Psycholinguistics Research

What is Psycholinguistics?

While linguistics studies the structure of natural language, psycholinguistics studies how people process natural language. A review of previous research shows that humans have a propensity for language far greater than any other species. Some argue that the complexity of human language reflects the human mind’s vast cognitive ability, and many believe language is special and distinct from other cognitive functions. Current research is beginning to show how language can interact with other cognitive domains as well as emotional processes.

Our research:

Below are summaries of some of the lab’s past projects related to Psycholinguistics. For a list of selected studies relating to Psycholinguistics, visit the Publications page.  Our ongoing Psycholinguistics research is available under the Current Research Projects tab.

Bilingualism and emotional response

This project aimed to map out the connection between bilingualism and different types of emotional response; for example, whether one reacts more strongly to certain stimuli in their native language or their second language, etc.

English as a second language in deaf children

This project investigated how deaf children learn to read and understand English through print, without having heard the sounds or phonics that make up word usage and flow.

Video games and second language acquisition

Why is it so hard for adults to learn a foreign language? Our lab is developing a theory that emphasizes multiple causes. Foreign language learning is difficult because of entrenched, routinized first-language structures, declining brain plasticity, and decreased motivation to practice the second language because immediate rewards are so low. Adult learners may highly desire the end-state of fluency, just as they value other long-term goals like weight gain or smoking cessation; immediate rewards are minimal. We propose a virtual reality learning environment. The virtual world is the place to learn and practice a foreign language, with game characters providing language recasts and diverse skill levels. The immediate rewards of video games make language learning part of making progress in the game.

Speech Perception in noise

We aim to assess a person’s ability to perceive and understand speech through noise, whether in a native language, a made-up language, or a second or third language, and to see how noise affects these perceptions.