Faculty
Laura A. Carlson
Associate Chair
Professor
Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Profile
One line of research is in the area of spatial cognition, examining on how we talk about the things (objects, events and so on) that we encounter in the world. The particular focus is on spatial language, as exemplified by giving someone directions to a destination or telling someone where to find something. These types of utterances are interesting because often there are many different ways of providing the same information. For example, one can give directions using cardinal terms such as North ("go North for 5 blocks"), or using terms that are based on the person's whereabouts (go straight 1 block then turn right). Research in the lab explores the processes that underlie a speaker's decision about which type of direction to use, and in the consequences of that decision for the listener's comprehension.
A second line of research is in the area of visual cognition, examining what happens to our understanding of the world during a disruption of visual input, either externally defined such as switching camera views in a video or internally defined such as blinking or moving one’s eyes. Our inability to detect large changes that occur during such discontinuities disconfirm the strong intuition that we encode rich highly detailed information, and suggest instead that we remember only general information about the objects surrounding us, often discarding the details such as color or size. The goal is to examine exactly what information is preserved across an eye movement, and to determine how this information is represented.
Finally, a new line of research focuses on the cognitive processes that operate when someone is attempting to deceive someone else through language. Understanding how someone selects which information to be deceptive about, and how to convey the deception, should help better detect deception in language.
Recent Papers
Carlson, L. A. & van Deman, S. (in press). Inhibition within a reference frame during the interpretation of spatial language. Cognition.
Ashley, A. & Carlson, L. (in press). Interpreting proximity terms involves computing distance and direction. Language and Cognitive Processes.
West, R. L., Carlson, L. A., & Cohen, A-L. (2007). What the eyes can tell us about prospective memory. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 64, 269-277.
Carlson, L. A, Regier, T., Lopez, B. & Corrigan, B. (2006). Attention unites form and function in spatial language. Spatial Cognition and Computation, 6, 295-308.
Carlson, L. A. & � Kenny, R. (2006). Interpreting spatial terms involves simulating interactions. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 13, 682-688.
Carlson, L. A. & van der Zee, E (Eds). (2005). Functional features in language and space: Insights from perception, categorization and development. Oxford University Press.
Carlson, L. A. & Covey, E. S. (2005). How far is near? Inferring distance from spatial descriptions. Language and Cognitive Processes, 20, 617-632.
Carlson, L. A. & van Deman, S. (2004). The space in spatial language. Journal of Memory and Language, 51(3), 418-436.
Carlson, L. A. (2003). Using spatial language. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 43, 127-161.
Carlson, L. A., West, R., Taylor, H. A., & Herndon, R. (2002). Neural correlates of spatial term use. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 28, 1391-1408.
Contact Information
Office: 119D Haggar Hall
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
Phone: (574) 631-6511
Email: lcarlson@nd.edu
Website: http://www.nd.edu/~lcarlson