Study examines vowel-colour associations
From the Radboud University Nijmegen press release: Does [a:] as in ‘baa’ sound more green or more red? And is [i:] as in ‘beet’ light or dark in colour? Even though we perceive speech and…
Study suggests April Fools hoax stories could offer clues to help identify ‘fake news’
From the Lancaster University press release: Studying April Fools hoax news stories could offer clues to spotting ‘fake news’ articles, new research reveals. Academic experts in Natural Language Processing from Lancaster University who are interested…
Study looks at how the brain finds meaning in metaphor
From the University of Arizona press release: You can grasp a hand. You can also grasp a concept. One is literal. One is metaphorical. Our brains know the difference, but would we be able to…
Study discovers brain region that only processes spoken, not written words
From the Northwestern University press release: Patients in a new Northwestern Medicine study were able to comprehend words that were written but not said aloud. They could write the names of things they saw but…
Study suggests incidence of gesturing is related to storytelling style, not nationality
From the University of Alberta press release: There are many stereotypes about gesturing across cultures — the idea that Italians are prone to hand-talking, for example. But new research by University of Alberta scientists suggests…
Study suggests infants’ advances in speech processing play role in language-cognition link
From the Northwestern University press release: A new Northwestern University study provides the first evidence that infants’ increasingly precise perceptual tuning to the sounds of their native language sets constraints on the range of human…
Study suggests people track when talkers say ‘uh’ to predict what comes next
From the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics press release: Spontaneous conversation is riddled with disfluencies such as pauses and ‘uhm’s: on average people produce 6 disfluencies every 100 words. But disfluencies do not occur randomly.…
Study suggests the brain processes concrete and abstract words differently
From the American Physiological Society press release: A new review explores the different areas of the brain that process the meaning of concrete and abstract concepts. The article is published ahead of print in the Journal…
Study suggests the language of conversation impacts on the ‘synchronization’ of our brains
From the FECYT – Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology press release: Experts from the Basque research centre BCBL have shown for the first time that the way in which the activity of two brains…
Study suggests that strategic language use maximizes the chances of influencing an audience
From the City University London press release: For even the most stoic entrepreneur, facing a panel of potential investors can be like walking onto the set of ‘Dragon’s Den’. But a new study, co-authored by…