Word meaning and sentence comprehension

语言是使我们成为人类的主要因素。我的研究的广泛目标是了解人们如何解释他们所听到和读到的东西，这些知识是如何在儿童中发展起来的，以及它是如何由于大脑损伤而退化的。我的研究大致分为两部分。在其中一个部分，我和我的合作者研究了人们的记忆，以了解涉及生物(如狗)和非生物(如烤面包机)的单词的含义。为了做到这一点，我们使用了“神经网络”，这是一种以计算机程序编写的心理处理模型。我们已经建立了一系列神经网络，可以根据单词的拼写或发音产生单词的含义，比如toaster。我们研究我们的模型是如何工作的，然后利用这些知识提出预测，并在人类参与者身上进行测试。这项测试通常包括观察人们回答诸如“衬衫有口袋吗？”之类的问题所需的时间。或者“狗这个词是指你能摸到的东西吗？”我们还通过改变程序来破坏我们的模型，使得模拟的大脑的一部分不再正常工作。然后，我们测试这个受损的模型是否模仿了大脑受损的人的表现。人们对逮捕和收养等动词含义的了解是他们理解语言能力的重要部分。我们研究动词和名词如何与记忆中的事件知识联系在一起，以及这些知识是如何在我们的大脑中组织起来的。我们使用计算机模拟和阅读和听力实验来深入了解这些过程。虽然我们的工作主要是理论性质的，但它具有实际意义。详细的语言理解理论有助于开发更好的方法来教孩子们如何听、说、读、写。此外，研究患者的表现和受损模式可以为了解这些情况提供重要的见解。例如，可以测试在模型损坏后重新训练模型的不同方法。然后，这些研究可以作为损害发生后制定康复计划的指南。

Language is a major part of what makes us human. The broad objective of my research is to understand how people interpret what they hear and read, how this knowledge develops in children, and how it becomes degraded due to brain impairments. My research is roughly divided into two parts. In one part, I and my collaborators study people's memory for the meaning of words that refer to living things such as dog, and nonliving things such as toaster. To do this, we use "neural networks", which are models of mental processing that are written as computer programs. We have built a series of neural networks that produce the meaning of words like toaster given how the word is spelled or pronounced. We study how our models work and then use that knowledge to come up with predictions that we test on human participants. This testing typically involves looking at the time it takes for people to answer questions like, "Does a shirt have a pocket?" or "Does the word dog refer to something you can touch?" We also damage our models by altering the program so that part of the simulated mind no longer works correctly. We then test whether the damaged model mimics the performance of people who have suffered brain damage.People's knowledge of the meaning of verbs like arresting and adopting is an important part of their ability to understand language. We study how verbs and nouns are linked to knowledge of events in memory, and how that knowledge is organized in our mind. We use both computer simulations and reading and listening experiments to gain insight into these processes.Although our work is primarily theoretical in nature, it has practical implications. Detailed theories of language comprehension help in developing better methods of teaching children how to listen, speak, read, and write. In addition, studying patients' performance and damaged models can provide important insights into these conditions. For example, it is possible to test different ways of retraining the models after they are damaged. These studies can then be used as a guide for developing rehabilitation programs after damage has occurred.