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Psychology: Child Language Acquisition – Babies vs Chatbots: Language & The Learnability Problem with Dr Nadja Althaus from University of East Anglia
June 11 @ 11:10 - 11:55
In this Psychology session, Dr Nadja Althaus, Associate Professor in Psychology in the School of Psychology at University of East Anglia, will consider the latest research in an interactive talk for students on Child Language Acquisition – Babies vs chatbots: Language and the learnability problem.
Human language is unique as a communication system in the animal world – we can express infinitely many ideas, simple and complex. What is so special about language is that many linguists think it’s not possible that babies simply pick up language from listening to our parents, but that they must instead have some innate abilities that make it easy to learn language? And how about recent inventions in AI, chatbots like ChatGPT – do they learn language the same way? I’ll talk about similarities and differences and discuss whether AI can help us understand children’s language development. We’ll see how developmental psychologists use eye tracking and brain imaging to find out how babies really think and learn, and why AI chatbots don’t give us all the answers yet.
Lecturer Profile: Dr Nadja Althaus
Our events are designed so that a group of students can take part from a classroom or students and teachers can take part as individuals, either from school or from home. There is no charge to take part.
As a live, participative event, this session will not be recorded but slides and other resources will be shared after the event, where available.
Suitable for: 16+ pre-university students studying, or with a possible interest in studying, Psychology and related disciplines. Student groups as well as students and teachers joining individually are very welcome.
Preparation/Pre-Reading: Students are encouraged to consider some of the issues and questions they may have. Students can also think about questions about studying at university level.
The IT Setup: The event will be run on Zoom and participants will be able to join using laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. If you are joining as a school group, we recommend connecting with one device and projecting on to a whiteboard. You will be able to interact with the speaker via typed comments and questions and/or via a microphone. Full details will be sent to those who have registered (see below) prior to the event.
Booking a Place: This is free for schools and colleges. If you would like to take part in this event, please register your interest using the link to the registration form below: