Language & Cognition
Interdisciplinary Graduate Group
Description
Our group provides a structure for bringing together, and facilitating collaboration among, students and faculty with a common interest in addressing theoretical and practical questions that arise at the interface between language and other cognitive systems, and whose answers require a deeper understanding of the neurocognitive basis of linguistic communication. Members of the group approach the study of language and cognition from a number of different disciplinary perspectives and methodologies (computational, linguistic, neurobiological, and psychological). They come from academic programs and colleges throughout the university, including, for example, Child Development (CEHD), Educational Psychology (CEHD), Linguistics (CLA), Neuroscience (Medical School), Psychology (CLA), Computer Science (IT), Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences (CLA), English (CLA) , Pharmaceutical Care and Health Systems (Pharmacy), and Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology (Pharmacy).
Advances in theoretical linguistics have made important contributions to our understanding of what we know when we know a language. However, the precise manner in which linguistic knowledge interacts with other aspects of cognition when it is put to use in communication is still not well understood. The focus of our group will be on achieving a better understanding of the nature of this interaction and its role in explaining how linguistic communication works as well as how is disrupted, for example in individuals with pathologies such as Autism and Alzheimer’s disease.
Leadership
The primary contact for the group is Jeanette Gundel (Professor, Linguistics). Additional members of the leadership team include Apostolos Georgopoulos (Professor, Neuroscience, Neurology, and Psychiatry), and Serguei Pakhomov (Assistant Professor, Pharmaceutical Care and Health Systems).
