In a usual conversation, interlocutors commonly start planning their next utterance already while the current speaker is still speaking, so language comprehension and production tasks overlap in time during the end of the incoming turn-at-talk. This X-Student Research Group investigates whether and in what ways language comprehension is impaired by parallel speech planning in dialogue. The results will inform a comprehensive language processing model that applies to conversational situations and human interaction in the wild. Students will conduct two experiments, each targeting a specific level of language processing. They will get in touch with all practical steps involved in the empirical research cycle, from designing over implementing and testing to analysing, interpreting, and reporting experiments. Being guided and supervised in their progress, participating students will predominantly work independently and organize their tasks in small collaborative groups of 3 to 7 students. This X-Student Research Group targets students in the MA programs of the 'Berlin School of Mind and Brain', Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin 'Psychology' and 'Linguistics', Freie Universität Berlin 'Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience', Freie Universität Berlin 'Linguistics', Technische Universität Berlin 'Language and Communication', or Charité students with a focus on the Psychology of Language, or related. Excellent advanced BA students who intend to write their thesis in experimental psycholinguistics may also participate. Students from different backgrounds (e.g. computational linguistics, cognitive (neuro-)science, clinical linguistics, psychology of language) are welcome to contribute their strengths to the group tasks and improve in their weaknesses in order to tone up their interdisciplinary collaboration skills.

Further information: www.angl.hu-berlin.de/department/staff-faculty/academic/barthel/x-student-research-group-language-comprehension-in-dialogue

Recommended Lecture: Barthel, M. (2020). Speech Planning in Dialogue. Kap. 1 und 4

Contact:
Email: mathias.barthel@hu-berlin.de