biology

William Marslen-Wilson

William Marslen-Wilson is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand William Marslen-Wilson rather than just read about it. In short: Professor William D. Marslen-Wilson FBA, FAE (born 1945) is a neuroscientist.

Key takeaways

William Marslen-Wilson belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect William Marslen-Wilson to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of William Marslen-Wilson from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Professor William D. Marslen-Wilson FBA, FAE (born 1945) is a neuroscientist. Marslen-Wilson obtained his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973. He subsequently worked as an assistant professor at the University of Chicago. In 1977, he took up a post in Nijmegen, the Netherlands at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. This was followed by stints at the Department of Experimental Psychology Cambridge; as Director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics; as a senior scientist at the Medical Research Council's Applied Psychology Unit, and as Professor of Psychology at Birkbeck College, London. He returned to the Applied Psychology Unit as director from 1997 to 2010, during which time it changed name, to become the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. From 2014-2016, he sat on the editorial board of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. As of June 2017, he is Honorary Professor of Language and Cognition at the University of Cambridge.

References

External links Official website William Marslen-Wilson on the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with William Marslen-Wilson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what William Marslen-Wilson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to William Marslen-Wilson before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about William Marslen-Wilson ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of William Marslen-Wilson

In research: William Marslen-Wilson appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses William Marslen-Wilson in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: William Marslen-Wilson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1945 births, British neuroscientists, British scientist stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for William Marslen-Wilson outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study William Marslen-Wilson in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what William Marslen-Wilson means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain William Marslen-Wilson out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is William Marslen-Wilson in simple terms?

Professor William D. Marslen-Wilson FBA, FAE (born 1945) is a neuroscientist.

Why does William Marslen-Wilson matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study William Marslen-Wilson?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on William Marslen-Wilson.