Computational Psycholinguistics (2015 LSA Summer Institute 2-week course)

Over the last two and a half decades, computational linguistics has been revolutionized as a result of three closely related developments: increases in computing power, the advent of large linguistic datasets, and a paradigm shift toward probabilistic modeling. At the same time, similar theoretical developments in cognitive science have led to a view major aspects of human cognition as instances of rational statistical inference. These developments have set the stage for renewed interest in computational approaches to human language use. Correspondingly, this course covers some of the most exciting developments in computational psycholinguistics over the past decade. The course spans human language comprehension, production, and acquisition, and covers key phenomena from both phonetics and syntax. Students will learn key technical tools including probabilistic models, formal grammars, and decision theory, and how theory, computational modeling, and data can be combined to advance our fundamental understanding of human language use.

Each day of the 4-day course will be primarily lectures with some boardwork, but with ample opportunity for discussion. Don't hesitate to ask questions during the lectures!

Every day of the course has a core reading – a short conference paper describing one of the models receiving primary focus for that day. We encourage you to read the core reading before class each day, as it will prepare you better to absorb the material in the day's class. We've also included a list of other readings to give you a broader range of pointers to key related literature for each day's lecture.

Graduate students and researchers in linguistics, cognitive science, logic, psychology, computer science, and any other discipline who are interested in using computational modeling techniques, especially probabilistic modeling, to study human language processing and acquisition.

Please take a few moments outside of class to complete our Introductory Survey, which will give us a bit of information about the backgrounds and goals of participants in the class.

There is also a mailing list for the course that we will use to communicate with course participants, and that course participants can use to communicate en masse with each other. If you were enrolled in the class as of July 5, you should already be subscribed to the mailing list. Otherwise, please subscribe!

There are three requirements for students enrolled in the course to receive credit (regardless of whether you're taking the course for a letter grade or for pass/fail):

1. You must come to class, and participate (pay attention, and ask questions when you've got them!)
2. We will give you three short written homework assignments, one on each of the first three days of class. Each one is due half an hour before the beginning of the next class. The assignments will be designed to consolidate understanding of material we cover in class. You must complete two out of these three assignments.
3. You must write up a short (2-page) final research project proposal on some topic in computational psycholinguistics that connects to your own research or to your intellectual interests. This proposal is an opportunity for you to get feedback from us on your ideas. These writeups can be completed individually or in small groups (no more than 3 people in a group). This final project proposal is due at 11:59pm on Sunday July 19.

Please turn in your homework either (i) on paper in class, or (ii) electronically, by emailing it to lsa2015cpl-homeworks@ling.ucsd.edu. Final research project proposals must be turned in via method (ii), in PDF format.