Press notes: BCBL celebrates the scientific legacy of researcher Arthur Samuel

• International experts attended an event at the center located in Donostia-San Sebastián to honor the doctor and professor’s career following his retirement.                                            
• Since BCBL was founded in 2010, Arthur Samuel has been one of the organization’s leading figures as head of the “Spoken Language” research group.

The Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL) held an event to honor the legacy of Dr. Arthur Samuel (New York, 1953) following his retirement. The researcher has been one of the organization’s leading figures since its founding in 2010, serving, for example, as the leader of the “Spoken Language” group and supervising the BCBL’s doctoral and master’s programs.

International experts participated in a two-day conference focused on exploring new advances in the perception and learning of spoken language, as well as discussing and reflecting on the future of this field.

“Spoken language has played a fundamental role in human development and evolution. Now that many societies are bilingual or multilingual, it is even more important to understand how human language works and whether there are better or worse ways to support the development of a second or third language,” notes the Dr. Samuel.

Arthur Samuel’s work has focused primarily on understanding the cognitive, perceptual, and attentional processes that underpin communication through human spoken language.

During his time leading the BCBL’s “Spoken Language” group, the team has brought new insights into the processing of this type of language, shedding light on how listeners adapt to speakers with accents, how they use the subtlest details of the signal in ways previously unknown, and how producing speech while trying to learn new words or sounds in a non-native language can disrupt learning.

“Using behavioral experimental techniques that allow us to understand what people actually perceive, we are able to show that the sounds (vowels and consonants) people hear can be determined by the words in which they appear. That is, people use their knowledge of words to perceive vowels and consonants,” explains Dr. Samuel.

In addition, he has also demonstrated how listeners readjust their categories of speech sounds to account for any accent they are hearing, providing details on the mechanisms that enable these adjustments and how long it takes to make them.

Another notable piece of research in his career, with important implications for second-language teaching, has shown that when trying to learn new words (or non-native sounds), pronouncing them aloud hinders learning unless the production is delayed long enough to allow perceptual learning to take place.

Following his retirement, his BCBL group will be led by Dr. Efthymia Kapnoula, ensuring continuity in the research lines and commitment to scientific excellence that have made the team stand out over the years.

Publications and acknowledgements

Throughout his career, Arthur Samuel has published more than 130 scientific articles in prestigious journals, received major scientific awards, and held prominent positions in academia.

In addition to being appointed distinguished professor by the State University of New York, he served as editor-in-chief of the leading journal Journal of Memory and Language and chaired the Perception and Cognition Review Committee of the prestigious U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

Furthermore, his expert insight has been instrumental in the global scientific community thanks to his ongoing participation as a member of the editorial boards of the discipline’s leading journals, including Cognition; Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance; Memory and Cognition; Perception & Psychophysics; Psychological Science; and Journal of Memory and Language itself.

His outstanding academic and professional career began at Cornell University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1975. Shortly thereafter, he moved to the University of California, San Diego, where he earned both his master’s degree in 1976 and his Ph.D. in psychology in 1979. After completing his studies, he began his research career with a postdoctoral fellowship at Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill) from 1979 to 1981. That same year, he made the transition to teaching at Yale University, where he served as an assistant professor until 1987 and, subsequently, as an associate professor until 1991.

His next move took him to Stony Brook University (SUNY), where he initially joined as an associate professor and, just two years later, in 1993, was promoted to full professor of psychology. At this same institution, he was appointed distinguished professor in 2017.

About BCBL

The Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language is an international interdisciplinary research center based in San Sebastián dedicated to the study of cognition, the brain and language. It is supported by the Basque Government with the aim of promoting science and research in the Basque Country. Its partners include Ikerbasque, Innobasque, the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU).

For further information and interviews:

Ainhoa Arana

arana@guk.eus

659 096 968