Roger Levy, Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, describes his research on human language understanding, which integrates linguistic theory, computational models, psychological experimentation using measurements such as eye tracking while reading, and the use of language datasets such as Google Books. Humans use language to communicate with extraordinary flexibility in spite of challenges such as ambiguity, the presence of environmental noise, memory limitations, and incomplete knowledge of their interlocutors. Dr. Levy illustrates some examples of complex language understanding and leads a Q&A session with students.

Video:

• Foundational architecture of human language comprehension, production, and acquisition (1:13:01)

Additional Resources:

• Roger Levy’s Lab website: MIT Computational Psycholinguistics Lab
• Textbook in progress, on Probabilistic Models in the Study of Language