in most linguistic theory is to provide an account of the acquisition of language: What kind of machine in its initial state, supplied with what kinds of input, could acquire a natural language in the way that infants of our species do? This question is usually confined to the acquisition of phonology and syntax, leaving vocabulary aside. After all, words must be learnt by noticing the real-world contingencies for their use. No other theory could explain why English children learn to associate the sound sequence /ˈbɛtə/ to the meaning “better” and Turkish children to “worse”. I argue that focusing on distributional or statistical abilities provides an incomplete picture of word learning as it fails to account for how learning occurs, what kind of knowledge learners bring into the word learning problem and what properties of language may facilitate it. I will present experimental and computational work that suggest that 1) children are active learners, able to combine and weigh several sources of information while learning the meaning of words; 2) that the vocabulary of natural languages has evolved to be more learnable by infants and 3) that infants come equipped with non-linguistic biases that guide their learning, some of which may be shared with other species.
Committee:
Jennifer Culbertson, University of Edinburgh
Balthasar Bickel, University of Zurich
Luca Bonatti, University Pompeu Fabra
Judit Gervain, University of Padoa & CNRS
Noël Nguyen, Aix-Marseille Université
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17H Apéro

Apprentissage lexical chez les enfants en maternelle et en élémentaire: mécanismes en jeu et efficacité des méthodes d'interventions en classe
2023-05-03 10:00 - 11:00 | SALLE 9-051, Université Aix-Marseille Campus St Charles 3 Pl. Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13003, France
Intervenante : Séverine Casalis, SCALab, Univ Lille & CNRS (pour plus d’infos : https://pro.univ-lille.fr/severine-casalis)
Abstract
L’objectif de l’exposé est de présenter de façon parallèle une synthèse de modèles et travaux expérimentaux conduits sur l’apprentissage lexical d’une part et d’études interventionnelles conduites en classe d’autre part. L’apprentissage de mots est conçu, théoriquement, de façon sensiblement différente, chez les très jeunes et jeunes enfants et chez les enfants d’âge maternelle. En conséquence, nous présenterons successivement les modèles de « fast mapping » (Chiat, 2001) rendant compte de l’apprentissage lexical chez le très jeune enfant et le modèle « Complementary System Account » (Lindsay & Gaskell, 2010) qui rend compte des mécanismes d’apprentissage lexical chez l’adulte et l’enfant plus âgé. Cette distinction entre mécanismes d’apprentissage lexical selon l’âge de l’enfant est également justifiée par le rôle que joue l’orthographe dans le développement du lexique, à la fois en termes de configuration lexicale et de type d’exposition. L’apprentissage de la lecture, avec notamment l’impact de l’orthographe et l’exposition aux textes écrits modifie également les interventions réalisées en classe, souvent basées sur les textes écrits à partir du cycle 3. Cette synthèse se conclura par les perspectives de recherche ouvertes par l’articulation entre les travaux de fondamentaux et les interventions en classe.
Participer par Zoom
https://univ-amu-fr.zoom.us/j/85283430679?pwd=RCtzdVQxR1ZiaCtIa2tkYnp4QmFNQT09
ID de réunion : 852 8343 0679
Code secret : 527701

Word learning in honor of Lila Gleitman: Perception of structure from language and world
2023-06-09 09:00 - 11:00 | Salle 9-050, Université Aix-Marseille Campus St Charles 3 Pl. Victor Hugo, Marseille, France
John Trueswell (Dept of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania)
Abstract: It is tempting to conclude that children learn the meanings of words by observing their circumstances of use (e.g., observing that the word “dog” often co-occurs with dog-sightings). If this is the case though, how do children ever learn the vast majority of the words that they know? Consider most of the words in this abstract, many of which a 3-year-old produces and understands: like “what”, “not”, “language”, “do”, “think”, “learn.” Can these words be learned by observation of their circumstances of use? There are no what-sightings that go with “what”, and no not-sightings that go with “not”; thinking-sightings often look like sleeping-sightings and sitting-sightings. How do children go about learning these “hard words” despite no explicit instruction? I will present research, some of which was done with my longtime collaborator Lila Gleitman, that is designed to answer these questions. I’ll focus on the unexpected role that word-to-world pairings nevertheless play in the learning of hard words. I’ll propose a framework for word-to-world mapping in which perception of the referent world itself offers us significant structure, and the syntactic structure we gather from the language is connected to these representations. This connection, and the structural representations on both sides of the word-to-world coin, allow us to see what we shouldn’t be able to see, and hear what we shouldn’t be able to hear. I’ll offer experimental evidence that our perception of the world includes rapid extraction of event structure, and hypothesize that this allows access to abstract relational meaning even in young children. These representations play an important role in understanding how situational contexts permit children to learn even the most abstract of terms, such as symmetrical predicates (e.g., the meaning of “equal”) and truth-functional negation (e.g., the meaning of “not”).

Interactive Robot Learning
2023-06-21 14:00 - 15:00 | FRUMAM, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Summary: In this talk, we focus on main methods and models enabling humans to teach embodied social agents such as social robots, using natural interaction. Humans guide the learning process of such agents by providing various teaching signals, which could take the form of feedback, demonstrations and instructions. This overview describes how human teaching strategies are incorporated within machine learning models. We detail the approaches by providing definitions, technical descriptions, examples and discussions on limitations. We also address natural human biases during teaching. We then present applications such as interactive task learning, robot behavior learning and socially assistive robotics. Finally, we discuss research opportunities and challenges of interactive robot learning.
Bio: Prof. Mohamed Chetouani is currently a Full Professor in signal processing and machine learning for human-machine interaction. He is affiliated to the PIRoS (Perception, Interaction et Robotique Sociales) research team at the Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics (CNRS UMR 7222), Sorbonne University (formerly Pierre and Marie Curie University). His activities cover social signal processing, social robotics and interactive machine learning with applications in psychiatry, psychology, social neuroscience and education. He was the coordinator of the ANIMATAS H2020 Marie Sklodowska Curie European Training Network (2018-2022). Since 2019, he is the President of the Sorbonne University Ethics Committee. He was involved in several educational activities including organization of summer schools. He is member of the EU Network of Human-Centered AI. He is General Chair of ACM ICMI 2023. He is in charge of the inclusion of Students with Disabilities for the Faculty of Science and Engineering of Sorbonne University.

Passerelles entre gestes et voix chez différentes espèces de primates (dont humain) : Approche comparative de la communication sensible à l’attention
2023-09-29 10:00 - 11:00 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Marie Bourjade
Laboratoire CLLE, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès & Institut Universitaire de France

Bien avant l’entrée dans la parole, le jeune enfant mobilise déjà des compétences pragmatiques lui permettant de se faire comprendre, d’agir sur les adultes environnants et d’utiliser intentionnellement ses comportements à des fins communicationnelles. Parmi ces compétences pragmatiques, la Communication Sensible à l’Attention réfère à la capacité d’ajuster la modalité sensorielle des signaux communicatifs à l’attention de l’entourage. Elle revêt une importance particulière sur le plan de l’acquisition du langage, mais également de son évolution. En effet, le partage attentionnel entre parent et enfant pourrait avoir joué un rôle clé dans l’émergence de la communication sensible à l’attention chez les primates, constituant de facto une passerelle entre geste et voix. Je présenterai des travaux comparatifs réalisés en conditions écologiques chez le chimpanzé, le babouin olive et plusieurs groupes de population humaine, tous portant sur le choix des modalités de communication du jeune enfant envers sa mère selon l’état attentionnel de cette dernière. Les résultats mettront en avant les acquisitions du jeune en fonction de l’étayage maternel et souligneront l’importance fondamentale des interactions précoces dans les processus de socialisation et de développement communicationnel. Ces travaux seront remis en perspective avec les modèles culturels de parentalité et les hypothèses évolutives sur le conflit attentionnel parent-enfant.

The cerebellum in language and cognition
2023-10-17 12:30 - 13:30 | B011 LPL, 5 avenue Pasteur, Aix-en-Provence, 13100, France
Anila D’Mello : l’Université de Texas

The cerebellum contains over 80% of the neurons in the brain, and over 50% of the neurons in the central nervous system. Despite being historically considered a motor structure, clinical and neuroimaging work find that the cerebellum is also important for cognition. This talk will present research integrating human neuroimaging, behavior, and neuromodulation to understand cerebellar contributions to higher-order language, social communication, and cognitive control in both neurotypical and autistic individuals.

Word learning in toddlerhood: The role of linguistic and social cues in naturalistic learning scenarios
2023-11-02 11:00 - 12:00 | LIS, 52 Av. Escadrille Normandie Niemen, Marseille, 13397, France
Monica Barbir, a researcher at the University of Tokyo

in a hybrid mode in LIS (Luminy) and online via Zoom at:
https://univ-amu-fr.zoom.us/j/85497246420?pwd=dkFnbTBybGI3ZWhnN0tVZlVXVWtvQT09

Phylogénies hérétiques de la bioluminescence : quels partenariats peut-on inventer avec les organismes lumineux ?
2024-02-23 11:00 - 12:00 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Jeremie Brugidou : Artiste-chercheur · PhD Art&Sciences – Recherche-Création · ENS / Paris 8 / Nanterre / Aix-Marseille – Romans / Films / Installations et performances
Phylogénies hérétiques de la bioluminescence : quels partenariats peut-on inventer avec les organismes lumineux ?
À travers une approche théorique, historique, expérimentale et science fictionnelle, je propose de réfléchir aux liens qui nous unissent à ces autres vivants qui produisent de la lumière.

Phylogénies hérétiques de la bioluminescence : quels partenariats peut-on inventer avec les organismes lumineux ?
2024-02-23 11:00 - 12:00 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
L’ILCB est heureux de recevoir vendredi 23 février Jérémie Brugidou pour un séminaire Art & Sciences intitulé :
“Phylogénies hérétiques de la bioluminescence : quels partenariats peut-on inventer avec les organismes lumineux ?”
À travers une approche théorique, historique, expérimentale et science fictionnelle, J. Brugidou propose de réfléchir aux liens qui nous unissent à ces autres vivants qui produisent de la lumière.
Jérémie Brugidou est résident à l’IMERA (https://www.imera.fr/chercheur/brugidou-jeremie/)
Voici un rapide portrait de cet artiste-chercheur : “cinéaste et docteur en Arts. Il est l’auteur de deux long-métrages documentaires, ainsi que de nombreux essais visuels. Il soutient à l’Université Paris 8 en 2020 sa thèse intitulée « Vers une écologie de l’apparition. Le mystère de la genèse des formes à partir d’une Annonciation bioluminescente chez James Cameron », co-dirigée par Christa Blümlinger et Dominique Lestel (ENS Paris). Il a obtenu une bourse postdoctorale (2020-21) dans le cadre d’un projet intitulé « L’Esthétique au présent : puissances de l’image mouvante », et financé par la Fondation Balzan. Le titre de son projet de recherche est “Biomedialuminescence : vers une écologie de l’apparition “. Il fonde son travail sur la recherche-création, tissant des relations fructueuses entre les arts et les sciences. Dans ce cadre il est l’auteur de plusieurs articles scientifiques en sciences humaines, en langue française et anglaise, de chapitres d’ouvrages, et a co-dirigé un numéro spécial de la revue Social Science Information (SSI) sur la thématique de l’océan.”
pour en savoir plus :

Site web : http://www.estca.univ-paris8.fr/index.php/jeremie-brugidou/
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremiebrugidou

PS Dominique Lestel, son co-directeur de thèse, s’intéresse directement à la question du langage et de la frontière (ou pas) entre animal humain et non-humain, see https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_Lestel

11th Implicit Learning Seminar
2024-05-23 - 2024-05-25
The “Implicit Learning Seminar” is an international conference that draws together leading researchers who share an interest in the cognitive and neural bases of implicit learning.
The meeting is small (max. 100 participants) and features oral and poster presentations. There is no registration fee, but registration is mandatory.
Previous ILS : Sopot (2012), Bergen (2013), St. Petersburg (2014), Krakow (2015), Lancaster (2016), Budapest (2017), Cluj-Napoca (2018), Tromso (2019), Graz (2022), Bruxelles (2023).

The Rise and Fall of the Franconian Tone
2024-10-21 16:30 - 18:00 | B011 LPL, 5 avenue Pasteur, Aix-en-Provence, 13100, France
Limburgish is spoken in the north-western 12% of the area in which the Franconian tone is spoken, where Cologne was the medieval centre of prestige. It was there, after the beginning of the construction of the cathedral in 1248, that a remarkable lexical tone contrast arose from the contact between the hundreds of highly qualified immigrant craftsmen and thousands of local workmen whose employment was related to the building enterprise. With hindsight, that tonogenesis can be seen as an experiment in pushing the conditions for L1 language acquisition to its limits: the tonogenesis occurred in declarative intonations, yet in principle the tone contrast needed to be available under all intonational conditions.
Unsurprisingly, the embedding of the tone contrast in the intonation grammar led to a wide variety of solutions, causing the dialects to vary in the number of intonation melodies (from 1 to 4) as well as in the pitch shapes of the tones. When focusing on individual dialects, a unique typological feature becomes apparent:
It is not possible to specify the pitch shapes of the tones: These vary with intonational conditions.
Importantly, despite the high pressure that must have been placed on infants to create grammars for what must be seen as implausibly varied set of phonetic forms, the grammars of the dialects known to date all conform to the model of Pierrehumbert (1980) and the assumptions of OT. The Limburgish data offer three confirmations of these models:

The star in T* is an instruction to associate with a *-marked TBU.
Edge-aligned tones align their (R/L) edge with the (R/L) edge of some other phonological constituent.
OT constraints are ranked.

With no basis in those models, other work added the stipulations for (a) that T* must always associate, for (b) that alignment implies association, and for (c) that some rankings are ungrammatical. The Limburgish data prove those stipulations wrong.
Today, the survival of the tone contrast may depend on the function of Acc2 as a local identity marker. In fact, this may be one route for tonoexodus. neutralizations would appear to occur through the generalization of Acc2. Another route lies in reducing the salience of the contrast: one case will be presented in which the tone contrast does exist, but is phonetically too subtle for outsiders to hear as anything than repetitions of the same unremarkable standard Dutch intonation contour. A third way out is through reinterpretation of the tone contrast in terms of consonants, vowels or vowel quantity. This will be illustrated on the basis of the Weert dialect.

Cracking the Code: Unveiling Hidden Patterns in Words, Speech, and Objects Through Implicit Statistical Learning
2025-01-13 11:00 - 12:00 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Professor Shelley Xiuli Tong, Director of Speech, Language and Reading Lab (https://slrlab.edu.hku.hk/) Faculty of Education – The University of Hong Kong
Abstract:
Humans possess remarkable abilities to learn new words, acquire language, and recognize objects based on sparse and ambiguous inputs. These abilities are rooted in the robust and efficient learning mechanism of statistical learning, which enables individuals to automatically detect regularities in their environment through exposure to multiple stimuli. Despite decades of research demonstrating the involvement of statistical learning in the formation of memory and internal models of prediction, the cognitive and neural mechanisms underpinning statistical learning remain unclear.
In this talk, I will share my team’s research on statistical learning over the past decade and discuss a series of behavioral and neurophysiological experiments designed to address newly emerging questions that uncover how statistical learning functions in the human brain across various encoding contexts. Specifically, I will address three fundamental questions: 1) Is statistical learning disrupted in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, especially dyslexia?; 2) How do different types of statistical learning change across ages and interact with other cognitive functions?; and 3) What cognitive and neural mechanisms support statistical learning?
In conclusion, I aim to demonstrate how new paradigms and theoretical frameworks are necessary to advance our understanding of how humans comprehend the probabilistic world, the mind, and the increasingly complex relationships between people and machines.

Computational passive bioacoustics: Will AI really solve animal communication?
2025-01-20 11:00 - 12:00 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Paul Best (Eq. Multisense & Body) has been awarded an 2024 ILCB post-doc grant to work on the topic of spatialised bioacoustics for the analysis of turn-taking in non-human interactions. Paul’s original background is in computer science and machine learning. During his PhD and post-doc in Toulon university, he worked on automating the analysis of non-human vocalisations using neural networks. Paul has applied these methods to a range of species with a variety of research questions, always working with long-term acoustic data recordings of free-ranging animals. Some of these projects include analysing the presence patterns of sperm whales, characterising the evolution of song structure in fin whales, and linking communicative complexity to sociality in orcas. Currently at CRPN, Paul is working with recordings of pilot whales and cao-vit gibbons, with a focus on how contextualising passive acoustic data with spatial information (the location of the vocalising animal) contributes to a better understanding of their vocal behaviour.
Abstract:
For this seminar, we will look at current research in passive bioacoustics, especially regarding opportunities and limitations of using machine learning to study non-human communication. With the increasing use of long-term monitoring systems such as autonomous acoustic recorders, the relatively young and growing field of computational passive bioacoustic is promising in collecting naturalistic data to contribute to ethological and evolutionary questions. Drawing on my research experience and project in this domain, I will present what is and could be possible with such approach, including with the use self-supervised learning, case studies of cetacean communication systems, the benefits of sound localisation and the relevance of integrating a musical perspective in the study of non-human communication.

Different bodies, different minds: Biology as a central driving force in the building of cognitive functions?
2025-01-27 11:00 - 12:00 | Amphi MASSIANI, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13331, France
Marie MONTANT
Abstract:
By focusing on language, I will try to show that cognitive architectures are built from goal-driven perceiving and acting bodies in their physical environment, a perceptive that holds for humans as well as other animals. To illustrate this theoretical position, firstly, I will show in humans that words conveying time information are tightly linked to body mouvements (Camille Grasso’s PhD thesis), that syntax is probably built on domain-general fine motor planification (Raphaël Py’s PhD thesis), that our lexica are grafted onto sensorimotor networks (Melissa Yavuz’s PhD thesis, Anna Poberezhnaia master’s thesis, Anne Kavounoudias collab.). Secondly, I will describe the approaches of Lise-Habib Dassetto (PhD) and Paul Best (Postdoc) that address the questions of how communicative systems appeared during evolution and what kind of method we can develop to conduct fair comparisons between humans and baboons (Lise H.D.) or pilot-whales (Paul B.).

Exploration interdisciplinaire des rêves et du cerveau.
2025-05-21 - 2025-05-22 | IMéRA
Peter SIMOR, neuropsychologue cognitif et directeur du Laboratoire du sommeil et de la cognition à l’Université Eötvös Loránd de Budapest, sera l’invité de la dernière séance du séminaire Inter-disciplines de l’IMERA les 21 et 22 mai prochains, sur le thème “Exploration interdisciplinaire des rêves et du cerveau.” https://www.imera.fr/agenda/peter-simor-exploration-interdisciplinaire-reves-cerveau/
L’accès est libre et ouvert à tous. Rappelons par ailleurs que les doctorants peuvent faire valoir leur présence à ces sessions au titre de la formation doctorale. Pour cela, ils doivent s’inscrire grâce au lien ci-dessous. Merci de les en avertir, et de leur suggérer de nous contacter, si vous pensez que cela pourrait les intéresser. https://adum.fr/script/formations.pl?mod=3678991&site=CDAMU
La rencontre se fera comme chaque fois en deux temps.

– MERCREDI 21 MAI, 14h-17h
Salle de réunion du premier étage de la Maison Neuve
IMERA Place Le Verrier 13004 MARSEILLE
Séminaire autour des travaux de Peter Simor, animé par Antoni Rodriguez Fornells, Professeur de neurosciences cognitives, Université de Barcelone (résident Iméra), Gabriella Crocco (Iméra), Olivier Morizot et Florence Boulc’h (IRES)
Cette séance vise à préparer collectivement la compréhension du discours qui sera développé le lendemain lors de la grande conférence. Elle se focalisera pour l’occasion sur l’analyse de l’article de Yuval Nir et Giulio Tononi : “Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology“. A travers cette lecture guidée, notre objectif sera de préparer le questionnement de Peter Simor sur la nature des rêves.
– JEUDI 22 MAI, 16h30-18h30
Salle de conférences, Maison des astronomes
IMERA Place Le Verrier 13004 MARSEILLE
Grande conférence de Peter Simor
Between the shores of sleep and wakefulness: from sleep-wake regulation to subjective experiences
Despite its apparently quiet nature and homogeneous nature, sleep is a markedly heterogeneous state with respect to biological functions, neurophysiological properties, information processing and mental experiences. The sleeping brain is constantly monitoring the balance between the internal homeostatic demands and the need to monitor the external environment in order to detect potential threats or relevant information. Far from passive, the sleeping brain continually negotiates between internal homeostatic needs and the imperative to remain attuned to the external world, in case of threats or salient stimuli. In doing so, it oscillates along a dynamic continuum between deeper, disconnected states and lighter phases marked by heightened information processing. Oneiric (dream) experiences seem to take part in this process and reflect the underlying cyclic patterns of sleep and wake regulation. Are dreams simply epiphenomena or inherent aspects of the sleeping brain? Do they reflect random neural activations or convey personally meaningful information? In this talk, I will explore these questions through the lens of contemporary dream science and cognitive neuroscience, integrating insights from interdisciplinary fields such as neuropsychoanalysis and consciousness research.

Bibliographie préparatoire
Yuval Nir and Giulio Tononi. Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology Trends in Cognitive Science 14(2), 2009. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2009.12.001

Multidimensional Semantics for Concrete and Abstract Concepts
2025-09-29 11:00 - 12:00 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Penny M. Pexman
Western University, Canada

Multiple representation theories posit that concepts are represented via a combination of properties derived from sensorimotor, affective, linguistic, and other experiences. One advantage of this approach is that it helps address the challenge of abstract meanings, like wisdom and friendship, which are central to our mental and social lives and yet cannot be directly experienced through the senses. I will describe a series of studies in which my colleagues and I have tested predictions of multiple representation theories for acquisition and processing of concrete and abstract word meanings, exploring the roles of sensorimotor, interoceptive, and social experience. The development of large-scale word norms and behavioural megastudies has enabled consideration of multiple lexical and semantic dimensions and exploration of the possibility that these dimensions have simultaneous and interacting effects on behaviour. Using these “big data” I will consider how these multiple factors might be mapped in semantic space.

BIO: Penny Pexman is Vice-President (Research) and Professor of Psychology at Western University She joined Western in 2023, having previously spent 25 years at the University of Calgary, where she served in a number of research leadership roles including Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Arts and Associate Vice-President (Research). Penny was Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology and Associate Editor of the Journal of Memory and Language. She is past President of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science, past Governing Board Chair for the Psychonomic Society, a current member of Governing Board of the Cognitive Science Society, and co-founder of Women in Cognitive Science – Canada.
Penny’s research expertise is in cognitive development, psycholinguistics, and cognitive neuroscience. In broad terms, she is interested in how we derive meaning from language, and how those processes are changed by experience. She has published more than 150 journal articles on those topics. For over 2 decades her work has been continuously funded by two of Canada’s federal funding organizations (SSHRC and NSERC), including NSERC’s prestigious Discovery Accelerator Supplement. She is an elected fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science and has been honoured with 9 awards for mentorship and teaching excellence.
