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Logic, language, and the brain

A major problem of psycholinguistics is to understand the nature of the cognitive processes that enable language comprehension and production. Various methods are used to further our understanding, including brain imaging and the study of developmental language disorders. The purpose of this course is to show that logic can play a pivotal role in such investigations. The course looks in detail at two experimental paradigms and explains how use of logic may lead to refined models of what goes on during language processing, and also leads to precise testable hypotheses. Both examples are concerned with the linguistic encoding of temporal notions. The first example studies E(vent-) R(elated) P(otential)s, a form of electro-encephalography, especially useful for studying the time-course of linguistic processing. Baggio, van Lambalgen and Hagoort derived predictions about ERPs from the computational theory of tense and aspect (the 'event calculus'), proposed in van Lambalgen and Hamm (2004), concerning temporal propostions, tense violations and the progressive. A common feature of these predictions, dictated by the underlying logic of the event calculus, is that linguistic processing in these domains is non-monotonic, and indeed the experiments yielded ERPs which give evidence of non-monotonic recomputations. The second domain to be studied is that of developmental (language) disorders, in particular attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism. There have been scattered observations in the literature indicating that children with ADHD have difficulties in producing coherent discourse. The event calculus, combined with data on patients with ADHD indicating problems with maintaining goals in working memory, more specifically predicts deviations in the production of verb tenses. These predictions have been confirmed. Lastly we discuss conditional reasoning in autism. The logical framework, together with some assumptions about decreased inhibition in autistic patients, predicts that autists will engage much less in non-monotonic reasoning with conditionals, and again this turns out to be so. References G. Baggio, `A semantic approach to the electrophysiology of tense', to appear in Language Learning. G. Baggio & M. van Lambalgen, `The processing consequences of the imperfective paradox', Journal of Semantics (2007), doi: 10.1093/jos/ffm005 G. Baggio, M. van Lambalgen & P. Hagoort, `Computing and recomputing disourse models: an ERP study', submitted. G. Baggio, M. van Lambalgen & P. Hagoort, `Unification is the key to discourse processing', submitted. M. van Lambalgen & F. Hamm, The proper treatment of events, Blackwell 2004. M. van Lambalgen & C. van Kruistum, `Discourse processing in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)', to appear in Journal of Logic, Language and Information. J. Pijnacker et al., `Conditional reasoning in high-functioning adults with autism', submitted. K. Stenning & M. van Lambalgen, `Logic in the study of psychiatric disorders: executive function and rule-following', Topoi (2007) doi: 10.1007/s11245-006-9012-6