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Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science

MACCS Research Programs

Since the Centre's inception, three domains of cognition have been the foci of our research: Language, Belief Formation and Visual Cognition. These three programs are very different from each other, but each relates to the other: for example, the neuropsychological condition known as unilateral neglect is important for both the Belief Formation and Visual Cognition. In turn, the Visual Cognition program leads to new knowledge about early visual stages of reading, which is important for the Language project.

Language Acquisition LaboratoryMultiple projects have been associated to these programs such as the development of the DRC model, the Emotion training project, and the Sound Training project, among others. Recent developments in these programmatic areas and the addition of ARC Federation Fellow Professor Stephen Crain to the Centre as Deputy Director has resulted in the development of Language and Logic as an extention to the Centre's research foci. The Language and Logic project will combine behavioural, computational, and biological methods to better understand the nature and acquisition of logical expressions and how these are put to use by children.