ViCom Annual Meeting 2023

In diesem Sensibilisierungs-Workshop werden erste Grundlagen einer visuellen-manuellen Kommunikation aufgebaut, erste wichtige Gebärden in DGS vermittelt und einige wichtige Umgangsformen mit einer (tauben) Minderheit mitgegeben. Dabei wird den Teilnehmenden ein geschützter Raum angeboten, um Fragen zu stellen und offen diskutieren zu können. Der Workshop wird mit Dolmetschenden für die Sprachen DGS und Deutsch/Englisch begleitet, so dass auch erste Erfahrungen mit Dolmetschenden parallel gesammelt werden können.

In this awareness workshop, first basics of visual-manual communication are established. In addition, first important DGS signs are taught and some important manners of interacting with a (deaf) minority are explained. Participants of this workshop will be offered a protected space to ask and discuss questions openly. The workshop will be accompanied by interpreters for the languages DGS and German/English, so that first experiences with interpreters can be gained in parallel.

An inherent challenge posed for research employing natural images or other non-highly abstract visual stimulus material is that any experimental manipulation between stimulus sets is confounded with unintended differences (this also applies to research using existing material, such as corpus studies, of course). A prime example of this oftentimes unavoidable issue is that one stimulus set might be more salient or contains more salient regions than the other, so that any observed difference between the sets is prone to an alternative explanation in terms of salience. 

To handle this problem, it is crucial to understand what salience actually is and what cognitive processes it can affect. Only with this background knowledge can we attempt to account for differences in salience, re-design stimuli or other aspects of the experimental setup to attenuate salience effects, or write convincing rebuttal letters.

Thus, the goals of this one-day workshop are (a) to convey the basic definition and theoretical background on salience, (b) relate these to modern theories of visual attention, and (c) discuss several variables that are known to modulate salience effects as discovered by empirical work in experimental psychology. In a hands-on session, we will apply this knowledge to specific stimuli that are (planned to be) employed by individual projects from the DFG Priority Programme ViCom.

The contents of the workshop are not set in stone. A mixture of theory and practical sessions is possible. However, if, for example, more theory is desired than practice, that is also feasible.