CFP: Special Interest Group on Spoken Communication @ Brazil

Date: 29-Feb-2012 - 02-Mar-2012 
Location: Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil 
Contact Person: Tommaso Raso
Call Deadline: 15-Jul-2011 

Meeting Description: GSCP (The Special Interest Group on Spoken Communication - Gruppo di Studio sulla Comunicazione Parlata) has been one of the main European forums for the discussion of the interdisciplinary area related to the study of spoken communication in all its aspects ever since its inception in Naples (Italy) in 2003. The GSCP conference is a rich opportunity for the advancement of scholarship not only in linguistic studies related to spoken language but also to interfacing disciplines, including new technologies. 

GSCP 2012 has as its main theme the relationship between speech and corpora studies and welcomes submissions about spoken corpora, their methodologies, data collection, objectives, validation techniques, besides linguistic analyses based on speech corpora. 

JOB: Assistant Prof. (Cog. Neurosci) @ Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

The Department of Psychology invites applications for two tenure-track Assistant Professors with research interests in cognitive neuroscience.  The appointment begins August 16, 2011.

Candidates must have demonstrated the ability to conduct research in neuroscience that augments and complements our existing technical expertise in brain stimulation, event related potentials, and magnetic resonance imaging using our 3T Siemens Trio (see www.mccauslandcenter.sc.edu for more information), and behavioral expertise in an area of cognitive neuroscience, including but not limited to language, attention, and perception.  A Ph.D. or MD in a relevant discipline is required, as successful applicants are expected to lead their own research program and teach.  Applicants must demonstrate potential to acquire external grant funding. Teaching and postdoctoral experience is strongly preferred.  Salary is commensurate with experience.

JOB: Postdoc in Perception & Comprehension of Spoken Language @ Cambridge, UK

Applications are invited for a post-doctoral position to work within a research programme led by Dr Matthew Davis investigating neural systems for the perception and comprehension of spoken language. The research will use behavioural and functional imaging methods (fMRI, MEG/EEG) to explore spoken language processing in healthy, adult participants. You should hold a PhD in cognitive neuroscience or related field, including experience of one or more neuroimaging methods. A strong computational or statistical background is desirable and/or experience of speech signal processing and psycholinguistics. 

JOB: Postdoc in Neuromodulation and Brain Plasticity @ Virgina Tech, Roanoke, VA

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP IN NEUROMODULATION AND BRAIN PLASTICITY USING EEG/TMS/MRI

A postdoctoral associate position is immediately available in the laboratory of Dr. William J. Tyler in the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute (VTCRI). Projects in the lab focus on developing novel brain stimulation approaches, as well as studying neuronal plasticity in a variety of model systems. A significant portion of our present research efforts involve translational investigations aimed at employing brain stimulation approaches to regulate brain plasticity. The successful candidate will have ample opportunity to cultivate his/her own intellectual interests within our lab, as well as through numerous ongoing collaborations while having access to state-of-the-art tools at the VTCRI. The candidate will be charged with employing our recently acquired 64-CH TMS- and MR-compatible EEG system to examine/quantify functional brain activity: i) in response to somatosensory evoked potentials; ii) during cognitive tasks; and iii) during TMS-based stimulation of the prefrontal cortex for the treatment of addiction. Several aspects of these studies will involve collaborations within the VTCRI where we will be conducting simultaneous MRI-EEG and TMS-MRI-EEG.

Around the web #7

Religious belief and right wing politics - or, inability to ignore distractor correlates with religiosity.

One of the most important case studies in neurology - the fascinating case of Phineas Gage... the guy with a meter long iron tamping rod driven through his skull. Here is a write up at BBC. 


Poor Phineas, but what about that guy that got a miniature fencing foil stuck in the base of his brain.


The neural correlates of 80's hip hop - RUN DMC - the "Radboud University Nijmegen Diffusion tensor and Magnetic resonance imaging Cohort study


Here is more evidence suggesting that listening to foreign accented speech biases perceived "thruthiness."

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JOB: Researcher in Language Processing @ MPI, Netherlands

University or Organization: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics 
Job Location: Nijmegen, Netherlands 
Web Address: http://www.mpi.nl 
Job Rank: Researcher 

Specialty Areas: Individual Differences in Language Processing 
Description:The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) is inviting applications for a (Senior) Researcher position in the Department Individual Differences in Language Processing (A. Meyer). 

The MPI in Nijmegen is a leading research institute, with a stimulating environment and excellent facilities and resources. It is the only institute devoted to the question of how we acquire, produce and understand language, and its investigations are highly multidisciplinary, uniting anthropology, linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, computer science, and now genetics. For further details of our research, please see our website: http://www.mpi.nl/research/. 

Summer School on Neuro and Psycholinguistic Approaches to Language Processing @ Braga, Portugal

ull Title: Uminho Summer School of Linguistics 2011: NEURO AND PSE 
Short Title: UMSL2011 

Date: 18-Jul-2011 - 22-Jul-2011 
Location: Braga, Portugal 
Contact Person: Cristina Flores 
Web Site: http://ceh.ilch.uminho.pt/ 
Call Deadline: 01-May-2011 
Meeting Description:The University of Minho will host a one week Summer School on Neuro and Psycholinguistic Approaches to Language Processing. The Summer School aims at graduate students and beginning postdocs working on any aspect of the cognitive and neural processes involved in the acquisition and processing of language. Its goal is to bring together top specialists in the field of neurolinguistics while providing an opportunity for junior researchers to present and discuss their work. To this end, there will be two Poster Sessions in addition to the lectures. The Summer School is organized by the Centro de Estudos Humanísticos (CEHUM), University of Minho, Portugal, and the Portuguese Association of Linguistics (APL). 

Speakers: 

Michael T. Ullman (Georgetown University, USA) 
Michel Paradis (McGill University, Canada) 
Manuel Carreiras (BCBL- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, 
Spain) Sergey Avrutin (Utrecht University, Netherlands) 
João Veríssimo (University of Lisbon, Portugal) 

Around the web #6

"If Zipf’s hypothesis was true, the more we used a word (like ‘supercalifragalisticexpialidocious’), the shorter it would become, as frequency of use would determine its eventual length. But with the hypothesis that information content determines length, This means that the more information a word conveys, the longer its allowed to be." Interested? 

This is the coolest splash-page/header of any academic blog I read. Welcome to John Hawk's weblog on paleoanthropology, genetics, and evolution. Most recently, he critically discusses, the recent article in PNAS which proposes a "southern African origin" to our species.


Do "thought experiments" count as science? Some feathers have been ruffled over here at Child'sPlay


I say [ts]unami you say [s]unami... let's call the whole thing off. Recent post at Languagelog.


Neuroanthropology provides links to the most recent peer-reviewed literature on "anthropological research on cognitive functions, cultural neuroscience, encouraging cross-disciplinary collaboration, neuroarchaeology, sport and neuroanthropology, and more." Check it out.

"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer." -- Frank Zappa. Learn how to order a beer in 50 different languages.

JOB: Postdoc in Psycholinguistics @ Univ. Minho, Portugal

University or Organization: Universidade do Minho 
Department: Centro de Estudos Humanísticos 
Job Location: Braga, Portugal 
Web Address: http://ceh.ilch.uminho.pt/ 
Job Rank: Post Doc 

Specialty Areas: Psycholinguistics; Semantics; Syntax 
Description:The Centro de Estudos Humanísticos da Universidade do Minho (CEHUM) wishes to admit, for a period of three years, a researcher with a PhD in the field of Psycholinguistics, with a solid background in theoretical linguistics (Syntax/Semantics) and with relevant research in one of the following domains: first or second language acquisition, child language impairment, language pathologies or related areas. 

The candidate will join an existing Research Unit at CEHUM. CEHUM is an interdisciplinary research unit that broadly covers the fields of Literature, Linguistics, Philosophy and Culture. The Linguistics group develops and promotes research in different areas of Linguistics. The researcher to be admitted is expected to enhance investigation and particular projects mainly in the domain of language acquisition, in collaboration with the existing groups. There are no teaching obligations. The researcher will have the opportunity to apply for funding in order to develop new projects, but will also collaborate with ongoing projects. Even though previous work on Portuguese is not required, the candidate should be willing to carry out and supervise research on Portuguese. 

To apply, please send CV, research project (2 pages maximum), at least one recommendation letter and a motivation letter. 

Application Deadline: 20-May-2011 
Mailing Address for Applications:
Professor Pilar Barbosa 
Centro de Estudos Humanísticos 
Universidade do Minho 
Campus de Gualtar 
Braga 4710-057 
Portugal 
Email Address for Applications: cehuminho.pt 
Contact Information:
Professor Pilar Barbosa 
Email: cehilch.uminho.pt 
Phone: +351 253604184 
Fax: +351253604164

JOB: Professor of Linguistics (Visiting) @ Univ. of Michigan

The Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, invites applications for a two-year position, beginning September 1, 2011. We seek outstanding applicants who have a Ph.D. in Linguistics with a specialization in any of the foundational areas, especially phonology. Candidates with expertise in experimentation, computation, and/or endangered languages are strongly encouraged to apply. The position, partially endowed by the journal Language Learning, involves half-time teaching responsibilities (2 courses per year) and half-time research.

A letter of application, a curriculum vitae, research and teaching statements, one or more representative publications or other writings, and evidence of teaching excellence should be sent to the address below. Please also arrange for three letters of recommendation to be sent. Review of dossiers will begin on March 28, 2011, and will continue until the position is filled. Email queries can be sent to Prof. Sarah Thomason, Chair, Linguistics.

Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and is supportive of the needs of dual-career couples.

Application deadline: March 28, 2011.

Mailing address for applications: electronic — lmscott@umich.edu;
snailmail — LL Search, Department of Linguistics, 440 Lorch Hall, 611
Tappan St., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220.

Contact information: Sarah Thomason: thomason@umich.edu; 734-764-0353
(phone), 734-936-3406 (fax).

JOB: Postdoc Research Fellow @ Univ. of Dundee, Scotland, UK

Summary of Job Purpose and Principal Duties
The School of Psychology is seeking to appoint a postdoctoral research fellow to work on an ESRC-funded research project entitled Language-induced event representation: Competition and multiple object instantiation. The project is led by Dr Yuki Kamide (University of Dundee) and Professor Gerry Altmann (University of York). The post is based in Dundee.

The aim of the research is to use eye movements and other experimental techniques to explore the consequences for cognitive representation, and the costs to the cognitive system, of having to maintain, as part of the representation of an event, distinct representation of the same object in different states.

The successful applicant will manage and use existing eye-tracking facilities, as well as reaction time-based methodologies. S/he will also be actively involved in dissemination of research outcome.

CFP: Testing models of phonetics and phonology @ Linguistic Institute, 2011

Testing Models of Phonetics and Phonology

Workshop at the Linguistic Institute 2011: Language in the World

University of Colorado at Boulder

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

http://groups.linguistics.northwestern.edu/lsa2011-workshop/

This single day workshop aims to build connections between computational, experimental, and grammar-based research on phonetics and phonology. Studies using each of these general methodologies often have similar goals and produce mutually informing results, but they are usually presented in distinct journals and conferences, creating a barrier to their integration. The workshop brings together researchers in the areas of speech production, speech perception, and modeling of language acquisition.

Spoken sessions

The balance between the gradient and the discrete in language production

Gary Dell (U Illinois Urbana Champaign)

Implicit learning of artificial phonotactic patterns in the production system:

Connections to the perceptual system and to real phonotactic knowledge

Matt Goldrick (Northwestern)

Gradient symbol processing in speech production

Listener adaptation to variation

Jennifer Cole (U Illinois Urbana Champaign)

Modeling listener variability in prosody perception using transcription and

imitation as indirect measures of linguistic processing

Meghan Sumner (Stanford)

Variation-driven speech perception

Acquisition biases and typological patterns

Andrew Wedel (U Arizona)

Extending computational models into the laboratory:

Usage biases and the development of contrastive phoneme inventories

Joe Pater (U Massachusetts Amherst)

Formally biased phonology: Complexity in learning and typology

JOB: Postdoc in Cognitive Neuroscience of Speech @ Univ. of Iowa

Postdoctoral Position in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Speech - U of Iowa

The Dept. of Neurosurgery and the Dept. of Psychology at the University of Iowa have an opening for one post-doctoral trainee beginning after June 1, 2011 working on the cognitive neuroscience of speech perception. The appointment will be for up to three years. We encourage applicants with doctoral degrees in neuroscience, psychology, and cognitive science, as well as linguistics and computer science and related fields. The applicant will be jointly mentored by Dr. Bob McMurray of the Dept. of Psychology and Dr. Hiroyuki Oya of the Dept. of Neurosurgery and will spearhead a collaborative research project using intracranial recording on awake, behaving humans to test theoretical models of the sensory processes involved in speech perception. The trainee will also have opportunities to pursue research on speech perception using ERP, fMRI and/or eye-tracking. 

Society for the Neurobiology of Language, Membership info

Just in at TalkingBrains: "Growing out of the success of the Neurobiology of Language Conference (NLC) we founded the Society for the Neurobiology of Language (SNL) in 2010. The goal of the Society is to foster progress in understanding the neurobiological basis for language via the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas, and organizing the annual meeting is a major part of this effort. 

We are happy to announce that we have now established the mechanism for becoming a member of the Society and we would like to invite you to join. The benefits of membership include free access to post to the Society newsletter (coming soon), reduced annual meeting (NLC) registration fees, the ability to sponsor an abstract to NLC, Society nomination and voting rights, the ability to apply for travel awards (watch for future announcements), and of course the prestige of being an official SNL member."


Currently there is no membership fee (only due if you present at the next NLC conference)... here is the link to more info.

JOB: Researcher @ Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior, Nijmegen, Netherlands

University or Organization: Radboud University Nijmegen 
Department: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavio 
Job Location: Nijmegen, Netherlands 
Web Address: http://www.ru.nl/donders 


Research staff position at Radboud University Nijmegen, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, & Centre for Language Studies. 

The Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour (in particular, its Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging) and the Centre for Language Studies (Faculty of Arts) are seeking to fill a research staff position. The position has an initial term for 3 years, with the possibility of extension on the basis of successful grant applications. The staff researcher is specialized in cognitive neuroimaging research that is explicitly related to language. Candidates with a language-related specialism in multilingualism are especially encouraged to apply. 

Job description: The candidate's daily working environment is the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, where he/she will carry out an independent research project. A special aim of the position is that the candidate will promote and facilitate collaborative research projects broached by language researchers in the Centre for Language Studies, by liaising between them and fellow researchers at the DCCN.