Research Subject Area: Cognitive Sciences

REF impact found 55 Case Studies

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Academic, educational and commercial benefits of effective textual search and annotation

Summary of the impact

Based in the School of English, the Research and Development Unit for English Studies (RDUES) conducts research in the field of corpus linguistics and develops innovative software tools to allow a wide range of external audiences to locate, annotate and use electronic data more effectively. This case study details work carried out by the RDUES team (Matt Gee, Andrew Kehoe, Antoinette Renouf) in building large-scale corpora of web texts, from which examples of language use have been extracted, analysed, and presented in a form suitable for teaching and research across and beyond HE, including collaboration with commercial partners.

Submitting Institution

Birmingham City University

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Cognitive Sciences
Language, Communication and Culture: Linguistics

Speech technology

Summary of the impact

Nearly every large-vocabulary speech recognition system in current use employs outputs from fundamental research carried out in the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering (DoEng) on adaptation of Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). One example of the commercial application of these outputs is their use on the Microsoft Windows desktop for both the command and control functions and the dictation functions. Approximately one billion copies of Windows have been shipped since 2008. Other examples show the outputs used in the automatic transcription of a wide range of types of data. [text removed for publication]

Submitting Institution

University of Cambridge

Unit of Assessment

General Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Statistics
Economics: Applied Economics
Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Cognitive Sciences

Applying ‘plurilithic’ concepts of English to help English teachers become aware of, and to challenge, deficit models of language learning, teaching, and assessment

Summary of the impact

Dr Christopher Hall's research on second language (L2) lexical development stressed the hybrid nature of lexical mental representation in learners of English. This led him to reflect more critically on the local experiences and needs of learners and non-native users, and to develop a `plurilithic' account of the ontological ambiguity, unfairness, unhelpfulness, and unsustainability of monolithic conceptions of English for learning/teaching. Informed by this research, Hall (Reader in Applied Linguistics) and colleagues Dr Rachel Wicaksono (Head of the Department of Languages and Linguistics), and Clare Cunningham (formerly Wardman, an ECR and Lecturer in Linguistics) have taken steps to raise awareness of the implications of monolithic thinking among UK and international English Language Teaching (ELT) stakeholders, thereby challenging some firmly established tenets of language education policy.

Submitting Institution

York St John University

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Education: Curriculum and Pedagogy
Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Cognitive Sciences
Language, Communication and Culture: Linguistics

A standardised test of young children’s understanding and production of language

Summary of the impact

Language impairment is common in children and, without effective early intervention, presents a risk for educational, social and emotional disturbance. The team used their considerable experience in child language research to produce a novel assessment of child language development — The Reynell Developmental Language Scales 3 (RDLS3) — the first test of child language development to be standardised in the U.K. to assess both understanding and production of language in young children. Use of the test has improved language assessment and diagnosis for children with language impairments and, as such, has enabled health and education professionals to target therapy and monitor the effectiveness of interventions to improve child language development. The test has been widely used in the U.K. and is now also being used widely internationally. Recent research by the team has informed a revised version of the test — The New Reynell Developmental Language Scales (NRDLS). Sales figures of the RDLS3 and the commissioning of the NRDLS are testament to its outstanding reputation and enduring legacy worldwide.

Submitting Institution

University of Reading

Unit of Assessment

Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Psychology, Cognitive Sciences

Automatic grammatical analysis enabling advanced text processing in commercial applications

Summary of the impact

Research carried out at Sussex into the automatic grammatical analysis of English text has enabled and enhanced a range of commercial text-processing applications and services. These include an automatic SMS question-answering service and a computer system that grades essays written by learners of English as a second language. Over the REF period there has been substantial economic impact on a spin-out company, whose viability has been established through revenue of around £500k from licensing, development and maintenance contracts for these applications.

Submitting Institution

University of Sussex

Unit of Assessment

Computer Science and Informatics

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Cognitive Sciences
Language, Communication and Culture: Linguistics

Changing the English Language Testing Landscape

Summary of the impact

This case study details the impact of a pioneering theoretical approach to English language testing. Recognised as the most influential test validation theory in modern assessment, the socio-cognitive framework, conceived by Weir and O'Sullivan, and operationalized and developed further by O'Sullivan at the University of Roehampton, focuses on three key elements: the test taker (social), the test system (cognitive), and the scoring system (evaluative). This framework is applied to give a meaningful measure of a candidate's performance, appropriate to the underlying traits or abilities being assessed. This research has had a significant impact in two distinct phases: 1) through a series of commissioned projects since 2008, the research has had a significant impact on testing bodies, organisations and test takers internationally, and 2) it has underpinned the development of innovative new business products by a leading international educational and cultural organisation since 2012.

Submitting Institution

Roehampton University

Unit of Assessment

Modern Languages and Linguistics

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Psychology, Cognitive Sciences

Children’s speech and literacy difficulties: influencing professional practice

Summary of the impact

The psycholinguistic framework for research and practice developed by Stackhouse and Wells is now a key component of the majority of UK speech and language therapy courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In addition to influencing the design and delivery of course curricula in the UK, Europe, Australia, South Africa and USA, the framework is used in continuing professional development for speech and language therapists (SLTs), special needs teachers, and with parents. The resultant impact on clinical and educational practice, the assessment of children and the planning of therapy interventions can be seen across the spectrum of persisting speech difficulties, including those related to dyspraxia, dysarthria, dyslexia, cleft palate, Down Syndrome, stammering, specific speech and language impairments.

Submitting Institution

University of Sheffield

Unit of Assessment

Modern Languages and Linguistics

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Clinical Sciences
Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Psychology, Cognitive Sciences

Clinical Impact of the Embodied and Narrative Practices Framework

Summary of the impact

New avenues for diagnosis and treatment in a variety of psychotherapeutic settings were influenced by Hutto and Gallagher's innovative approach to social cognition, improving the quality of life of individuals. Their research has contributed to the development of diagnostic tools for the early detection and treatment of schizophrenia and new methodological guidelines for the clinical evaluation of Autism Spectrum Disorders. They developed the Embodied and Narrative Practices framework for understanding social cognition in terms of non-representational embodied interactions, enhanced and supported by highly contextualised socio-cultural, narrative practices. Pivotally, this approach offers an alternative to individualist and intellectualist mainstream cognitivist — e.g. `theory of mind' — approaches, reconceiving the status and importance of these practices in our capacity to relate to and understand others.

Submitting Institution

University of Hertfordshire

Unit of Assessment

Philosophy

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Psychology, Cognitive Sciences
Philosophy and Religious Studies: Philosophy

Context, Embodiment and Online Surrogacy: the Impact of 4E Cognition Research on the Ontario SmartData Initiative

Summary of the impact

Wheeler's internationally influential research on 4E (embodied-embedded-extended-enactive) cognition has played a formative role in the genesis and development of SmartData, an innovative public-policy-realizing project spearheaded by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC). IPC is an agent of the Ontario legislature that acts to uphold and promote the protection of personal privacy. The goal of SmartData is to enhance personal data privacy on the Web, by developing Internet-based agents that act as online surrogates for individuals, securely storing and intelligently disclosing personal information as required. The identified research has influenced the content and implementation of SmartData, by contributing to (i) the IPC's understanding of the link between privacy and context-sensitivity, (ii) the principles shaping the design of the online agents, and (iii) the specification of the first `proof-of-concept' SmartData product, an under-development mobile phone book ordering application.

Submitting Institution

University of Stirling

Unit of Assessment

Philosophy

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Psychology, Cognitive Sciences
Philosophy and Religious Studies: Philosophy

Corpus Research: Its Impact on Industry

Summary of the impact

UCREL (the University Research Centre for Computer Corpus Research on Language) has been pioneering advances in corpus linguistics for over 40 years, providing users with corpora (collections of written or spoken material) and the software to exploit them. Drawing together 8 researchers from the Department of Linguistics and English Language and 1 from the School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University, it has enabled the UK English Language Teaching (ELT) industry to produce innovative materials which have helped the profitability and competitiveness of that industry, and assisted other, principally commercial, users to innovate in product design and development.

Submitting Institution

Lancaster University

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Cognitive Sciences
Language, Communication and Culture: Linguistics

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