Description: Lecture, three hours. Language allows humans to transfer thoughts across minds. To elucidate mental structures and processes that underlie this feat, exploration of relationship between language and rest of human mind; and within language system itself, how mental labor is divided across distinct subcomponents. Critical examination of both classic and cutting-edge findings from experimental cognitive psychology, computational modeling, and neuroscience. Topics include relationship between linguistic structure and meaning; parallels between language and other cognitive domains (e.g., statistical learning, Bayesian inference, prediction, etc.); cognitive constrains on online language processing; influences of language on thought; language-thought dissociations; and efficient information coding. S/U or letter grading.

Units: 4.0