Speaking and Thinking

This book is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Victor Ferreira, Professor of Psychology and Principal Investigator at the Language Production Lab at the University of California at San Diego. This extensive conversation explores Victor Ferreira’s research which is focused on language production and communication, especially with regard to grammar, lexical structure and speaker-hearer interaction, and his interests to incorporate computational and quantitative modelling of cognitive processing. 


Topics under discussion include key experimental results that change our view of what is actually going on when two people talk to each other, giving us new insight into the structure of language and also how many aspects of linguistics are related to our current understanding of how the brain and mind function.


This carefully-edited book includes an introduction, The Tip of the Tongue, and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter:


Linguistic Beginnings - In search of relevance

Minimizing Ambiguity - Finding a linguistic drosophila

Retrieval - Towards objective measurements

The Division of Labour - Examining message formulation

Disambiguating Ambiguity - Linguistic vs. conceptual

Probing with Pronouns - A future experiment

Grammar - Examining its function

Monitoring - Speaking carefully

In the Brain - Brain imaging and language

Philosophical Divertimento - Brain vs. Mind

Language and Thought - The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Future Investigations - Environmental impacts and big data

Mind-Brain Redux - The debate continues….



About Ideas Roadshow Conversations Series: 


This book is part of an expanding series of 100+ Ideas Roadshow conversations, each one presenting a wealth of candid insights from a leading expert in a focused yet informal setting to give non-specialists a uniquely accessible window into frontline research and scholarship that wouldn't otherwise be encountered through standard lectures and textbooks. For other books in this series visit our website: https://ideas-on-film.com/ideasroadshow/.