Conference 2010

The conference emphasized multimodal learning processes in general, with focus in particular on those including blind persons.

The conference aimed at bringing research from various fields together, to build networks for further research in relation to blindness, and to stimulate practitioners, such as teachers, to deepen their knowledge. And we hope to encourage a great deal of academic and professional matchmaking.

Organized by:

• Information Design, School of Innovation, Design and Engineering at Mälardalen University in Eskilstuna, and
• The Swedish Braille Authority

Abstracts

Thinking with Paper and Hand

Barbara Tversky,
Stanford University, Department of Psychology

Graphics have been used since ancient times to externalize and augment memory and information processing, from written language to maps to sketches for design. Research on diagrams for design will show that graphics encourage abstraction of ideas but also can bias the representation or interpretation of ideas. Other research will show that gestures can serve to abstract ideas in similar ways and that both diagrams and gestures are spontaneously used to promote thought when spatial working memory is taxed.

Metaphors in mind and in medial manifestations

Peter Gärdenfors,
Lund University Cognitive Science

Using Lakoff and Johnson Metaphors We Live by as a background, I will present a cognitive theory of metaphors based on mappings between conceptual spaces. This will then be applied to how metaphors can be manifested in different media. In particular I focus on the interplay between linguistic and visual metaphors in pedagogical contexts.

Performance Patterns Associated with Map Use tasks in Visual and Tactile Instrument Delivery

Amy Lobben,
University of Oregon, Department of Geography, The Spatial and Map Cognition Research Laboratory

Map use and navigation is a complex process involving data representation and use in (often) real-world settings. My research team has investigated this complex process by measuring sub-components using both visual and tactile instruments. Our research participants have included sighted as well as blind or low vision groups. Our multi-methodological approach involves behavioral testing in our lab and in the field as well as neuroimaging. We have focused on investigating the behavioral and neurological correlates associated with lab-delivered and in-field behaviors, all involving map use. I will report on some of our projects, presenting final and initial findings.

Multimodal sensor integration in human neocortex

Baran Çürüklü,
Mälardalen university, School of innovation, design and engineering

Imagine that you are enjoying a slice of an apple pay, or watching your favorite TV show. In both cases you need mechanisms for handling unimodal information that enters your brain, and gets mixed with that is already imprinted. As a result of this process you will perceive the outside world. The brain does not have a central mixing machine though; it is the mixing machine. Mammalian cortex is organized in a laminar and modular fashion, evident by cortical layers and cortical columns, respectively. The centerpiece of this structure is the cortical microcircuit. We hypothesize that this structure can explain how human brain can integrate information belonging to different modalities to generate multimodal information. This feature is essential for higher cognitive functions, such as planning, reasoning and speech understanding, and hence takes a central role in forming our personalities as well.

Pavlovian conditioning

Germund Hesslow,
Lund University, Department of Experimental Medical Science, Neuroscience Section

Perhaps the simplest form of associative memory is the conditioned reflex, first described by Ivan Pavlov about a century ago. If a reflex-eliciting stimulus is regularly preceded by some neutral stimulus, the latter will eventually acquire the ability to elicit the reflex on its own. Pavlov studied conditioning of an autonomic response (salivation). Others have later studied conditioned emotional responses such as fear or motor responses such as eyeblink. In this experimental paradigm, an air puff to the eye elicits a blink. The air puff is repeatedly preceded at a fixed interval, usually a couple of hundred milliseconds, by an initially neutral stimulus, such as a tone. After a period of training, the tone will acquire the ability to elicit the blink on its own.

This conditioned blink is always precisely timed, and occurs just before the air puff. Thus, if the time interval between tone and air puff is increased, the response will (after some training) be delayed so that it again matches the expected onset of the air puff. The mechanism behind this adaptive timing is probably the same as that underlying other forms of timing such as in speech or musical performance.

We now know that Pavlovian conditioning of motor response occurs in the cerebellum and we know some of the underlying anatomy and physiology such as the pathways of the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. We can now follow the learning of a conditioned response at the level of the individual cell. It is possible, but far from certain, that other forms of conditioning also utilize the same neural mechanisms. In particular, there is evidence to suggest that speech and language are strongly dependent on cerebellar learning mechanisms. The lecture will outline the basics of the neural circuits underlying the learning and some possible implications for teaching skills that rely on conditioning.

The eye of language

Sven Strömqvist,
Lund University, Centre for Languages and Literature, Linguistics/Language Technology

How does language interact with thinking? Do we think in a different way when we are speaking Swedish than when we are speaking Spanish or the mayan language Tzeltal? Do we think in a different way when we are writing than when we are speaking? How does tactile as distinct from visual language influence cognition?

Sven Strömqvist gives a bird’s eye perspective on two decades of research on linguistic diversity and language learning and their consequences for which thoughts we dress up in words, how we organize our attention and what we remember.

Sven Strömqvist is professor of general linguistics and language learning at Lund University and he is scientific director of the Humanities laboratory at the same university. He was president of Sweden’s national committee for the European year of languages 2001.

The impact of handwriting learning methods on the perception of letters

Jean Luc Velay,
Institut Neurosciences Physiologiques et Cognitive, Marseille

Fast and accurate visual recognition of single characters is crucial for reading with efficiency. We explored the possible contribution of writing memory to character recognition processes. The ability of children and adults to recognize newly learned characters was evaluated after they were taught how to write these characters either with pen or with computer keyboard. After training, we found clearer and longer lasting (several weeks) facilitation in recognizing the orientation of characters that had been written by hand, compared to typed characters. Functional MRI recordings further indicated that this facilitation occurs together with a greater activation in several brain regions known to be central in observation of objects and in execution of actions associated to these objects.

Taken together, these results provide strong arguments in favor of the view that the specific movements memorized when learning how to write do participate in the visual recognition of graphic shapes. Typing movements, which are not differentiated according to the shape of the characters, and which involve different tactile and proprioceptive feedback, do not bring such an advantage.

Mental imagery in sighted and blind subjects

Jana Holsanova,
Lund University Cognitive Science

Mental imagery has for a long time been very hard to study. However, with the present day technologies (eye-tracking, EEG, ERP, PET and fMRI), a new window has been opened to understanding the mind.

In my talk, I will first present a series of eye tracking studies on mental imagery in sighted subjects that have been conducted at the Humanities lab in Lund. Second, I will mention strands of current research on mentaly imagery in blind subjects, in particular studies on mental scanning and navigation. Third, I will discuss topics for future (basic and applied) research, including the question of perception-action coupling in mental processing, presenting spatial information through non-visual modalities and question about the interplay between visual, tactile and motor imagery.