Ultimately our approach to language stresses mechanisms like associative learning, real-time competition and categorization. These are not specifically tuned to language, but representative of broader psychological processes that apply in diverse domains. Thus, the MACLab has conducted a number of studies examining these mechanisms in their own right, looking at competition and motor learning with Eliot Hazeltine, categorization processes in color with former undergraduate Stephanie Huette, the development of visual categorization with Kristine Kovack-Lesh (now at Ripon College), and music perception with former undergraduate Joel Dennhardt. By examining how such processes work in multiple domains we may be able to determine broader principles that underlie cognitive processing, learning and development.

Relevant Papers

Huette, S., and McMurray, B. (2010) Continuous dynamics of color categorization. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17(3), 348-354.

McMurray, B., Dennhardt, J., and Struck-Marcell, A. (2008) Context effects on musical chord categorization: Different forms of top-down feedback in speech and music? Cognitive Science, 32(5), 893 - 920.

Kovack-Lesh, K., Oakes, L., and McMurray, B. (2011) Contributions of attentional style and previous experience to 4-month-old infants' categorization. Infancy