Week Four at the Communication and Learning Lab
This week was, again, slightly slower than usual. The higher-ups at the lab all went to a conference in Montreal on cognitive science. So, most of the week consisted of reading papers. We did, however, run one study quite successfully, and then coded the video within the day.
Some of the tiles in the Dreihaus Museum
The artist featured used mathematical equations to serve as a metaphor for ways to “solve” problems
One paper I read looked at how word frequency may affect what you choose to say. The study by Mark Koranda, Martin Zettersten, and Maryellen MacDonald at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, hypothesized that people may sacrifice accuracy in word choice as they use preferably more accessible words. “Accessible” words are categorized as words with higher-frequency in ones language. For example, cat and kitten. The word cat appears more frequently in the english language, so one may chose to use this word versus kitten even though kitten may more accurately reflect one’s intended message. The study used a novel artificial language learning paradigm, which used the structure of directions on a circular surface to test their hypothesis. The study was the first to conclude that language producers may be influenced by word frequency in production, as they may favor more accessible words over lower-frequency ones that may better capture the intended message.
It would be very interesting to see this experiment done with non-novel words, as ones environment and background could vastly impact the results. And from there, one may have to question what is accuracy and what that term means to individuals of different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.
As a result of some of our lab boredom, the other research assistants and I decided to head up to Old Town in Chicago and put up some flyers. It is definitely one of my favorite parts of the city. It has all the buzz of the Chicago while still providing a sense of warmth. There, we stumbled upon the BEST ice cream of all time again. Definitely the highlight of my week.
My weekend was spent hoping around the city again, as I needed to escape from the blanket of boredom that lays upon Hyde Park. I spent my Friday night up in the suburbs of Chicago in Glencoe, IL, visiting some friends. I then went back down to Hyde Park on Saturday night, and then back up to the city with my parents to explore. My parents and I toured the campus before going to the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Driehaus Museum in the loop. The Driehaus Museum had the most beautiful textiles from the early 20th century, and the art in the Museum of Contemporary art was very thought provoking, as many works looked specifically at what it means to be human in these modern times of reinvention. We then went and got Italian food, and ended up having leftovers, which means I have one less meal to cook this week!
The main quadrangle at the University of Chicago
That is all for now, I look forward to more learning and exploring in the great city of Chicago! 🙂
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