Blair Armstrong

Research

Affiliated Researcher

Keywords: computational/connectionist modeling, word comprehension,semantic ambiguity, semantic memory deficits, time-course of processing, response selection/generation, stimulus selection methods.

Personal web page: http://blairarmstrong.net/

Research group: Statistical learning and language

blair.armstrong@utoronto.ca

+1 416 287 7146

Publications

2024

Li, J., & Armstrong, B.C. (2024). Probing the Representational Structure of Regular Polysemy via Sense Analogy Questions: Insights from Contextual Word Vectors. Cognitive Science, 48(3). Doi:10.1111/cogs.13416

2022

López Zunini, R.A., Baart, M., Samuel, A.G., & Armstrong, B.C. (2022). Lexico-semantic access and audiovisual integration in the aging brain: Insights from mixed-effects regression analyses of event-related potentials. Neuropsychologia, 165. Doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108107

McCann, R.S., Armstrong, B.C., Reynolds, M., & Besner, D. (2022). New Analyses of Lexical Influences on the Processing of Pseudo-homophones in the Lexical Decision Task: Still More Challenges for Models of Visual Word Recognition. Proceedings of the 44th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Cognitive Diversity, CogSci 2022, 304-311.

2021

Beekhuizen, B., Armstrong, B.C., & Stevenson, S. (2021). Probing Lexical Ambiguity: Word Vectors Encode Number and Relatedness of Senses. Cognitive Science, 45(5). Doi:10.1111/cogs.12943

2020

López Zunini, R.A., Baart, M., Samuel, A.G., & Armstrong, B.C. (2020). Lexical access versus lexical decision processes for auditory, visual, and audiovisual items: Insights from behavioral and neural measures. Neuropsychologia, 137. Doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107305

Miller, I.D., Dumay, N., Pitt, M., Lam, B., & Armstrong, B.C. (2020). Context variability promotes generalization in reading aloud: Insight from a neural network simulation. Proceedings for the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Developing a Mind: Learning in Humans, Animals, and Machines, CogSci 2020, 363-369.

Denison, S., Mack, M., Xu, Y., & Armstrong, B.C. (2020). Introduction. Proceedings for the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Developing a Mind: Learning in Humans, Animals, and Machines, CogSci 2020.

2019

Frost, R., Armstrong, B.C., & Christiansen, M.H. (2019). Statistical learning research: A critical review and possible new directions. Psychological Bulletin, 145(12), 1128-1153. Doi:10.1037/bul0000210

Siegelman, N., Bogaerts, L., Armstrong, B.C., & Frost, R. (2019). What exactly is learned in visual statistical learning? Insights from Bayesian modeling. Cognition, 192. Doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2019.06.014

Ling, S., Lee, A.C.H., Armstrong, B.C., & Nestor, A. (2019). How are visual words represented? Insights from EEG-based visual word decoding, feature derivation and image reconstruction. Human Brain Mapping, 40(17), 5056-5068. Doi:10.1002/hbm.24757

Rice, C.A., Beekhuizen, B., Dubrovsky, V., Stevenson, S., & Armstrong, B.C. (2019). A comparison of homonym meaning frequency estimates derived from movie and television subtitles, free association, and explicit ratings. Behavior Research Methods, 51(3), 1399-1425. Doi:10.3758/s13428-018-1107-7

Alhama, R.G., Siegelman, N., Frost, R., & Armstrong, B.C. (2019). The Role of Information in Visual Word Recognition: A Perceptually-Constrained Connectionist Account. Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Creativity + Cognition + Computation, CogSci 2019, 83-89.

Mo, D., & Armstrong, B.C. (2019). Statistical Learning of Conjunctive Probabilities. Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Creativity + Cognition + Computation, CogSci 2019, 2372-2377.

2018

Beekhuizen, B., Milić, S., Armstrong, B.C., & Stevenson, S. (2018). What Company Do Semantically Ambiguous Words Keep? Insights from Distributional Word Vectors. Proceedings of the 40th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2018, 1347-1352.

2017

Roux, F., Armstrong, B.C., & Carreiras, M. (2017). Chronset: An automated tool for detecting speech onset. Behavior Research Methods, 49(5), 1864-1881. Doi:10.3758/s13428-016-0830-1

Baart, M., Armstrong, B.C., Martin, C.D., Frost, R., & Carreiras, M. (2017). Cross-modal noise compensation in audiovisual words. Scientific Reports, 7. Doi:10.1038/srep42055

Armstrong, B.C., Frost, R., & Christiansen, M.H. (2017). The long road of statistical learning research: Past, present and future. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 372(1711). Doi:10.1098/rstb.2016.0047

Armstrong, B.C., Dumay, N., Kim, W., & Pitt, M.A. (2017). Generalization from newly learned words reveals structural properties of the human reading system. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(2), 227-249. Doi:10.1037/xge0000257

Medeiros, J., & Armstrong, B.C. (2017). Semantic Ambiguity Effects: A Matter of Time?. CogSci 2017 - Proceedings of the 39th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Computational Foundations of Cognition, 2693-2698.

Armstrong, B.C., Frost, R., & Christiansen, M.H. (2017). The long road of statistical learning research: past, present and future. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 372(1711).

2016

Armstrong, B.C., Zugarramurdi, C., Cabana, Á., Valle Lisboa, J., & Plaut, D.C. (2016). Relative meaning frequencies for 578 homonyms in two Spanish dialects: A cross-linguistic extension of the English eDom norms. Behavior Research Methods, 48(3), 950-962. Doi:10.3758/s13428-015-0639-3

Armstrong, B.C., & Plaut, D.C. (2016). Disparate semantic ambiguity effects from semantic processing dynamics rather than qualitative task differences. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 31(7), 940-966. Doi:10.1080/23273798.2016.1171366

2015

Armstrong, B.C., Ruiz-Blondet, M.V., Khalifian, N., Kurtz, K.J., Jin, Z., & Laszlo, S. (2015). Brainprint: Assessing the uniqueness, collectability, and permanence of a novel method for ERP biometrics. Neurocomputing, 166, 59-67. Doi:10.1016/j.neucom.2015.04.025

Frost, R., Armstrong, B.C., Siegelman, N., & Christiansen, M.H. (2015). Domain generality versus modality specificity: The paradox of statistical learning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(3), 117-125. Doi:10.1016/j.tics.2014.12.010

2014

Lerner, I., Armstrong, B.C., & Frost, R. (2014). What can we learn from learning models about sensitivity to letter-order in visual word recognition?. Journal of Memory and Language, 77(C), 40-58. Doi:10.1016/j.jml.2014.09.002

Laszlo, S., & Armstrong, B.C. (2014). PSPs and ERPs: Applying the dynamics of post-synaptic potentials to individual units in simulation of temporally extended Event-Related Potential reading data. Brain and Language, 132, 22-27. Doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2014.03.002

Ruiz-Blondet, M., Khalifian, N., Armstrong, B.C., Jin, Z., Kurtz, K.J., & Laszlo, S. (2014). Brainprint: Identifying Unique Features of Neural Activity with Machine Learning. Proceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2014, 827-832.

Carreiras, M., Armstrong, B.C., Perea, M., & Frost, R. (2014). The what, when, where, and how of visual word recognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18(2), 90-98. Doi:10.1016/j.tics.2013.11.005

2013

Armstrong, B.C., & Plaut, D.C. (2013). Simulating Overall and Trial-by-Trial Effects in Response Selection with a Biologically-plausible Connectionist Network. Cooperative Minds: Social Interaction and Group Dynamics - Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2013, 139-144.

Laszlo, S., & Armstrong, B.C. (2013). Applying the dynamics of post-synaptic potentials to individual units in simulation of temporally extended ERP reading data. Cooperative Minds: Social Interaction and Group Dynamics - Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2013, 2826-2831.

2012

Armstrong, B.C., Tokowicz, N., & Plaut, D.C. (2012). eDom: Norming software and relative meaning frequencies for 544 English homonyms. Behavior Research Methods, 44(4), 1015-1027. Doi:10.3758/s13428-012-0199-8

Armstrong, B.C., Watson, C.E., & Plaut, D.C. (2012). SOS! An algorithm and software for the stochastic optimization of stimuli. Behavior Research Methods, 44(3), 675-705. Doi:10.3758/s13428-011-0182-9

Armstrong, B.C., Le Boutillier, J.C., & Petit, T.L. (2012). Ultrastructural synaptic changes associated with neurofibromatosis type 1: A quantitative analysis of hippocampal region CA1 in a Nf1<sup>+/-</sup> mouse model. Synapse, 66(3), 246-255. Doi:10.1002/syn.21507

2011

Armstrong, B.C., & Plaut, D.C. (2011). Inducing homonymy effects via stimulus quality and (not) nonword difficulty: Implications for models of semantic ambiguity and word recognition. Expanding the Space of Cognitive Science - Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2011, 2223-2228.

2006

Connor, S., Williams, P.T.J., Armstrong, B., Petit, T.L., Ivanco, T.L., & Weeks, A.C.W. (2006). Long-term potentiation is associated with changes in synaptic ultrastructure in the rat neocortex. Synapse, 59(6), 378-382. Doi:10.1002/syn.20248