Article

Taking a new look at looking at nothing.

School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences (impact factor: 12.59). 10/2008; 12(11):405-10. DOI:10.1016/j.tics.2008.07.007 pp.405-10
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT A crucial question in cognitive science is how linguistic and visual information are integrated. Previous research has shown that eye movements to objects in the visual environment are locked to linguistic input. More surprisingly, listeners fixate on now-empty regions that had previously been occupied by relevant objects. This 'looking at nothing' phenomenon has been linked to the claim that the visual system constructs sparse representations of the external world and relies on saccades and fixations to extract information in a just-in-time manner. Our model provides a different explanation: based on recent work in visual cognition and memory, it assumes that the visual system creates and stores detailed internal memory representations, and that looking at nothing facilitates retrieval of those representations.

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    Article: Grounding word learning in space.
    Larissa K Samuelson, Linda B Smith, Lynn K Perry, John P Spencer
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    ABSTRACT: Humans and objects, and thus social interactions about objects, exist within space. Words direct listeners' attention to specific regions of space. Thus, a strong correspondence exists between where one looks, one's bodily orientation, and what one sees. This leads to further correspondence with what one remembers. Here, we present data suggesting that children use associations between space and objects and space and words to link words and objects--space binds labels to their referents. We tested this claim in four experiments, showing that the spatial consistency of where objects are presented affects children's word learning. Next, we demonstrate that a process model that grounds word learning in the known neural dynamics of spatial attention, spatial memory, and associative learning can capture the suite of results reported here. This model also predicts that space is special, a prediction supported in a fifth experiment that shows children do not use color as a cue to bind words and objects. In a final experiment, we ask whether spatial consistency affects word learning in naturalistic word learning contexts. Children of parents who spontaneously keep objects in a consistent spatial location during naming interactions learn words more effectively. Together, the model and data show that space is a powerful tool that can effectively ground word learning in social contexts.
    PLoS ONE 01/2011; 6(12):e28095. · 4.09 Impact Factor
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Keywords

cognitive science
 
crucial question
 
eye movements
 
internal memory representations
 
just-in-time manner
 
linguistic input
 
listeners fixate
 
relevant objects
 
representations
 
saccades
 
visual cognition
 
visual environment
 
visual information
 
visual system
 
visual system constructs sparse representations
 

Fernanda Ferreira