Research Interests
Gary Dell's work deals with how people produce and understand sentences, and how these processes can be modelled using neural networks. For example, his research on language production attempts to understand production errors or "slips of the tongue." He has developed a neural net model that makes predictions about the qualitative and quantitative properties of speech errors. These predictions are tested using experimental procedures in which subjects produce words and sentences under controlled conditions. A particularly interesting aspect of the model is that it can be used to understand patterns of behavior resulting from brain damage. By changing the processing characteristics of the model, one can produce speech error patterns that are characteristic of certain types of aphasic patients.
Research Description
Gary Dell's work deals with how people produce and understand sentences, and how these processes can be modelled using neural networks. For example, his research on language production attempts to understand production errors or "slips of the tongue." He has developed a neural net model that makes predictions about the qualitative and quantitative properties of speech errors. These predictions are tested using experimental procedures in which subjects produce words and sentences under controlled conditions. A particularly interesting aspect of the model is that it can be used to understand patterns of behavior resulting from brain damage. By changing the processing characteristics of the model, one can produce speech error patterns that are characteristic of certain types of aphasic patients.
Education
Ph.D. from the University of Toronto
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
CAS Professor, Center for Advanced Study
External Links
Recent Publications
Anderson, N. D., Holmes, E. W., Dell, G. S., & Middleton, E. L. (2019). Reversal shift in phonotactic learning during language production: Evidence for incremental learning. Journal of Memory and Language, 106, 135-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2019.03.002
Dell, G. S., Kelley, A. C., Bian, Y., & Holmes, E. W. (2019). Tuning the blueprint: how studies of implicit learning during speaking reveal the information processing components of the production system. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 34(9), 1246-1256. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2019.1613553
Pinet, S., Dell, G. S., & Alario, F. X. (2019). Tracking keystroke sequences at the cortical level reveals the dynamics of serial order production. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 31(7), 1030-1043. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01401
Rebei, A., Anderson, N. D., & Dell, G. S. (2019). Learning the Phonotactics of Button Pushing: Consolidation, Retention, and Syllable Structure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000686
Anderson, N. D., & Dell, G. S. (2018). The role of consolidation in learning context-dependent phonotactic patterns in speech and digital sequence production. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(14), 3617-3622. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1721107115
