Language and Mind: A Complex Dynamic Relation

Dušica Filipović Đurđević, University of Belgrade

Abstract

Understanding how information is represented and processed in the human mind is one of the fundamental goals across psychology, computational science, neural studies, philosophy, and cognitive science. Analyzing the structure of language alongside its cognitive processing can yield insights into mental functioning, based on the premise that the properties of the cognitive system shape language. This perspective suggests that language has evolved as an efficient communication system optimized for learning, as well as for representation and retrieval in the human mind. In my talk, I will argue that language serves as a window into human information processing and representation, illustrating these ideas with examples from my research on phonological, morpho- syntactic, and semantic dimensions of language processing. Furthermore, I will explore the relationship between human language and programming languages, emphasizing the distinction between natural and artificial systems. I will advocate that human language, as a natural system, eludes complete description by a finite set of rules. Finally, I will invite discussion on the implications of the difference for human interaction with these two systems, as well as its practical ramifications on the design of programming languages and user interfaces.

Bio

Dušica Filipović Đurđević is a Full Professor at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Belgrade in 2007, and furthered her education with visits to the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen in 2006 and the University of Oxford in 2008. Her research is conducted at the Laboratory for Experimental Psychology in both Belgrade and Novi Sad.

Dušica focuses on understanding the relationship between language, learning, and memory, emphasizing both intra-linguistic distributional information and the connections between language and perceptual experiences.

The Triadic Nature Of Code Review

Alberto Bacchelli, University of Zurich

Bio

Alberto Bacchelli is an Associate Professor of Empirical Software Engineering at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, where he leads the Zurich Empirical Software engineering Team (ZEST).

Alberto’s research field is empirical software engineering. His broader vision is to move away from decisions based on intuition, or development activities painstakingly conducted manually, into solutions created using data-driven mathematical models, which make use of the large amount of information available during the software engineering process.

He obtained his Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Michele Lanza, working in the REVEAL research group at the Faculty of Informatics, of the University of Lugano. During his Ph.D. studies, he was an intern twice (in 2012 and 2013) at Microsoft Research in Redmond, USA, where he worked with Dr. Christian Bird. Alberto obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Bologna, and also studied for one year at the Université Libre De Bruxelles during his master’s degree. After obtaining his master’s degree, he worked in the industry for one year at Cineca, the largest Italian computing center.

Critical Architecture / Software Theory

Tomas Petricek, Charles University

Post-modern architects use architecture to make critical, ironic and revealing comments on architectural history, practice and its social context. Is it possible to embed similar criticism into the language of software and make the software practice more self-aware and critical?

Bio

Tomas Petricek is an assistant professor at Charles University in Prague and a partner at fsharpWorks. He believes that the most fundamental work is not the one that solves hard problems, but the one that offers new ways of thinking.

He follows this belief in his academic research on programming systems and the history and philosophy of computing, as well as in his writing on functional programming, his teaching, and his F# consulting.

Previously, he completed a PhD on context-aware computations at the University of Cambridge, worked on F# tools at Microsoft Research, built novel tools for data exploration at The Alan Turing Institute, and studied programming systems and taught software engineering at the University of Kent.

Private Skills, Public Stakes: Rethinking Software Knowledge Sharing as a Social Practice

Nancy Xia, University College London

Informal, unstructured knowledge sharing is one of the main methods of learning and discovery for users navigating end-user programming environments such as spreadsheets. However, knowledge sharing is not only about sharing information, it is also a social interaction. Through qualitative and survey studies undertaken as part of my PhD, I explore the challenges users face with knowledge sharing in the spreadsheet context, highlighting how even the seemingly neutral context of sharing a spreadsheet can be mired with social concerns about how one demonstrates one’s professional competence, and how this may influence their reputation. I highlight how end-user programming practices cannot be understood in isolation from the social environments in which they are embedded, and that supporting knowledge sharing requires addressing users’ reputational and social needs as much as technical skill.

Bio

Qing (Nancy) Xia is a final-year PhD student in Human-Computer Interaction at UCL, supervised by Professor Duncan Brumby from UCL, Dr Advait Sarkar from Microsoft Research Cambridge, and Professor Anna Cox from UCL. Her research examines how social norms around technology shape collaborative behaviours such as workplace knowledge sharing.