Psychology & Psychiatry

People track when talkers say 'uh' to predict what comes next

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. Instead, 'uh' typically occurs before 'hard-to-name' ...

Neuroscience

Brain processes concrete and abstract words differently

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 of Neurophysiology (JNP).

Neuroscience

Learning new vocabulary during deep sleep

Sleeping is sometimes considered unproductive time. Could the time spent asleep could be used more productively—e.g., for learning a new language? To date, sleep research has focused on the stabilization and consolidation ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

How words get an emotional meaning

Many objects and people can convey an emotional meaning. A pair of wool socks, for example, has an emotional value if it was the last thing the grandmother knitted before her death. The same applies to words. The name of ...

Neuroscience

Scientists chase mystery of how dogs process words

When some dogs hear their owners say "squirrel," they perk up, become agitated. They may even run to a window and look out of it. But what does the word mean to the dog? Does it mean, "Pay attention, something is happening?" ...

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