The continuing training program in language processing seeks to train scientists who can advance our understanding of the cognitive basis of human communication. For predoctoral trainees, the program offers a coherent set of formal courses, advanced-topics research seminars, and research training in experimental and developmental psycholinguistics, linguistics, and computational modeling. For postdoctoral trainees, the program offers opportunities for broadening knowledge and skills, especially in preparation for careers in linguistics or cognitive neuroscience. For students at all levels, the program offers broad and balanced training as scaffolding for the development of outstanding researchers. The research of the program faculty spans language acquisition, language production, language comprehension, and linguistics. This breadth fosters abilities in conceptual analysis and theoretical development across the full range of core components of human language use. The methodological expertise of the program faculty encompasses eye- movement monitoring, computational modeling, event-related-potential recording, optical and functional-magnetic imaging, articulatory tracking, corpus analysis, speech analysis, and the basic techniques of cognitive and developmental research. This range gives trainees the opportunity to attain high levels of skill in designing, implementing, and interpreting experiments using state-of-the-art methods for probing the workings of language. Funds are requested to support four predoctoral and two postdoctoral trainees per year. The predoctoral training program demands four years beyond the bachelor's degree. It fulfills the basic requirements for the doctoral degree within the cognitive or developmental divisions of the Department of Psychology, using division options to create doctoral-program plans with a major emphasis on the experimental study of language processing and acquisition and minor emphases on linguistics, cognitive neuroscience, and speech processing. The postdoctoral program offers training in language processing and acquisition as a supplement for doctoral training in linguistics or cognitive neuroscience. The proposed training will take place within a strong institutional matrix formed by the Cognitive and Developmental Divisions of the Department of Psychology and the Cognitive Science Group at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Both settings offer exceptional physical and intellectual resources fueled by a rich tradition of graduate training in psycholinguistics.

Public Health Relevance

The program develops expertise in basic research on human communication. This research addresses the emergence of communicative abilities in infants and children, problems of human communication, methods for enhancing human communication, and disorders of human communication.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)
Project #
2T32HD055272-11A2
Application #
7629425
Study Section
Pediatrics Subcommittee (CHHD)
Program Officer
Mccardle, Peggy D
Project Start
1997-07-01
Project End
2014-06-30
Budget Start
2009-07-01
Budget End
2010-06-30
Support Year
11
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$181,011
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
041544081
City
Champaign
State
IL
Country
United States
Zip Code
61820
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Payne, Brennan R; Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A L (2016) Risk for Mild Cognitive Impairment Is Associated With Semantic Integration Deficits in Sentence Processing and Memory. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 71:243-53
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Fraundorf, Scott H; Benjamin, Aaron S (2014) Knowing the crowd within: Metacognitive limits on combining multiple judgments. J Mem Lang 71:17-38

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