Sandeep Prasada

My research investigates the basic mechanisms of lexical and conceptual representation and development. The research addresses questions such as the following. How do we effortlessly form concepts of a wide variety of things (e.g. dogs, trees, tables, wood, people, mothers, fathers, good, bad, freedom, justice). Are different kinds of mechanisms needed to form concepts of different types? How are conceptual representations related to perceptual and linguistic representations? Do the mechanisms of conceptual representation change with development? How are concepts represented in the brain? We use a variety of techniques to study these questions including behavioural studies with children and adults as well as ERP and fMRI.