Dr. Michael Thomas BSc(Hons) MSc D.Phil(Oxon)
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Position: Reader in Cognitive Neuropsychology Postgraduate Tutor Office: Rooms 510 & 511, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX Phone: +44 20 7631 6386 Fax: +44 20 7631 6312 Email: m.thomas @bbk.ac.uk |
Research
My primary interests are in cognitive and language development, both in terms of developmental processes in children and in the final cognitive structures they produce in the adult. Visit the homepage for my lab, the Developmental Neurocognition lab.
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The Developmental Neurocognition lab is part of Birkbeck's Centre for Brain Function and Development, which was awarded one of the Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education in February 2006. (Details). |
My current research focuses on cognitive variability and developmental disorders. I am interested in the window that variability offers on processes of typical development, as well as wider issues on the relation of genotype to phenotype (that is, the way in which genes relate to behaviour). A general introduction to the field of developmental disorders in the context of brain plasticity can be found here. As a specific case study, my recent work has investigated language development in individuals with Williams syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. Other research projects include visual processing and memory in Williams syndrome, autism, and Downs syndrome.
My research combines empirical methods and computational modelling, the latter currently focusing on artificial neural network models of development. Computational models allow greater precision in clarifying the mechanisms that may drive developmental change in cognitive systems (see below for review chapters on this work). Developmental computational models also provide a concrete framework within which to explore the neuroconstructivist position (e.g., Karmiloff-Smith, 1998; Elman et al., 1996; see Mareschal et al., 2007, for a recent exposition). In relation to developmental disorders, this position proposes that behavioural deficits shown by individuals with developmental disorders should be viewed as the outcome of atypical developmental trajectories caused by initial differences in low-level neurocomputational constraints. Neuroconstructivism contrasts with an earlier approach of taking developmental deficits to be the direct analogue of brain damage in adults, where an impairment of a single ability is assumed to be explained by damage to an isolated component. I have pursued the neuroconstructivist line of argument both empirically (see below), and also in recent work on the computational modelling of developmental disorders, in the specific case of past tense formation in Williams syndrome, in the general case of the relation of developmental and acquired disorders, and in exploring the problem of developmental deficits that may have multiple underlying causes (see below).
I am also interested in the ways in which fully developed systems break down and recover from damage, including the status of double dissociations in deficits. See here for modelling work exploring stochastic double dissociations in a connectionist model of semantic memory under varying assumptions of modular structure. Other theoretical work includes includes the computational factors that drive typical and atypical emergence of modularity across development, current computational approaches to individual differences and intelligence (see below), and computational approaches to explaining deficits in autism (see below).
As well as work in developmental and acquired disorders, I have other interests in the psychology of language, including bilingual language processing (see below) and metaphor processing (see below). Lastly, I have also published on the theoretical and philosophical status of connectionist models (see below) and computational models of consciousness (see below).
I am a board member of the Open Psychology Journal. Open Access Journals are freely accessible via the Internet for immediate worldwide, open access to the full text of articles serving the best interests of the scientific community. All interested readers can read, download, and/or print open access articles at no cost. There is no subscription fee for Open Access journals. The modest open access publication costs are usually covered by the author's institution or research funds. Authors who publish in our Open Access journals retain the copyright of their article. Open Access journals are no different from traditional subscription-based journals; they undergo the same peer-review and quality control as any other scholarly journal. Please take a look at the journal and consider submitting your work to it.
Grant support
My research has been supported by grants from the Medical Research Council, the British Academy, and the European Commission.
Current and recent post-docs
Dr. Fiona Richardson: Cognitive variability
Dr. Harry Purser: Metaphor and analogy in typical and atypical development
Neil Forrester: Cognitive variability
Dr. Martin Redington: Computational models of typical and atypical syntax acquisition.
Current PhD students
Georgina Portelli: Grammatical and conceptual categories of gender in Maltese and English
Frank Baughman: Empirical and computational investigations of the relationship between intelligence and development: mental-age matching studies of cognitive variability in the normal range
Jo Wiltshire: The developmental of relational knowledge
Roberto Filippi: The brain basis of bilingual language acquisition
Themis Karaminis: The computational modelling of atypical language development
Victoria Knowland: Audiovisual integration and developmental reading deficits
Alan Richomme: Connectionist approaches to categorisation
Teaching
Lecture notes for MSc Epistemology and Philosophy of Science lecture on the Nature/Nurture debate can be found here.
Lecture notes for MSc Cognitive Neuropsychology course "Disorders of language" can be found here.
Lecture notes for MSc Cognitive Neuropsychology lecture on "Computational modelling of developmental disorders" can be found here.
Lecture notes for developmental disorders lecture on BSc Brain and Cognitive Development Option can be found here.
Lecture notes for language acquisition lectures on BSc "Language: A Psychological Perspective" course (P3.7) can be found here.
Overheads for UCL MRCPsych lecture on "Cognitive and Language Development" can be found here. Handouts are here.
Publications
Submitted publications and publications under revision (please do not cite without permission)
Thomas, M. S. C., Ronald, A., & Forrester, N. A. (submitted). Modelling the mechanisms underlying population variability across development: Simulating genetic and environmental effects on cognition. Manuscript submitted for publication. Click here for PDF version (5.6mb)
Thomas, M. S. C., van Duuren, M., Purser, H., Mareschal, D., Ansari, D., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (submitted).The development of metaphorical language comprehension in typical development and in Williams syndrome. Manuscript submitted for publication. Click here for PDF version (799K)
Thomas, M. S. C., Purser, H. R. M., & Mareschal, D. (submitted). The mystery of thought: demystified by context-dependent categorisation? Manuscript submitted for publication. Click here for PDF version (211K)
Thomas, M. S. C., Richardson, F. M., Forrester, N. A., & Baughman, F. D. (submitted). Modelling individual variability in cognitive development. Manuscript submitted for publication. Click here for PDF version (337K)
Purser, H. R. M., Thomas, M. S. C., Snoxall, S., Mareschal, D., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (submitted). Definitions versus categorisation: Assessing the development of lexico-semantic knowledge in Williams syndrome. Manuscript submitted for publication. Click here for PDF version (188K)
Thomas, M. S. C. (submitted). Language acquisition in developmental disorders. To appear in: M. Kail & M. Hickmann (Eds.), Language acquisition across linguistic and cognitive systems. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Click here for PDF version (202K)
Empirical and theoretical work on cognitive variability
Thomas, M. S. C. & Knowland, V. (2009). Sensitive periods in brain development: Implications for education policy. European Psychiatric Review. Click here for PDF of uncorrected proof (99K)
Richardson, F. M., Thomas, M. S. C., Filippi, R., Harth, H. & Price, C. J. (2009). Contrasting effects of vocabulary knowledge on temporal and parietal brain structure across lifespan. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. Click here for PDF version of uncorrected proof (710K)
Richardson, F. M., Thomas, M. S. C., & Price, C. J. (2009). Neuronal activation forsemantically reversible sentences. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. Click here for PDF of final draft (986K)
Annaz, D., Remington, A., Milne, E., Coleman, M., Campbell, R., Thomas, M. S. C., & Swettenham, J. (in press). Atypical development of motion processing trajectories in children with autism. Developmental Science. Click here for PDF version (609K)
Thomas, M. S. C., Purser, H. R. M., & Richardson, F. M. (in press). Modularity and developmental disorders. In: P. D. Zelazo (Ed), Oxford Handbook of Developmental Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Click here for PDF version (307K)
Westermann, G., Thomas, M. S. C., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (in press). Neuroconstructivism. In: U. Goswami (Ed.), Blackwell Handbook of Child Development (2nd Edition). Oxford: Blackwells. Click here for PDF version (269K)
Richardson, F. M., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2009). Language development in genetic disorders. In: E. Bavin (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Child Language, (pp. 459-471). Cambridge University Press. Click here for PDF of proof version (96K)
Annaz, D., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Johnson, M. H., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2009). A cross-syndrome study of the development of holistic face recognition in children with autism, Down syndrome and Williams syndrome. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 102, 456-486. Click here for PDF version (340K).
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Thomas, M. S. C., Annaz, D., Ansari, D., Serif, G., Jarrold, C., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2009). Using developmental trajectories to understand developmental disorders. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 52, 336-358. Click here for PDF version (837K). A worksheet outlining how trajectory analyses can be carried out with SPSS accompanies this paperand can be found here: Trajectory Analysis Worksheet. |
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Spencer, J., Thomas, M. S. C., & McClelland, J. L. (2009). Toward a new unified theory of development: Connectionism and dynamical systems theory re-considered. Oxford: Oxford University Press. |
Thomas, M. S. C. (2008). L'acquisition du langage dans les pathologies du diveloppement [Language development in developmental disorders]. In M. Kail, M. Fayol, & M. Hickmann, L'apprentissage des langues, (pp. 451-475). Paris: CNRS Editions. Click here for English version (107K), click here for French version (445K)
Sirois, S., Spratling, M., Thomas, M. S. C., Westermann, G., Mareschal, D., & Johnson, M. H. (2008). Precis of Neuroconstructivism: How the Brain Constructs Cognition.Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31, 321-356. Target article, commentaries, and response.Click here for PDF version (850K)
Thomas, M. S. C., Westermann, G., Mareschal, D., Johnson, M. H., Sirois, S., & Spratling, M. (2008). Studying development in the 21st Century. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31, 345-356.Click here for PDF version (850K)
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Mareschal, D., Johnson, M., Sirios, S., Spratling, M., Thomas, M. S. C., & Westermann, G. (2007).Neuroconstructivism: How the brain constructs cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Excerpts (chapter proofs):Neuroconstructivism and developmental disorders.Neuroconstructivism, reading, and developmental dyslexia. |
Thomas, M. S. C. (2006). Williams syndrome: Fractionations all the way down? Cortex, 42, 1053-1057. Click here for PDF version (69k)
Westermann, G., Mareschal, D., Johnson, M. H., Sirois, S., Spratling, M. W., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2007). Neuroconstructivism. Developmental Science, 10:1, 75-83. Click here for PDF version (189k)
Thomas, M. S. C., Dockrell, J. E., Messer, D., Parmigiani, C., Ansari, D., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2006). Speeded naming, frequency and the development of the lexicon in Williams syndrome. Language and Cognitive Processes, 21(6), 721-759. Click here for PDF version of uncorrected proofs (477K)
Thomas, M. S. C. (2005). Plotting the causes of developmental disorders. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(10), 465-466. Click here for PDF version (17K)
Thomas, M. S. C., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2005). Can developmental disorders reveal the component parts of the human language faculty? Language Learning and Development, 1(1), 65-92. Click here for PDF version (111k)
Thomas, M. S. C. (2005). Constraints on language development: Insights from developmental disorders. In: P. Fletcher & J. Miller (Eds.) Language Disorders and Developmental Theory. John Benjamins. Click here for PDF version of uncorrected proofs (no references) (166k), Click here for version with full book references (444k)
Karmiloff-Smith, A., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2005). Les troubles du developpement viennent-ils confirmer les arguments de la psychologie evolutionniste? Une approche neuro-constructiviste. Revue Francaise de Pedagogie, 152, 11-19. Click here for (fuzzy) PDF version (4700k).
Two book reviews of "Understanding Williams syndrome: Behavioural Patterns and Interventions", by Eleanor Semel and Sue Rosner. ISBN0-8058-2618-1, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003. 456 pages.
For Cortex journal: Thomas, M. S. C. (2006). Williams syndrome: Fractionations all the way down? Cortex, 42, 1053-1057. Click here for PDF version (69k).
For The Williams Syndrome Foundation UK magazine (Issue No. 51, Summer 2004): "From scientific research to intervention in Williams syndrome." Published article (4.5mb), Final draft (108k).
Laing, E., Grant, J., Thomas, M. S .C. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2005). Love is . . . an abstract word: The influence of phonological and semantic factors on verbal short-term memory in Williams syndrome. Cortex, 41(2), 169-179. Click here for PDF version (117k)
Karmiloff-Smith, A., Thomas, M. S. C., Annaz, D., Humphreys, K., Ewing, S., Grice, S., Brace, N., Van Duuren, M., Pike, G., & Campbell, R. (2004). Exploring the Williams syndrome face processing debate: The importance of building developmental trajectories. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines. 45(7),1258-1274. Click here for PDF version (187k)
Karmiloff-Smith, A., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2004). Can developmental disorders be used to bolster claims from Evolutionary Psychology?: A neuroconstructivist approach. In J. Langer, S. Taylor Parker & C. Milbrath (Eds.), Biology and Knowledge Revisited: From Neurogenesis to Psychogenesis (pp. 307-321). Click here for PDF (154k)
Karmiloff-Smith, A., Ansari, D., Campbell, L., Scerif, G., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2006). Theoretical implications of studying genetic disorders: The case of Williams syndrome. In C. Morris, H. Lenhoff,& P. Wang (Eds.), Williams-Beuren Syndrome: Research and Clinical Perspectives (pp. 254-273). Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Click here for Word97 version (102k)
Karmiloff-Smith, A., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2003). What can developmental disorders tell us about the neurocomputational constraints that shape development? The case of Williams syndrome. Development and Psychopathology. 15, 969-990. Click here for Word97 version (292k)
Thomas, M. S. C. (2003). Limits on plasticity. Journal of Cognition and Development, 4(1), 95-121. Click here for PDF of uncorrected proof (111k)
Ansari, D., Donlan, C., Thomas, M. S. C., Ewing, S., Peen, T., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2003). How children with Williams syndrome understand why counting counts. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 85, 50-62. Abstract
Thomas, M. S. C. (2002). Development as a cause in developmental disorders. Computational Intelligence, 18(1), 50-54.
Karmiloff-Smith, A., Scerif, G., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2002). Different approaches to relating genotype to phenotype in developmental disorders. Developmental Psychobiology, 40, 311-322. Click here for Word97 version (221k)
Thomas, M. S. C., Grant, J., Barham, Z., Gsödl, M., Laing, E., Lakusta, L., Tyler, L. K., Grice, S., Paterson, S. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2001). Past tense formation in Williams syndrome. Language and Cognitive Processes, 16 (2/3), 143-176. Abstract [Reprinted in: D. Bishop (2001) Language and cognitive processes in developmental disorders. Sussex, UK: Psychology Press.]
Computational modelling and development
Thomas, M. S. C., McClelland, J. L., Richardson, F. M., Schapiro, A. C., & Baughman, F. (2009). Dynamical and connectionist approaches to development: Toward a future of mutually beneficial co-evolution. In J. Spencer, M. S. C. Thomas, & J. L. McClelland (Eds). Toward a new unified theory of development: Connectionism and dynamical systems theory re-considered. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Click here for PDF version (178K).
Thomas, M.S.C. (2009). Competition as a mechanism for producing sensitive periods in connectionist models of development. In J. Mayor, N. Ruh & K. Plunkett (Eds.), Progress in Neural Processing 18: Proceedings of the Eleventh Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop. Singapore: World Scientific. Click here for PDF version (180K).
Thomas, M. S. C. & Johnson, M. H. (2008). New advances in understanding sensitive periods in brain development.Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17(1), 1-5 .Click here for PDF version (125K)
Richardson, F. & Thomas, M. S. C. (2008). Critical periods and catastrophic interference in self-organising feature maps.Developmental Science, 11(3), 371-389. Click here for PDF version (490K)
Thomas, M. S. C., & McClelland, J. L. (2008). Connectionist models of cognition. In R. Sun (Ed.), Cambridge handbook of computational cognitive modelling (pp. 23-58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Click here for PDF version (282K)
Thomas, M. S. C. (2008). Ageing, plasticity, and cognitive reserve in connectionist networks. In B. C. Love, K. McRae, & V. M. Sloutsky (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2089-2094). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. Click here for PDF version (460K)
Baughman, F. D. & Thomas, M. S. C. (2008). Specific impairments in cognitive development: A dynamical systems approach. In B. C. Love, K. McRae, & V. M. Sloutsky (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conferenceof the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1819-1824). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. Click here for PDF version (1208K)
Mareschal, D. & Thomas M. S. C. (2007) Computational modeling in developmental psychology. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation (Special Issue on Autonomous Mental Development),11(2), 137-150. Click here for PDF version (622k)
Mareschal, D & Thomas, MSC (2006). How computational models help explain the origins of reasoning. IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine. IEEE. Click here for PDF version (404k)
Thomas, M. S. C. & Johnson, M. H. (2006). The computational modelling of sensitive periods. Developmental Psychobiology, 48(4), 337-344. Click here for uncorrected author proofs (690k)
Richardson, F., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2006). The benefits of computational modelling for the study of developmental disorders: Extending the Triesch et al. model to ADHD. Developmental Science, 9(2),151-155. Click here for PDF version (132K)
Thomas, M. S. C., & Richardson, F. (2006). Atypical representational change: Conditions for the emergence of atypical modularity. In Y. Munakata & M. H. Johnson (Eds.), Processes of change in brain and cognitive development: Attention and Performance XXI (pp. 315-347). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Click here for B&W PDF version (270k) and here for colour PDF version (260k)
Thomas, M. S. C., Forrester, N. A., & Richardson, F. M. (2006). What is modularity good for? In Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, July 26-29, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Click here for PDF version (123k)
Richardson, F. M., Baughman, F. D., Forrester, N. A., & Thomas, M.S.C. (2006). Computational modeling of variability in the Balance Scale Task. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference of Cognitive Modeling. Click here for PDF version (220k)
Richardson, F. M., Forrester, N. A., Baughman, F. D., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2006). Computational Modeling of Variability in the Conservation Task. In Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, July 26-29, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Click here for PDF version (185k)
Thomas, M. S. C. (2005). Characterising compensation. Cortex, 41(3), 434-442. Click here for PDF version (193K) [Reprinted In D. V. M. Bishop, M. A. Eckert, & C. M. Leonard (Eds.), The Neurobiology of Developmental disorders. Milan, Italy: Masson.]
Abreu, A. M., French, R. M., Annaz, D., Thomas, M. S. C., & de Schonen, S. (2005). A visual conflict hypothesis for global-local visual deficits in Williams syndrome: Simulations and data. Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Stresa, Italy, 21 July 2005. Click here for PDF version (265k)
Thomas, M. S. C. (2004). How do simple connectionist networks achieve a shift from "featural" to "correlational" processing in categorisation? Infancy, 5(2), 199-207. This article is accepted for publication in Infancy Journal and is copyrighted by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. The following PDF is for personal use and readers must contact LEA for permission to reprint or use the material in any form. Click here for PDF version (89k) - Supporting material for the Infancy article (simple models and analysis)
Thomas, M. S. C. & Redington, M. (2004). Modelling atypical syntax processing. In W. Sakas (Ed.), Proceedings of the First Workshop on Psycho-computational models of human language acquisition at the 20th International Conference on Computational Linguistics (pp. 85-92). Click here for PDF version (90k)
Thomas, M. S. C. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2003). Modelling language acquisition in atypical phenotypes. Psychological Review, 110(4), 647-682. Click here for Word97 version of the final draft (909k) Click here for PDF of uncorrected proofs (3040k) Here for final pdf (11mb)
Thomas, M. S. C. (2003). Multiple causality in developmental disorders: Methodological implications from computational modelling. Developmental Science, 6 (5), 537-556. Click here for PDF of uncorrected proofs (648k)
Karmiloff-Smith, A. & Thomas, M. S. C. (2003). Developmental disorders. In M. A. Arbib (Ed.) The Handbook of brain theory and neural networks, 2nd Edition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Click here PDF of current draft (70 k)
Thomas, M. S. C. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2003). Connectionist models of development, developmental disorders and individual differences. In R. J. Sternberg, J. Lautrey, & T. Lubart (Eds.), Models of Intelligence: International Perspectives, (pp.133-150). American Psychological Association.Click here for Word 97document (final draft) (114k)
Thomas, M. S. C. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2002). Are developmental disorders like cases of adult brain damage? Implications from connectionist modelling. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25(6), 727-788. Click here for PDF of uncorrected proofs (285k)
Thomas, M. S. C., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2002). Residual Normality: Friend or Foe? Behavioural and Brain Sciences. See above for download
Thomas, M. S. C. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2002). Modelling typical and atypical cognitive development. In U. Goswami (Ed.), Handbook of Childhood Development (pp. 575-599). Blackwells Publishers. Click here for Word97 document (final draft) (184 k)
Mareschal, D. & Thomas, M. S. C. (2001). Self-organisation in normal and abnormal cognitive development. In A. F. Kalverboer, & A. Gramsbergen (Eds.). Handbook of Brain and Behaviour in Human Development (pp.743-766). Kluwer Academic Press.Click here for Word97 document (final draft) (293k)
Computational modelling and acquired deficits
Thomas, M.S.C. and N. M. de Wet (1998). Stochastic double dissociations in distributed models of semantic memory. In D. Heinke and G. Humphreys (Eds.). Proceedings of the 5th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop. Springer. Click here for Word97 version (1,425 k)
Connectionist Modelling
Thomas, M. S. C., & McClelland, J. L. (2008). Connectionist models of cognition. In R. Sun (Ed.),Cambridge handbook of computational cognitive modelling (pp. 23-58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Click here for PDF version (282K)
Thomas, M. S. C. (2004). The state of connectionism in 2004. Parallaxis, 8, 43-61. Click here for html version
Thomas, M.S.C. and Stone, A. (1998). Cognitive connectionist models are just models, and connectionism is a progressive research programme. Commentary on Green on Connectionist Explanation. Psycoloquy, 36. HTML
Bilingual language processing
Thomas, M. S. C. & Van Heuven, W. (2005). Computational models of bilingual comprehension. In J. F. Kroll & A. M. B. De Groot (Eds.) Handbook of Bilingualism: Psycholinguistic Approaches. Oxford University Press. Click here for Word97 document of final draft
Thomas, M. S. C. (2002). Theories that develop. Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, 5(3), 216-217. Click here for pdf (174k)
Thomas, M. S. C. & A. Allport (2000). Language switching costs in bilingual visual word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 43, 44-66. Abstract
Thomas, M.S.C. (1998). Bilingualism and the Single route / Dual Route debate. Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1061-1066). Erlbaum. Word 97 document (98 k)
Thomas, M. S. C. (1997). Connectionist networks and knowledge representation: The case of bilingual lexical processing. Unpublished D.Phil. thesis, Oxford University. Click here for Word97 version (1742 k), Click here for PDF file of Contents pages and Abstract (74 k), Click here for PDF file of Appendices (30.2mb).
Thomas, M.S.C. (1997). Distributed representations and the bilingual lexicon: One store or two? In J. Bullinaria, D. Glasspool, and G. Houghton (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th Annual Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop. Springer. Click here for Word97 version (454 k)
Thomas, M.S.C., and Plunkett, K. (1995). Representing the bilingual's two lexicons. In Proceedings of the 17th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 760-765). Erlbaum. Click here for PDF (35 k)
Metaphor
Purser, H. R. M., Thomas, M. S. C., Snoxall, S., & Mareschal, D. (2009). The development of similarity: testing the prediction of a computational model of metaphor comprehension. Language and Cognitive Processes. Click here for PDF version of uncorrected proof (489K)
Annaz, D., Van Herwegen, J., Thomas, M. S. C., Fishman, R., Karmiloff-Smith, A., & Runbland, G. (2008). The comprehension of metaphor and metonymy in children with Williams syndrome. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, iFirst Article, 1-17. Click here for PDF version (410K)
Thomas, M. S. C. & Mareschal, D. (2001). Metaphor as categorisation: A connectionist implementation. Metaphor and Symbol, 16 (1/2), 5-27. Click here for Word97 version (final draft) (325 k)
Thomas, M. S. C., Mareschal, D., & Hinds, A. (2001). A connectionist account of the emergence of the literal-metaphorical-anomalous distinction in young children. Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Erlbaum. PDF (90 k)
Thomas, M. S. C. & Mareschal, D. (1999). Metaphor as categorisation: A connectionist implementation. Proceedings of the AISBÌ99 Symposium on Metaphor, Artificial Intelligence, and Cognition. The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour. Pp. 1-10.
Thomas, M.S.C., & Mareschal, D. (1997). Connectionism and psychological notions of similarity. Proceedings of the 19th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Erlbaum. PDF (76 k)
Thomas, M.S.C., & Mareschal, D. (1996). A connectionist model of Metaphor by Pattern Completion. In Proceedings of the 18th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 696-701). Erlbaum.
Computational models of consciousness
Atkinson, A.P., Thomas, M.S.C., & Cleeremans, A. (2000). Consciousness: Mapping the theoretical landscape. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4(10), 372-382. PDF (308k)
Atkinson, A.P., & Thomas, M.S.C. (1999). What makes us conscious? Journal of Intelligent Systems, 9, 307-354. Abstract
Thomas, M.S.C., & Atkinson, A.P. (1999). Quantities of qualia. Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 22, 169-170
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