LINGUIST List 13.1033

Mon Apr 15 2002

Jobs: Psycholing: PostDoc, Cornell Univ NY USA

Editor for this issue: Heather Taylor-Loring <heatherlinguistlist.org>

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  • Morten Christiansen, Psycholinguistics: Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University, NY USA

    Message 1: Psycholinguistics: Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University, NY USA

     Date: 15 Apr 2002 14:36:25 -0000
    From: Morten Christiansen <mhc27cornell.edu>
    Subject: Psycholinguistics: Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University, NY USA


    Rank of Job: Postdoctoral Fellow Areas Required: Psycholinguistics Other Desired Areas: University or Organization: Cornell University Department: Psychology State or Province: NY Country: USA Final Date of Application: a.s.a.p. Contact: Morten Christiansen mhc27cornell.edu

    Address for Applications: 240 Uris Hall Ithaca NY 14853 US

    POSTDOCTORAL POSITION IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE

    A postdoctoral research opportunity at Cornell University (US) is available immediately to investigate the role of multiple-cue integration in language acquisition across different languages. The project is funded by the Human Frontiers Science Program and involves four closely interacting research teams in the US (Morten Christiansen, Cornell University), the UK (Nick Chater, University of Warwick), France (Peter Dominey, Institut des Sciences Cognitives, Lyon) and Japan (Mieko Ogura, Tsurumi University).

    MULTIPLE-CUE INTEGRATION IN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: MECHANISMS AND NEURAL CORRELATES

    How do children acquire the subtle and complex structure of their native language with such remarkable speed and reliability, and with little direct instruction? Recent computational and acoustic analyses of language addressed to children indicate that there are rich cues to linguistic structure available in the child's input. Moreover, evidence from developmental psycholinguistics shows that infants are sensitive to many sound-based (phonological) and intonational (prosodic) cues in the input - cues that may facilitate language acquisition. Although this research indicates that linguistic input is rich with possible cues to linguistic structure, there is an important caveat: the cues are only partially reliable and none considered alone provide an infallible bootstrap into language. To acquire language successfully, it seems that the child needs to integrate a great diversity of multiple probabilistic cues to linguistic structure in an effective way.

    Our research program aims to provide a rigorous cross-linguistic test of the hypothesis that multiple-cue integration is crucial for the acquisition of syntactic structure. The research has four interrelated strands:

    1) Computational and acoustic analyses of child-directed speech. 2) Psycholinguistic and artificial language learning experiments. 3) Computational modeling using neural networks and statistical learning methods. 4) Event-related potential (ERP) studies.

    For more information about the project please refer to our web site: http://cnl.psych.cornell.edu/mcila.

    The Cornell Cognitive Neuroscience Lab headed by Morten Christiansen is coordinating the research efforts and the work here involves all four research strands. The postdoctoral position is primarily aimed at the ERP work but may also include the other research strands, depending on the interests of the candidate. Candidates should have a PhD in cognitive science, psychology or related discipline. Experience in working with and/or interest in high-density ERP experimentation and computational modeling of language is highly desirable. Salary will be based on experience in relation to the NIH postdoctoral scale. For more information about the Cornell Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, please visit our web site:

    http:/cnl.psych.cornell.edu.

    Candidates should email a vita and a short statement about graduate training and research interests to Morten Christiansen (mhc27cornell.edu).

    The position is initially for two years, but may be extended into a third year. In addition to salary, funds are available for travel to conferences and meetings between research teams. The position does not carry any special citizen requirements.