ComputationalPsycholinguistics

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

What goes on inside your mind as you listen to a sentence? How is using language different from other types of thinking? Does an LLM process language in the same way as a person? Every day, you produce and comprehend thousands of words, mostly without conscious effort. What are the mechanisms that underlie this amazing human ability? In this class, we’ll explore what’s going on inside our minds during daily language use. Our primary toolkit for doing so will be computational modeling. Over the course of the semester, we’ll build a variety of models—including symbolic algorithms, statistical models, and neural networks—that can explain linguistic behaviors. Topics covered will include phonological perception, reading, language acquisition, and the differences between people and LLMs. Students will implement models in code and are expected to have a basic background in programming and statistics.