Internet and Communication
Cell phones are increasingly sophisticated -- sporting such features as cameras, music players, games, video clips, Internet access and, lest we forget, the capability to phone someone -- but these features come at a price: memory.
As a scientist who has morphed into a full-time writer, I care deeply about both the substance and communication of science to the general public.
I'm sure American University Communications Professor Matt Nisbet shares my concerns, but I have to admit a rather large degree of discomfort with his advocacy of an approach he calls "framing science."
Can computers talk? Right now, no. Natural Language Processing -- the field of Artificial Intelligence & Linguistics that deals with computer language (computers using language, not C++ or BASIC) -- has made strides in the last decade, but the best programs still frankly suck.
Will computers ever be able to talk? And I don't mean Alex the Parrot talk. I mean speak, listen and understand just as well as humans. Ideally, we'd like something like a formal proof one way or another, such as the proof that it is impossible to write a computer program that will definitively determine whether another computer program has a bug in it (specifically, a type of bug known as an infinite loop).
Some philosophers have tried to produce just that sort of proof...
I work in an toddler language lab, where we study small children who are breezing through the process of language acquisition. They don't go to class, use note cards or anything, yet they pick up English seemingly in their sleep (see my previous post on this).
Just a few years ago, I taught high school and college students (read some of my stories about it here) and the scene was completely different. They struggled to learn English. Anyone who has tried to learn a foreign language knows what I mean.
Although this is well-known, it's a bit of mystery why. (read on for some answers)
Mobile phones have not been found to be associated with any biological or adverse health effects, according to the UK's largest investigation into the possible health risks from mobile telephone technology.
The "Great Firewall of China," used by the government of the People's Republic of China to block users from reaching content it finds objectionable, is actually a "panopticon" that encourages self-censorship through the perception that users are being watched, rather than a true firewall, according to researchers at UC Davis and the University of New Mexico.
Scholars have been wondering how thought works -- and how it is even possible -- for a long time. Philosophers such as John Locke and early psychologists such as Sigmund Freud relied mostly thought about thought very hard. As a method, this is called introspection. That's Cognitive Science 1.0.
Experimental Psychology, which got its start around 100 years ago (William James was an important early proponent), uses the scientific method to probe the human mind. Psychologists develop controlled experiments, where participants are assigned to one of several conditions and their reactions are measured. Famous social psychology experiments include the Milgram experiment or the Stanford Prison Experiment, but most are more mundane, such as probing how humans read by monitoring eye movements as they read a simple text. This is Cognitive Science 2.0.
Followers of this blog know that it is tied to a Web-based cognitive science lab. Dedicated followers also know that the old website was fuggly, to say the least. It has been replaced with a polished, gleaming new site.
News junkies might start up their web browser day any number of ways. There are those who prefer the Post to the Times. Those with a business mind might start with the Journal. On the West Coast, there are those who swear by LA's daily. I myself start with Slate.
However, I can state with little fear of correction, that the website of record for die-hard language buffs is the Language Log.
In this post, I am very pleased to release the results of one of my very first Web-based experiments. This was the experiment on visual attention alluded to a few days ago. Not long ago, a colleague presented results suggesting that trying to ignore an area in your visual field actually causes you to pay more attention to it -- which even effects the perception of time...
Steven Pinker includes this entertaining clip from a "movie script" in one of his books:
Woman: I'm leaving you.
Man: Who is he?
This is one of my favorite examples of the truism that a lot more is going on in language than meets the eye.
Launching a new Web-based laboratory.
One of the largest studies into the short-term health effects of mobile phone technology has found that reported symptoms such as anxiety, tension and tiredness are not caused by the typical emissions from phone masts.
A singing computer scientist wants to use cutting-edge technology to create Europe's first successful Internet choir. Dr. Barry Cheetham, a senior lecturer in The School of Computer Science at The University of Manchester, is seeking to combine his academic expertise in communications, networks and digital signal processing with his love of choral singing.
Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia have found that less is more when it comes to online content. In a study that examined responses to pictures viewed online, the researchers found that people were able to pay more attention to pictures selected from a small array of choices than from a large array of choices. These findings may have implications for Internet search engines, advertising and news sites.
