The Mental Lexicon Group Canada
The Mental Lexicon Group Canada[edit]
The Mental Lexicon Group addresses the profound complexity of the mental lexicon and attempts to bridge communicative gaps between professionals through integrating professionals across multiple disciplines into a collaborative network, and in turn facilitate purposeful dialogue across different fields of research. The team maintains a conference every two years and a journal in which the mental lexicon is continuously investigated.
History[edit]
The Mental Lexicon group is made up of a team of experts from around the world and is led by Canadian co-investigators. The Canadian team is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC SSHRC) and was founded in 1995 by director Dr. Gonia Jarema (Université de Montréal). Currently the group is led by Dr. Gary Libben (Brock University) with Co-investigators Dr. Jarema, Dr. Lori Buchanan (University of Windsor), Dr. Eva Kehayia (McGill University, Dr. Juhani Järvikivi (University of Alberta), Dr. Victor Kuperman (McMaster University), and Dr. Sid Segalowitz (Brock University) . Previous co-investigators include Dr. Bruce Derwing (University of Alberta) and Dr. Roberto De Almeida (Concordia University).
The Mental Lexicon group was initially funded two rounds of the Major Collaborative Research Initiative (MCRI) from SSHRC. It is currently funded through the SSHRC Partnership initiative and that project is known as Words in the World [1]. Words in the World is a SSHRC Partnered Training Initiative that brings together academic researchers, industry partners, and community organizations who support the training and development of language research experts.
Research areas[edit]
Accessibility & Communication:[edit]
This area applies linguistic knowledge to communication practices within communities. Research conducted on the communities knowledge of aphasia and other language disorders is being conducted by Dr. Lori Buchanan and her students at the University of Windsor.[1] The Aphasia Friendly Canada Business Campaign aims to inform businesses in the community on what aphasia is and how to communicate with people who have aphasia.
Brain & Language:[edit]
This area examines how language is instantiated in the brain.
Child Language Acquisition:[edit]
This area investigates how children learn languages and developmental language disorders.
Experimental Psycholinguistics:[edit]
This area (Psycholinguistics) is the study of language processing and the representation of words in the mind. Dr. Gary Libben’s research includes developing new psycholinguistic methodologies for studying language processing across age and language groups.[2]
Language Disorders:[edit]
This area explores problem in language use from childhood developmental language disorders Language disorder to disorders that arise from injury or disease. Dr. Eva Kehayia’s research focuses on the language breakdown in acquired/degenerative language disorders and the impact of language disorders on everyday life.[3]
Reading & Literacy:[edit]
This area examines individual reading ability and literacy initiatives. Dr. Victor Kuperman’s Reading Lab focuses on acquisition of literacy and reading comprehension in young adults.[4]
Second Language Learning & Bilingualism:[edit]
This area investigates how people learn a second language and how having a second language influences language processing. Dr. Gonia Jarema studies the morphological processing from a cross-linguistic perspective in multilingual populations.
Speech:[edit]
This area focuses on the production and comprehension of language.
Research methods[edit]
Behavioural Experiments[edit]
A common behavioural experiment used is the reaction time experiment which presents participants with stimuli and then asked them to do a timed task with the stimuli. For example, Dr. Lori Buchanan’s lab often conducts lexical decision tasks where participants are asked to distinguish between real or non-words.[5]
Eye-tracking[edit]
Eye-tracking can be used to measure how long the eye fixates on a word, saccades, pupil dilation, and movement trajectory of the eye. This can be employed to study aspects of both written and spoken language comprehension. For example, Dr. Juhani Järvikivi has utilized eye-tracking to investigate how people comprehend pronouns.[6]
Electroencephalogram/Event-Related Potentials (ERP), Magnetoencephalography (MEG)[edit]
ERPs are used to record electrical potentials that fire to linguistic stimuli whereas MEGs record changes in the magnetic field in response to language. Dr. Sid Segalowitz's research involves ERP experiments that detect early automatic responses in face detection, language processing, and performance monitoring [2].
Corpus-based studies[edit]
Corpus linguistics involves studying language using records of communication. For example, written text or transcriptions of spoken language can be used to study aspects of linguistic structure.
International Conference on the Mental Lexicon[edit]
The International Conference on the Mental Lexicon brings together psycholinguistic, neurolinguistic, and computational research on the representation and processing of words in the mind/brain. The conference encourages a variety of perspectives on lexical representation and processing. The history of the conference dates can be found below.
| Conference | Dates | Location | Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11th International Conference on the Mental Lexicon | September 25–28, 2018 | Edmonton, Alberta, Canada | https://mentallexicon2018.ca/ |
| 10th International Conference on the Mental Lexicon | October 19–21, 2016 | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | http://www.mental-lexicon-2016.com/ |
| 9th International Conference on the Mental Lexicon | September 30 – October 2, 2014 | Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada | |
| 8th International Conference on the Mental Lexicon | October 24–26, 2012 | Montreal, Quebec, Canada | http://mental-lexicon.mcgill.ca/ |
| 7th International Conference on the Mental Lexicon | June 30 – July 3, 2010 | Windsor, Ontario, Canada | |
| 6th International Conference on the Mental Lexicon | October 7–10, 2008 | Banff, Alberta, Canada | http://archive.artsrn.ualberta.ca/mental-lexicon6/www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/mental-lexicon6/index.html |
| 5th International Conference on the Mental Lexicon | October 11–13, 2006 | Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| 4th International Conference on the Mental Lexicon | June 30 – July 3, 2004 | Windsor, Ontario, Canada | |
| 3rd International Conference on the Mental Lexicon | October 6–8, 2002 | Banff, Alberta, Canada | |
| 2nd International Conference on the Mental Lexicon | October 18–20, 2000 | Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| 1st International Conference on the Mental Lexicon | September 3–5, 1998 | Edmonton, Alberta, Canada |
The Mental Lexicon Journal[edit]
The Mental Lexicon Journal has been active since its first published volume in 2006 and has since published 12 volumes to date. It features multidisciplinary works that relate to processing and representation of language. Presently, the Journal’s editors are Dr. Gonia Jarema (Université de Montréal) and Dr. Gary Libben (Brock University), with Dr. Harry Whitaker (Northern Michigan University) acting as advisory editor.
Researchers from various disciplines contribute to the journal, including disciplines such as history, philosophy, psychology and sociology. To that end, professionals of multiple fields can collaborate and integrate developments and expand on our understanding of the mental lexicon and the processes of language. The Mental Lexicon Journal is appealing to researchers, clinicians, theoreticians and historians alike in that it encompasses the works of these fields and encourages multidisciplinary dialogue for all investigators.
Related subjects include but are not limited to: Bilingualism, Computational and corpus linguistics, Neurolinguistics, Psycholinguistics, Semantics
More specifically, the journal publishes research regarding the following: Representation models of the lexicon, Computational models of lexical processes, Experimental investigations of lexical processing, Neurolinguistic investigations of lexical impairment, Functional neuroimaging and lexical representation in the brain, Lexical development across the lifespan, Second language acquisition, The bilingual mental lexicon, Lexical and morphological structure across languages, Formal models of lexical structure, Corpus research of the lexicon, Novel experimental paradigms and statistical techniques for mental lexicon research
References[edit]
- ↑ "'They're completely cut off.' Windsor prof spreads word on aphasia, a language disorder". Windsor Star. 2017-11-18. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
- ↑ "Gary Libben". Brock University. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
- ↑ "Eva Kehayia". School of Physical & Occupational Therapy. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
- ↑ test1. "Home". kupermanreadlab.humanities.mcmaster.ca. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
- ↑ Danguecan, Ashley N.; Buchanan, Lori (2016). "Semantic Neighborhood Effects for Abstract versus Concrete Words". Frontiers in Psychology. 7. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01034. ISSN 1664-1078.
- ↑ Järvikivi, Juhani; Gompel, Roger P. G. van; Hyönä, Jukka (2017-06-01). "The Interplay of Implicit Causality, Structural Heuristics, and Anaphor Type in Ambiguous Pronoun Resolution". Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. 46 (3): 525–550. doi:10.1007/s10936-016-9451-1. ISSN 0090-6905.
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