Optional courses: research methods_EEG research in language processing*

elective courses

Classroom

The main aim of this course is to introduce students to electrophysiology (EEG) methods which are used in Cognitive Neuroscience to study the relation between the brain and behavior. This course will specifically focus on understanding the underlying processes involved in language comprehension and production.

Cognitive Neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field, which aims to investigate neural underpinnings of brain-behavior relationships. EEG is one of the methods to achieve this goal. During the course, students will be introduced to the practical application of EEG methods in language research. Furthermore, experimental EEG paradigms typically used in language research will be discussed. The strengths and weaknesses of this research will be presented to enable students to make informed methodological decisions while planning their own experiments.

This course gives you an overview of the concepts, processes, and theories in the field of Neuropsycholinguistics.

Steven J. Luck. Applied Event-Related Potential Data Analysis (2022, LibreTexts).

Steven J. Luck. An Introduction to the Event-Related Potential Technique, 2nd Edition (2014, MIT Press).

Steven J. Luck & Emily S. Kappenman (Editors). The Oxford Handbook of Event-Related Potential Components (2012, Oxford University Press).

By the end of the course students should be able to:

• understand the mechanisms and applications of EEG used in Cognitive Neuroscience

• be able to critically evaluate methodology of cognitive neuroscience research

• formulate and justify their opinions on several enduring debates in psycholinguistics

• interpret and synthesis of experimental findings

• work well in a group assuming different roles at different stages of a joint project (class activity)

The success of the seminar depends strongly on your active participation. During the EEG acquisition part, you will practice applying the EEG cap on your fellow students and reducing impedance. During the EEG analyses and interpretation part, we will aim for intellectual discussions about the readings and the issues that they raise (e.g., how to make decisions about the preprocessing of EEG data & what can and cannot be concluded based on EEG results).

The course is divided into three parts: EEG acquisition, analysis, and interpretation.

For the EEG acquisition and analyses chapters from Luck, S.J., 2005. An Introduction to the Event-Related Potential Technique. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (i.e., also referred to as the EEG bible) will be part of the literature.

For the EEG interpretation part scientific articles that employed EEG in language studies will be part of the literature.

Graded components:

10% - class participation and presence

30% - EEG acquisition assignment

60% - EEG analyses and interpretation assignment

Grading system:

5 91-100%

4.5 81-90%

4 71-80%

3.5 61-70%

3 51-60%

2 41%-50%

1 40% and less