Metaphors and other types of figurative language play a crucial role in human cognition. Could investigating metaphor help us comprehend how meaning is represented in the brain and communicated between individuals? What impact do metaphors have on our understanding of the world and each other? This seminar will explore scientific theories on metaphor and thought. It will cover topics such as the roots of metaphor and its underappreciated role in human cognition, how different computational, behavioral, and neuroscientific research understand metaphor comprehension, the significance and functions of metaphor in various languages and cultures, the part metaphors play in different forms of reasoning, and also touch on metaphors in nonverbal expression. Overall, this seminar intends to scrutinize the scientific perspectives on the relationship between metaphor and human thought, and their implications for our understanding of language and cognition
Social and psychological aspects of human development from early childhood through adolescence; implications for education. I taught guest lectures on language development.
Topics include the relationship of language to other cognitive and perceptual functions; language evolution; the connection of language and culture, sources of linguistic diversity; linguistic engineering; the role of information technologies in the spread of ideas and its impact on language change. The course draws heavily on empirical research in cognitive and developmental psychology, and to a lesser extent on cognitive neuroscience, animal cognition, anthropology, and linguistics.
Behavior, including its development, motivation, frustrations, emotion, intelligence, learning, forgetting, personality, language, thinking, and social behavior.