F10M 17 X 6 = 112: Analysis of a Trump Conversation (Hybrid/In-Person)
In-Person | Available (Membership Required)
[NEW CLASS] When people talk, they’re rarely pursuing just one goal. Conversations operate on multiple levels simultaneously—negotiating shared meaning, building alliances, persuading, flattering, and sometimes embarrassing one another. These dynamics become even more complex in group settings where participants must track each other’s intentions while managing their own. This course takes a close look at a remarkable 80-second segment from The Howard Stern Show in which Stern aggressively poses a math pop-quiz question, “What’s 17 times 6?,” setting off a seemingly chaotic exchange among show participants, including Donald Trump, as they attempt to solve the problem and shape the narrative around it. Distinguished cognitive scientist Michael Spivey, Professor of Cognitive Science at UC Merced, analyzed this clip using a multidisciplinary approach, uncovering a rich web of linguistic patterns, social dominance effects, misperceptions, and subtle gestures that reveal how group cognition actually works. Professor Spivey will join us for part of the class. Audio/Visual, Discussion, Lecture
- *This registration item is HYBRID/IN-PERSON, which means that you can attend either in-person or via Zoom. DO NOT also register for the Zoom section of this course.*
Michael Tanenhaus
Michael K. Tanenhaus is a professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester. An expert on speech and language comprehension, he received the 2018 Rumelhart Prize in Cognitive Science.