Welcome to Language & Cognition at UConn
The Language & Cognition group is part of the Perception, Action and Cognition program. Research in our program examines a number of major themes, including neurobiological mechanisms in speech perception, reading, sentence processing, semantic memory and concept formation, event cognition, individual differences, and dynamical systems approaches to language and cognition, in typical and atypical populations. We have a strong track-record of interdisciplinary research spanning from theory and computational modeling to empirical cognitive and neuroscience approaches.
Our group is a core member of three interdisciplinary graduate training programs: the Neurobiology of Language program (launched with NSF IGERT funding), Science of Learning and Art of Communication (funding by an NSF NRT training grant), and Cognitive Neuroscience of Communication (funded by an NIH pre- and postdoctoral training grant). We were just awarded (in Fall 2021) a US Dept of Ed GAANN (Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need) training grant.
Our faculty and program are actively committed to supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion in our local and global communities. We welcome all people to apply, and we particularly seek applicants who have been underserved by current societal norms including members of the BIPOC community, LGBTQIA+ community, people with disabilities, first-generation college students, and individuals from low-income backgrounds. Members of our community established the MAGIC program, which connects underrepresented and first generation students from around the world with mentors who support them in applying to and/or thriving in graduate programs in Psychology.
We have strong collaborative links to researchers outside of UConn as well as our colleagues in Linguistics, Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, the Developmental and Behavioral Neuroscience divisions in the Department of Psychology, Philosophy, Biomedical Engineering, Educational Psychology, UConn Health, the School of Medicine, the Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action (CESPA), the Institute for Brain and Cognitive Sciences (IBACS) and the Cognitive Science program at the University of Connecticut. In addition, Haskins Laboratories, an internationally renowned interdisciplinary research facility located nearby in New Haven, provides a stimulating environment for research and training.
Facilities include state-of-the-art MRI, high-density EEG, and TMS at UConn’s Brain Imaging Research Center (BIRC), tDCS, EEG and eye-tracking at the Cognitive Sciences Shared Electrophysiology Resource Laboratory (CSSERL), as well as several other eye-trackers and other behavioral techniques available in individual PI’s labs, as well as access to computing clusters, lab space, and a dynamic program of colloquia, internal talk series and interest groups.
