After doing a research master’s, I became a PhD student and graduate teaching assistant in Psychology. I’m investigating how conceptual processing (i.e., understanding the meaning of words) is supported by linguistic and sensorimotor brain systems. I use methods such as behavioural and electroencephalographic experiments, corpus analysis, statistics and programming. My CV is available.
The linguistic and sensorimotor bases of semantic processing: Variation across individuals, words and tasks
Conceptual processing has been found to draw on two cognitive systems. One is a linguistic system, which is based on knowledge of words and the relations among them. The other is a sensorimotor system, which draws on our perceptual, motor and affective experience. These two systems contribute to conceptual processing in a sequential manner: the linguistic system is activated first, providing more superficial semantic information, with the sensorimotor system slower to reach peak activation, but providing more refined meaning. We know that the relative importance of each system is modulated by contextual factors (e.g., linguistic context, processing goals, cognitive resources). However, we know much less about how people’s individual cognitive capacities and experience (reading experience, reasoning ability) interact with these systems, which has become a central theme in my work.
Much evidence has been found in cognitive psychology for the role of linguistic systems (based on statistical regularities in how words co-occur in language) and sensorimotor systems (based on perceptual, motor, affective experience). The linguistic system is consistently linked to faster, more superficial processing, while the sensorimotor system is linked to slower, more cognitively demanding tasks (Connell & Lynott, 2013; Louwerse et al., 2015). Recent evidence suggests that individual differences, such as measures of reading experience (e.g., Pexman & Yap, 2018) and of sensorimotor experience (Beilock, et al., 2008; Vukovic & Williams, 2015), provide additional explanatory power for accounts of embodied cognition. For example, linguistic individual differences in vocabulary predict word recognition and information processing speed (Yap et al., 2012). Likewise, sensorimotor individual differences in spatial perspective-taking are also implicated in semantic processing, as participants who tend to naturally adopt an internal perspective in space are more likely to engage in perceptual simulation when reading, by identifying themselves as the protagonist (Vukovic & Williams, 2015).
My PhD scholarship is teaching-based, which means that I contribute to my department’s curriculum for 180 hours a year. Each year, I have led 30 seminars and marked 80 essays in developmental, cognitive and social psychology, while also helping in 30 statistics labs. This activity is detailed below.
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Course and remit
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2021–22
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Introduction to developmental psychology (115) — Seminars and essay marking
Introduction to neuroscience (112) — Seminars
Introduction to cognitive psychology (111) — Seminars and essay marking
Social psychology in the digital age (113) — Seminars
Statistics for psychologists I (121) using R — Labs
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2020–21
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Introduction to developmental psychology (115) — Seminars and essay marking
Introduction to neuroscience (112) — Seminars
Introduction to cognitive psychology (111) — Seminars and essay marking
Social psychology in the digital age (113) — Seminars
Statistics for psychologists I and II (121 and 122) using R — Labs
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2019–20
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Understanding psychology (101) — Seminars and essay marking
Cognitive psychology (201) — Seminars and essay marking
Master's statistics (401) using R — Labs
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2018–19
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Understanding psychology (101) — Seminars and essay marking
Investigating psychology: Analysis (102) using SPSS — Labs
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In addition, I was a representative for graduate teaching assistants in my department for a year.
I am also a Certified Carpentries Instructor and I have led several workshops on data analysis using R. Earlier in my career, I taught English to secondary-education students, and Spanish to adults.
Research Master Language and Communication - Tilburg University and Radboud University (Netherlands), 2017
BA English Philology - Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain), 2013
Further courses
Advanced R programming - Coursera / Johns Hopkins University, 2017
Improving your statistical inferences - Coursera / Eindhoven University of Technology, 2017
Big data in society - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 2016
Introduction to cognitive neuroscience - Radboud University, 2016
Linear mixed-effects models in R - Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 2016
Statistics: analyzing in R - Radboud University, 2016
Transcranial brain stimulation - Radboud University, 2015
Neurobiology of language - Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics, 2015