Tue 30 Apr 11:00: The Impact of AI on Language Acquisition Research
The Impact of AI on Language Acquisition Research
Speaker: Dr Abdellah Fourtassi, Aix-Marseille University | Host: Dr Sara de Felice, Dept. of Psychology, University of Cambridge
Computer modelling has long been an essential tool in researching children’s early language acquisition. It enables researchers to experiment with learning mechanisms over developmental timescales, which is not feasible with actual children due to ethical considerations. Traditional simulations have typically operated on oversimplified inputs and have been used primarily as proof of concept. Modern AI is transforming computational modelling in child language learning. With its capacity to find patterns in complex, high-dimensional data, AI enables models to scale to the intricacies of children’s natural developmental contexts, facilitating empirical discoveries.
In this talk, I will identify open challenges in child language development, such as how children derive substantial linguistic knowledge from minimal sensory input, how their cognitive abilities integrate to support efficient learning, and how their early communicative interactions result in better learning performance. I then detail and argue, via several case studies, how strategic application of AI tools can address these challenges more effectively, providing solutions that traditional methods alone might not achieve. The goal is to show that AI can be effectively woven into the child language acquisition methodological landscape, fostering synergies and integration.
Meeting ID: 362 971 038 65 | Passcode: 68Yosm
- Speaker: Dr Abdellah Fourtassi, Aix-Marseille University
- Tuesday 30 April 2024, 11:00-12:00
- Venue: Meeting ID: 362 971 038 65 | Passcode: 68Yosm.
- Series: Centre for Family Research Seminar Series; organiser: Louise Gray.
Thu 02 May 12:30: Measuring outcomes in mental health
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Dr Anju Keetharuth, University of Sheffield
- Thursday 02 May 2024, 12:30-13:30
- Venue: Online.
- Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Dr Saurabh Sonkusare.
Thu 25 Apr 12:30: The Bodily Self in Pain: The Role of Interoceptive Processing
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Dr Jane Aspell, Anglia Ruskin University
- Thursday 25 April 2024, 12:30-13:30
- Venue: Online.
- Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Dr Saurabh Sonkusare.
Mon 17 Jun 12:30: FSL-MRS as an alternative to MRspa for 1H MRS processing
Abstract: TBC
Venue: MRC CBU West Wing Seminar Room and Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82385113580?pwd=RmxIUmphQW9Ud1JBby9nTDQzR0NRdz09
- Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
- Monday 17 June 2024, 12:30-13:30
- Venue: MRC-CBU, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge.
- Series: CBU Monday Methods Meeting; organiser: Dace Apšvalka.
Mon 29 Apr 12:50: Brain age prediction using diffusion MRI data
Abstract: James Bacon is an MS Physics student at the University of Cambridge. He will present the work from his summer internship where he worked on brain age prediction using diffusion MRI data.
The talk will start at ~12:50 following a MEG project presentation which starts at 12:30.
Venue: MRC CBU West Wing Seminar Room and Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82385113580?pwd=RmxIUmphQW9Ud1JBby9nTDQzR0NRdz09
- Speaker: James Bacon (University of Cambridge)
- Monday 29 April 2024, 12:50-13:30
- Venue: MRC-CBU, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge.
- Series: CBU Monday Methods Meeting; organiser: Dace Apšvalka.
Mon 20 May 12:30: ISMRM highlights
Abstract: Attendees of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) conference will share and discuss the most significant advancements and research findings presented.
Venue: MRC CBU West Wing Seminar Room and Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82385113580?pwd=RmxIUmphQW9Ud1JBby9nTDQzR0NRdz09
- Speaker: Multiple
- Monday 20 May 2024, 12:30-13:30
- Venue: MRC-CBU, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge.
- Series: CBU Monday Methods Meeting; organiser: Dace Apšvalka.
Mon 29 Apr 12:50: Brain age prediction using diffusion MRI data
James Bacon is an MS Physics student at the University of Cambridge. He will present the work from his summer internship where he worked on brain age prediction using diffusion MRI data.
The talk will start at ~12:50 following a MEG project presentation which starts at 12:30.
Venue: MRC CBU West Wing Seminar Room and Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82385113580?pwd=RmxIUmphQW9Ud1JBby9nTDQzR0NRdz09
- Speaker: James Bacon (University of Cambridge)
- Monday 29 April 2024, 12:50-13:30
- Venue: MRC-CBU, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge.
- Series: CBU Monday Methods Meeting; organiser: Dace Apšvalka.
Wed 24 Apr 15:00: Social and political change in diverse societies: Insights from largescale panel studies
Largescale panel studies, with stratified, random samples of a nation’s population, are relatively rare in the psychological literature. By measuring change at multiple levels over long periods of time, these studies can tell us about the relationship between individuals and the societies in which they live. This includes (1) how features of the social structure, such as inequality or deprivation, affect people and (2) how people affect the social structure (via their policy preferences and political behaviour). I will review recent research on these two key elements of societal functioning – structural effects and structural change – from two panels in very different contexts. The first is a 13-wave longitudinal study of around 20,000 New Zealanders. The second is a 3-wave study of around 160,000 people in India. I will also introduce a new panel from the UK, where we invite 500,000 people randomly sampled from the electoral register to participate in survey of social and political attitudes annually over five years. This research programme demonstrates how largescale panel data can inform theory and policy, by telling us more about how people change, and how they change their societies.
The talk is open to the public.
- Speaker: Nikhil Sengupta (University of Kent)
- Wednesday 24 April 2024, 15:00-16:00
- Venue: Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology, Downing Site, Cambridge.
- Series: Social Psychology Seminar Series (SPSS); organiser: Yara Kyrychenko.
Thu 16 May 12:30: TBA
- Speaker: Professor Mark Mapstone, Professor, Neurology School of Medicine Vice Chair for Research, Neurology School of Medicine Chief, Neuropsychology Division, Neurology School of Medicine, University of California at Irvine
- Thursday 16 May 2024, 12:30-13:30
- Venue: Hybrid, in person in Herschel Smith Building at Forvie site.
- Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Nikolina Skandali.
Thu 16 May 12:30: TBA
- Speaker: Professor Mark Mapstone, Professor, Neurology School of Medicine Vice Chair for Research, Neurology School of Medicine Chief, Neuropsychology Division, Neurology School of Medicine, University of California at Irvine
- Thursday 16 May 2024, 12:30-13:30
- Venue: Hybrid, in person in Herschel Smith Building at Forvie site.
- Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Nikolina Skandali.
Thu 16 May 12:30: TBA
- Speaker: Professor Mark Mapstone, Professor, Neurology School of Medicine Vice Chair for Research, Neurology School of Medicine Chief, Neuropsychology Division, Neurology School of Medicine, University of California at Irvine
- Thursday 16 May 2024, 12:30-13:30
- Venue: Hybrid, in person in Herschel Smith Building at Forvie site.
- Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Nikolina Skandali.
Thu 06 Jun 12:30: Guided digital self-help interventions for PTSD and Complex PTSD
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Prof Jonathan Bisson, Cardiff University
- Thursday 06 June 2024, 12:30-13:30
- Venue: Online.
- Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Nikolina Skandali.
Thu 10 Oct 12:30: TBA
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Andrea Cipriani, Oxford University
- Thursday 10 October 2024, 12:30-13:30
- Venue: hybrid .
- Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Nikolina Skandali.
Thu 30 May 12:30: Mental health in showmen
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Sheldon Chadwick
- Thursday 30 May 2024, 12:30-13:30
- Venue: hybrid .
- Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Nikolina Skandali.
Tue 11 Jun 09:30: Child Development Forum Easter II
Speakers TBA
Child Development Forum are a series of talks bringing together researchers of infant, child and adolescent development across the University of Cambridge.
Talks are termly, and usually held at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (Chaucer Road).
Join the mailing list to kept up-to-date, and sign up to give a talk:
https://lists.cam.ac.uk/sympa/info/ucam-childdevforum
This talk is part of the Child Development Forum (CDF) series.
- Speaker: Abigail Agyemang (Psychology), Irena Tetkovic (Psychiatry), Keith Liang (Psychology)
- Tuesday 11 June 2024, 09:30-11:00
- Venue: Old Cavendish Psychology Ground Floor Seminar Room.
- Series: Child Development Forum (CDF); organiser: Giacomo.
Fri 17 May 16:30: The Cognitive Biology of Language The host for this talk is Jeff Dalley
The cognitive revolution in the middle of the last century has transformed the ways in which we study the human mind. Curiously, when it comes to language there is a growing behaviourist trend, where it is regarded as an acquired skill, not unlike the way in which Large Language Models (LLMs) work. In contrast, linguists in the Generative Grammar tradition consider the faculty of language to be a computational system within the mind, part of the human biological endowment. This means that biological aspects of language, in particular evolution, development, and (neural) mechanisms, are open to investigation. I will discuss recent work on ‘comparative linguistics’, particularly the behavioural, neural and cognitive parallels between human language and birdsong, and what we can and cannot conclude from it. The current behaviourist view of language has led to the rapid rise of LLMs, although these AI models are actually not about language at all. Natural language appears to be unique to the human mind, and has no parallels either in animal or artificial intelligence.
The host for this talk is Jeff Dalley
- Speaker: Professor Johan Bolhuis, Utrecht University
- Friday 17 May 2024, 16:30-18:00
- Venue: Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology.
- Series: Zangwill Club; organiser: John Mollon.
Wed 24 Apr 15:00: Social and political change in diverse societies: Insights from largescale panel studies
Largescale panel studies, with stratified, random samples of a nation’s population, are relatively rare in the psychological literature. By measuring change at multiple levels over long periods of time, these studies can tell us about the relationship between individuals and the societies in which they live. This includes (1) how features of the social structure, such as inequality or deprivation, affect people and (2) how people affect the social structure (via their policy preferences and political behaviour). I will review recent research on these two key elements of societal functioning – structural effects and structural change – from two panels in very different contexts. The first is a 13-wave longitudinal study of around 20,000 New Zealanders. The second is a 3-wave study of around 160,000 people in India. I will also introduce a new panel from the UK, where we invite 500,000 people randomly sampled from the electoral register to participate in survey of social and political attitudes annually over five years. This research programme demonstrates how largescale panel data can inform theory and policy, by telling us more about how people change, and how they change their societies.
- Speaker: Nikhil Sengupta (University of Kent)
- Wednesday 24 April 2024, 15:00-16:00
- Venue: Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology, Downing Site, Cambridge.
- Series: Social Psychology Seminar Series (SPSS); organiser: Yara Kyrychenko.