Gary S. Dell
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Primary Section: 52, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2015)
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Research Interests
Gary Dell studies language production, the processes through which thoughts become spoken words. Dell and colleagues have developed computational models of production that explain the nature and likelihood of speech errors. These models are constrained by data from linguistics, neuroscience, and psychology. Dell’s experimental work tests predictions of the models by examining speech production under controlled conditions, and particularly the speech errors that arise in these conditions. More recently, the models have been applied to language production deficits, such as aphasia resulting from damage to language areas of the brain. The models can be computationally “lesioned” to mimic the error patterns of individual patients, thus allowing for the model to diagnose each individual’s deficit. In addition, model parameters can be correlated with patient lesion locations with the result that model functions can be mapped onto brain regions.
