Max Planck Institutes and Experts

What are the connections between the history of optics and the history of painting? A research project at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome (Max Planck Institute for Art History) explores this question, with an orientation based on the classification system of classical optics, which as a theory of vision and of light in late Antiquity was divided into three principal areas: direct vision based on the rectilinear diffusion of light, reflection on reflective surfaces, and the refraction of light rays on the interface between media of different densities.

Globalization processes have been ongoing for millennia and involve knowledge in significant ways. Globalization is not a linear progression, but a dynamic process that involves interplay between intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and is heavily influenced by local and regional contexts. The study of the spread of knowledge crosses disciplinary boundaries and requires a new theoretical language to describe it.

Regarding technology as providing opportunities for the future of aging may initially seem a strange notion. Opinions that older adults do not want to have anything to do with technology and that technological change places unreasonable demands on them and does not make their life easier, continue to be widespread. The opportunities that modern information technology can open up for the future of aging have only recently attracted research interest.

The Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea differentiate and label in their language Kilivila genres and varieties or registers which are constituted by these genres. The documentation and analysis of these varieties and genres reveals how important it is to understand these metalinguistic differentiations. The cultural and verbal competence which is necessary to adequately interact with the Trobriander Islanders is based on the understanding of the indigenous text typology and the Trobriand Islanders' culture specific ways of speaking.

According to many theories prediction of upcoming events is a fundamental principle of human cognition. New results of the MPI for Psycholinguistics and the University of Allahabad (India) however suggest that literacy (the ability to read and write) is an important prerequisite for the anticipation of words during language processing. Literates (but not illiterates) were found to use syntactic and associative information accessed during the processing spoken sentences to predict which object a speaker would refer to next.