Ruth Campbell - Böcker

Gestures are a special sort of action. They communicate the individual's moods and desires to the world and they operate under different psychological and cognitive constraints to other actions. The connections between gesture and language - spoken and signed - pose some fascinating questions. How intimately are gesture and language connected? Did one evolve from the other? To what extent are they similarly processed in the brain? In what ways are signed languages akin to spoken language and gestures?Gesture, Speech, and Sign examines these questions, bringing together an international array of expertise to explore the origins, neurobiology, and uses of these three communication systems. A unique feature of the book is its discussion of how a greater understanding of these issues can be used to improve human-computer interactions. Designed to appeal to a multi-disciplinary audience Gesture, Speech, and Sign will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, computer science, and those involved in deaf studies.

Case Studies are familiar as problem-solving devices in business and in education, as well as having a traditional role in the teaching of medicine and as the psychoanalytic research. In experimental psychology, however, case studies have only recently resurfaced as a useful way of asking questions about the structure of the mind. Each of the chapters in this book describes a particular real person whom the investigator believes can tell us something important about the way the human mind develops and performs. Each chapter is written by an internationally known academic researcher in their chosen field in psychology. The cases range widely over developmental subjects, such as the girl born blind and the autistic child, to elderly patients who have had strokes or other brain damage that has oddly curtailed some previously intact cognitive skills such as drawing, writing or remembering. The aim of this book is to bring these real life cases to life in a clear and relatively jargon-free way and so to illuminate how psychologists now use case-study evidence to approach central questions in cognition, such as the relation between brain structures and mental processes, and development of cognition. Together, the studies suggest the exciting flavour of current active research and offer new perspectives. Mental Lives is intended for use in the early stages of an undergraduate cognitive psychology course, and will also be of some use to students of developmental psychology and of neuropsychology.

This volume outlines some of the developments in practical and theoretical research into speechreading lipreading that have taken place since the publication of the original "Hearing by Eye". It comprises 15 chapters by international researchers in psychology, psycholinguistics, experimental and clinical speech science, and computer engineering. It answers theoretical questions what are the mechanisms by which heard and seen speech combine? and practical ones what makes a good speechreader? Can machines be programmed to recognize seen and seen-and-heard speech?. The book is written in a non-technical way and starts to articulate a behaviourally-based but cross-disciplinary programme of research in understanding how natural language can be delivered by different modalities.

This volume outlines some of the developments in practical and theoretical research into speechreading lipreading that have taken place since the publication of the original "Hearing by Eye". It comprises 15 chapters by international researchers in psychology, psycholinguistics, experimental and clinical speech science, and computer engineering. It answers theoretical questions what are the mechanisms by which heard and seen speech combine? and practical ones what makes a good speechreader? Can machines be programmed to recognize seen and seen-and-heard speech?. The book is written in a non-technical way and starts to articulate a behaviourally-based but cross-disciplinary programme of research in understanding how natural language can be delivered by different modalities.

One approach to the study of language has been to describe people whose ability to communicate is impaired. Some researchers have argued that it is possible to identify the component mental processes that contribute to the ability to communicate by describing the ways in which language can break down. Other researchers have expressed doubts about the extent to which data from impairment reflects normal language function. This volume reflects the problems of constructing theory of how the normal brain deals with language from data from impaired individuals from the perspective of a range of disciplines: psycholinguistics, linguistics, neurophysiology and speech-language pathology. The chapters include critiques of methodology; application of new technology; the study of bilingual people; and cross-linguistic studies. A range of language skills is discussed (phonology, prosody, syntax, semantics, reading and spelling) in the context of both developmental and acquired impairments (hearing loss, cerebellar dysarthria, sub-cortical aphasia, cortical aphasia, phonological disorder, and dyslexia).This book icludes contributions from researchers and clinicians on both sides of the Atlantic as well as from Australia and Hong Kong.