Davide Crepaldi, Associate Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience,International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA).

The connection between statistical learning and reading: how far does it go?

ABSTRACT: Multiple sources of evidence support the idea that reading and visual word identification build upon statistical regularities in the (written) language. However, statistical learning is surely not a language-specific engine, and seems to be deeply embedded into the visual system. This begs the question: how special is letter and word processing, really? In this talk, I’ll try to define the connection between statistical learning and reading at the boundary between language and perception, with a particular focus on the consequences of this interplay for literacy acquisition.