Understanding the Processing of Verb Inflections through Statistical Analyses, Experiments and Constructivist Neural Net
Lead Research Organisation:
Oxford Brookes University
Department Name: Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Gert Westermann (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Ruh N
(2009)
OXlearn: a new MATLAB-based simulation tool for connectionist models.
in Behavior research methods
Ruh Nicolas (author)
(2008)
A single-mechanism dual-route model of German verb inflection
Sirois S
(2008)
Précis of neuroconstructivism: how the brain constructs cognition.
in The Behavioral and brain sciences
Thomas M
(2008)
Studying development in the 21 st Century
in Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Westermann G
(2012)
A neuroconstructivist model of past tense development and processing.
in Psychological review
Westermann G
(2009)
Connectionist approaches to language learning
in Linguistics
Westermann, G.
(2008)
English past tense inflection: regular vs. irregular or easy vs. hard?
| Description | We investigated how people - children, adults and people with brain damage following stroke - produce the past tense forms for verbs, e.g., 'I looked out of the window and saw a bird'. There is much debate on whether the brain makes a difference between regular and irregular verbs. We discovered that we can explain a lot of what we know about past tense processing by assuming that the brain changes in response to experience with learning past tense forms and organizes itself to process these forms efficiently. |
| Exploitation Route | A possible extension to this work is its role in rehabilitation after stroke. When parts of the inflection processing system are damaged an important question is if and how the remaining intact structure can take over some of the function of the damaged parts. Our approach can be used to investigate this question. |
| Sectors | Education,Healthcare |
| Description | A neuroconstructivist view of past tense inflection |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation given at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development (CBCD), Birkbeck University of London's 10th anniversary workshop. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2007 |
| URL | http://www.cbcd.bbk.ac.uk/news/anniversary |
| Description | A neuroconstructivist view of processing the English past tense |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An invited presentation given at the Functional Imaging Laboratory, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, UCL, London |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Computational modelling in a neuroconstructivist framework |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation given at the British Neuropsychological Society (BNS) autumn meeting 2006. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2006 |
| URL | http://www.the-bns.org/prevmeet.html |
| Description | Dissociations in the English past tense : regular vs. irregular or easy vs. hard? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A poster presented at the International ESF exploratory workshop 'Words in action : interdisciplinary approaches to understanding word processing and storage'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2007,2009 |
| URL | http://www.esf.org/activities/exploratory-workshops/humanities-sch/workshops-detail.html?ew=8226 |
| Description | Inflecting the English past tense : regular vs. irregular or easy vs. hard? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation given at the ESF Exploratory Workshop 'Words in action : interdisciplinary approaches to understanding word processing and storage'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009 |
| URL | http://www.esf.org/activities/exploratory-workshops/humanities-sch/workshops-detail.html?ew=8226 |
| Description | Introducing OXlearn : a Matlab based simulation tool to succeed good old t-learn |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation given at the 'Neural computation and psychology workshop 11' (NCPW11). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
| URL | http://psyweb.psy.ox.ac.uk/babylab/NCPW/program.pdf |
| Description | Language and the brain |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Creative brain day |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| Description | Using neural networks to study development, intervention and teaching |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation given at the Centre for Educational Neuroscience methods seminar at Birkbeck University of London. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009 |
| URL | http://www.educationalneuroscience.org.uk/index.html |