ttention and Language Performance Lab

oal

The goal of the research in this lab is to understand how attention determines language performance (i.e., speaking, reading, listening). Attention and language are among the most intensively researched abilities in the cognitive neurosciences, but the relation between these abilities has largely been neglected. However, understanding this relation is of great theoretical and practical importance. To the extent that attention determines language performance, psycholinguistic models that only address language processes are incomplete. Moreover, evidence suggests that attention deficits contribute to the impaired language performance of individuals with specific language impairment (SLI), dyslexia, and aphasia. A better understanding of the relation between attention and language may therefore help improve interventions.

pproach

In examining the relation between attention and language, the lab has adopted a multi-methodological approach that combines measurements of response time and accuracy, eye tracking, electrophysiological recordings, hemodynamic neuroimaging, genetic imaging, and computational modeling to make progress both theoretically and empirically. Behavioral performance is assessed in terms of mean response times and accuracy as well as characteristics of the shape of response time distributions, including measures related to variability and skewness. The research is driven by, and aims to further develop, the WEAVER++ computational model of attention and language performance.

embers

Principal investigator

Ardi Roelofs

PhD students

Vitória Magalhães Piai

Zeshu Shao

MA students

Henriette Raudszus (KNAW Assistantship)

BA students

Evelien Mulder (Orthopedagogics)

Research assistant

Anna Dieckmann

Collaborators

Dan Acheson (Max Planck Institute)

Mathilde Bonnefond

Dorothee Chwilla

Ton Dijkstra

Daan Hermans (Royal Dutch Kentalis)

Ole Jensen

Kristin Lemhöfer

Antje Meyer

Herbert Schriefers

Alumni

Dirk Janssen (PhD)

Marjolein Korvorst (PhD)

Rebecca Özdemir (PhD)

Lonneke Bücken (BA)

Esther Aarts (PhD)

Kim Verhoef (PhD)

Elise Haverkamp (BA)

Joyce Williams (BA)

Ceciele Luijnenburg (BA)

Sanne de Baaij (BA)

Joep van der Graaf (MA, U. Utrecht)

Gabriela Garrido Rodriguez (MA)

Martijn Lamers (PhD)

Sharon van der Pol (BA)

Marcel Braun (BA)

Svetlana Lito Gerakakis (MA)