Cognition & Process
A summary of all lectures
,Lecture 1 – Introduction 01.09.2021 ........................................................................................... 3
Lecture 2 – The language faculty 03.09.2021 ................................................................................ 7
Lecture 3 – Model of language processing: process and product – 08.09.2021.................................... 11
Lecture 4 – Language and Cognition; how do they relate? – 10.09.2021 ............................................. 17
Lecture 5 – Research methods: off-line (recall, recognition, verification) online (reading times,
reaction times, eye movements, ERP, fMRI) – 15.09.2021 .................................................................. 25
Lecture 6 – Language and the Brain – 17-09-2021 ............................................................................... 29
Lecture 7 – Syntactic and semantic processing: minimal attachment, late closure, modularity, (subject
relative versus object relative clauses, ERP: P600, N400) – 22.09.2021 .............................................. 36
Lecture 8 – Semantics and Pragmatics; learning words from various information sources – 24.09.2021
............................................................................................................................................................... 42
Lecture 9 – Referential coherence: The processing of anaphors (implicit causality, pronoun versus NP)
– 29.09.2021 .......................................................................................................................................... 51
Lecture 10 – Linguistic approaches to reference and anaphoricity – 01.10.2021 ................................. 57
Lecture 11 – Relational coherence: Causality and the processing of causal relations (semantic versus
pragmatic relations, connectives) – 06.10.2021 .................................................................................... 63
Lecture 12 – Overview & Questions 08.10.2021 .................................................................. 69
Lecture 13 – Process models: goal, requirements, examples (processing of negation, inferences) –
13.10.2021 ............................................................................................................................................. 75
,Lecture 1 – Introduction 01.09.2021
Lecturers: Leonoor Oversteegen & Rein Cozijn
Cognition
• A faculty for processing information (of any kind), applying knowledge (reasoning), and
chaning belief states (learning), or preferences (choosing).
• Domains of cognition are attention, memory, language acquisition, interpretation and
production, reasnoning, problem solving, and decision making.
• Cognitive processes can be:
o Natural or artifical (adaptive, anticipatory, goal-directed behavior)
o Lower (automatical) or higher (intentional)
o Concious or unconcious.
• Psychology, philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience, and computer science all study cognition.
The evolution of cognition
Phylogenetic model of the brain
Reasoning
• Deduction:
o The beans from this bag are white (regularity).
o These beans are from this bag (fact).
▪ These beans are white (conclusion: fact).
• Induction:
o These beans are white (fact).
, o These beans are from this bag (fact).
o Beans in this bag are also white (conclusion: regularity).
• Abduction:
o The beans from this bag are white (regularity).
o These beans are white (fact).
o These beans are from this bag (conclusion: fact?)
Examples of (human) cognitive process
• Feeling on one's legs a gush of cold air, one infers that the door must be open.
• Waiting for the train while not able to see the rails, one noticed other passengers picking up
their luggage and one concludes that the train must be coming.
• Reading this sentence, one wonders what it is about.
• Seeing a picture, one connects the image to something familiar.
• Walking from a to b, one sends instructions to ones limbs to move efficiently.
• Learning a new word, one has to link it to existing knowledge and memorize.
The frontal lobe is responsible for initiating and coordinating motor movements, cognitive skills, etc.
What is cognition?
Current biology: shows that the word ''cognition'' has its origins in classical terms relating to the concept
of knowing.
• The question of whether a particular state or process is cognitive can be understood in terms of
whether it involves representations that re systematically recombinable and stimulus-
independent (Tim Bayne, Monash University, Melbourne).
• When we say a process is cognitive, we mean that it handles information in an adaptive way
and can be modelled usefully as a form of computation (Cecilia Heyes, University of Oxford).
Cognitive Science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines what
cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on intelligence and behavior, especially
focusing on how information is represented, processed, and transformed (in faculties such as perception,
language, memory, reasoning, and emotion) within nervous systems (human or other animals) and
machines (e.g., computers).
Disciplines:
• Psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, neuroscience, linguistics, psycholinguistics,
anthropology, sociology, and education.
Levels of analysis:
• From low-level learning and decision mechanisms to high-level logic and planning.
Assumption: Thinking can best be understood in terms of representational structures in the mind and of
computational procedures. (poll)
A modern history of linguistic theories
• First half 20th century: mainly descriptive and prescriptive theory (the rules of grammar) and
research on language as a sociocultural phenomenon.
• 1950/1960: Chomsky's first attempts to develop a linguistic theory: should explain how we learn
language in a limited time (5 years), and on the basis of unsystematic input. Our linguistic
competence is supposed to be an isolated faculty. Rule system of grammar is similar to exact
sciences. A dominant group ''generative linguists'' work from this perspective.
A summary of all lectures
,Lecture 1 – Introduction 01.09.2021 ........................................................................................... 3
Lecture 2 – The language faculty 03.09.2021 ................................................................................ 7
Lecture 3 – Model of language processing: process and product – 08.09.2021.................................... 11
Lecture 4 – Language and Cognition; how do they relate? – 10.09.2021 ............................................. 17
Lecture 5 – Research methods: off-line (recall, recognition, verification) online (reading times,
reaction times, eye movements, ERP, fMRI) – 15.09.2021 .................................................................. 25
Lecture 6 – Language and the Brain – 17-09-2021 ............................................................................... 29
Lecture 7 – Syntactic and semantic processing: minimal attachment, late closure, modularity, (subject
relative versus object relative clauses, ERP: P600, N400) – 22.09.2021 .............................................. 36
Lecture 8 – Semantics and Pragmatics; learning words from various information sources – 24.09.2021
............................................................................................................................................................... 42
Lecture 9 – Referential coherence: The processing of anaphors (implicit causality, pronoun versus NP)
– 29.09.2021 .......................................................................................................................................... 51
Lecture 10 – Linguistic approaches to reference and anaphoricity – 01.10.2021 ................................. 57
Lecture 11 – Relational coherence: Causality and the processing of causal relations (semantic versus
pragmatic relations, connectives) – 06.10.2021 .................................................................................... 63
Lecture 12 – Overview & Questions 08.10.2021 .................................................................. 69
Lecture 13 – Process models: goal, requirements, examples (processing of negation, inferences) –
13.10.2021 ............................................................................................................................................. 75
,Lecture 1 – Introduction 01.09.2021
Lecturers: Leonoor Oversteegen & Rein Cozijn
Cognition
• A faculty for processing information (of any kind), applying knowledge (reasoning), and
chaning belief states (learning), or preferences (choosing).
• Domains of cognition are attention, memory, language acquisition, interpretation and
production, reasnoning, problem solving, and decision making.
• Cognitive processes can be:
o Natural or artifical (adaptive, anticipatory, goal-directed behavior)
o Lower (automatical) or higher (intentional)
o Concious or unconcious.
• Psychology, philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience, and computer science all study cognition.
The evolution of cognition
Phylogenetic model of the brain
Reasoning
• Deduction:
o The beans from this bag are white (regularity).
o These beans are from this bag (fact).
▪ These beans are white (conclusion: fact).
• Induction:
o These beans are white (fact).
, o These beans are from this bag (fact).
o Beans in this bag are also white (conclusion: regularity).
• Abduction:
o The beans from this bag are white (regularity).
o These beans are white (fact).
o These beans are from this bag (conclusion: fact?)
Examples of (human) cognitive process
• Feeling on one's legs a gush of cold air, one infers that the door must be open.
• Waiting for the train while not able to see the rails, one noticed other passengers picking up
their luggage and one concludes that the train must be coming.
• Reading this sentence, one wonders what it is about.
• Seeing a picture, one connects the image to something familiar.
• Walking from a to b, one sends instructions to ones limbs to move efficiently.
• Learning a new word, one has to link it to existing knowledge and memorize.
The frontal lobe is responsible for initiating and coordinating motor movements, cognitive skills, etc.
What is cognition?
Current biology: shows that the word ''cognition'' has its origins in classical terms relating to the concept
of knowing.
• The question of whether a particular state or process is cognitive can be understood in terms of
whether it involves representations that re systematically recombinable and stimulus-
independent (Tim Bayne, Monash University, Melbourne).
• When we say a process is cognitive, we mean that it handles information in an adaptive way
and can be modelled usefully as a form of computation (Cecilia Heyes, University of Oxford).
Cognitive Science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines what
cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on intelligence and behavior, especially
focusing on how information is represented, processed, and transformed (in faculties such as perception,
language, memory, reasoning, and emotion) within nervous systems (human or other animals) and
machines (e.g., computers).
Disciplines:
• Psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, neuroscience, linguistics, psycholinguistics,
anthropology, sociology, and education.
Levels of analysis:
• From low-level learning and decision mechanisms to high-level logic and planning.
Assumption: Thinking can best be understood in terms of representational structures in the mind and of
computational procedures. (poll)
A modern history of linguistic theories
• First half 20th century: mainly descriptive and prescriptive theory (the rules of grammar) and
research on language as a sociocultural phenomenon.
• 1950/1960: Chomsky's first attempts to develop a linguistic theory: should explain how we learn
language in a limited time (5 years), and on the basis of unsystematic input. Our linguistic
competence is supposed to be an isolated faculty. Rule system of grammar is similar to exact
sciences. A dominant group ''generative linguists'' work from this perspective.
