Documenting and Explaining the Challenge of Word Form for Individuals with Developmental Language Disorder
Speaker: Prof Karla McGregor ( Boys Town National Research Hospital)

Room: Online. We will also stream the video at
https://city-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/93568812451?pwd=Qk5RSlBNcDRMUUpxSnpHRFRqN0VsQT09 upon request.

Abstract:
In this talk, I will review a program of research focused on word learning in children and adults with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). I will demonstrate that a) the forms of words are especially challenging, b) the initial encoding of the form is especially challenging, c) the problem is evident whether the word learning opportunity is direct, indirect, or cross-situational, d) the problem persists into adulthood. I will propose a explanation that relates the problem to broader deficits in sequential pattern learning.

Representations of people in the brain
Speaker: Dr Lúcia Garrido (City, University of London)

Room: ELG02. We will also stream the video at
https://city-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/93568812451?pwd=Qk5RSlBNcDRMUUpxSnpHRFRqN0VsQT09 upon request.
Abstract:
Faces and voices convey much of the non-verbal information that we use when communicating with other people. We look at faces and listen to voices to recognize others, understand how they are feeling, and decide how to act. Recent research in my lab aims to investigate whether there are similar coding mechanisms to represent faces and voices, and whether there are brain regions that integrate information across the visual and auditory modalities. In the first part of my talk, I will focus on an fMRI study in which we found that a region of the posterior STS exhibits modality-general representations of familiar people that can be similarly driven by someone’s face and their voice (Tsantani et al. 2019). In the second part of the talk, I will describe our recent attempts to shed light on the type of information that is represented in different face- and voice-responsive brain regions (Tsantani et al., 2021).
Tsantani, M., Kriegeskorte, N., McGettigan, C., & Garrido, L. (2019). Faces and voices in the brain: a modality-general person-identity representation in superior temporal sulcus. Neuroimage, 201, 116004.
Tsantani, M., Kriegeskorte, N., Storrs, K., Williams, A., McGettigan, C., & Garrido, L. (2021). FFA and OFA encode distinct types of face identity information. Journal of Neuroscience, 41(9), 1952-1969.

Toward a formal, cross-disciplinary theory of creativity
Speaker: Prof Lee (Liane) Gabora (University of British Columbia)

Room: ELG02. We will also stream the video at
https://city-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/93568812451?pwd=Qk5RSlBNcDRMUUpxSnpHRFRqN0VsQT09 upon request.
Abstract:
The honing theory of creativity posits that the mind is a second level of self-organized, self-mending, self-reproducing, ‘autocatalytic’ structure, and like the body, it is the hub of an evolutionary process; it is to cultural evolution what the body is to biological evolution. Innovation is the generative component of this second evolutionary process, ensuring that continuity is balanced with creativity. I will present an agent-based model of two cognitive transitions en route to the capacity for strategic creativity and cultural evolution. I will show how creative restructuring is modeled using a quantum cognition framework, and how cognitive networks relax during incubation, and reform anew in a context-sensitive manner, enabling new ideas to emerge. The unique configuration of one’s cognitive network is exploited as the individual develops their personal creative style, and externalizing one’s intermediate (half-baked) thoughts (e.g., as sketches or prototypes) can catalyze the next step of a reiterated honing process. The approach paves the way for a new understanding of convergent and divergent thought, and suggests that ideas are invented with respect to consensus reality, which reflects the totality of human knowledge to this point, but discovered with respect to a more encompassing reality, which additionally reflects knowledge we have not (yet) attained. I will present evidence for honing theory from empirical studies with musicians, artists, creative writers, dancers, and comedians.