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Max Planck Institute
About MPI

 

The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics is an institute of the German Max Planck Society. Our mission is to undertake basic research into the psychological and biological foundations of language. The goal is to understand how our minds and brains process language, how language interacts with other aspects of mind, and how we can learn languages of quite different types.

The institute is situated on the campus of the Radboud University. We participate in the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, and have particularly close ties to that institute's Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging. We also participate in the Centre for Language Studies. A joint graduate school, the IMPRS in Language Sciences, links the Donders Institute, the CLS and the MPI.

 

 
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Welcome to the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

Feb 05, 2010
Field work on four continents
Field work on four continents
Since November 2009, the MPI has a new research group on information structure, headed by Max Planck Fellow Robert Van Valin. The group consists of four enthusiastic researchers doing field work on four different continents - from Oceania to the VS, from West-Africa to Siberia. 'We can add a couple of dots on the institute's map of MPI field sites.' more >
Jan 31, 2010
Motor actions can change our memories
Motor actions can change our memories
Simple motor actions, like moving marbles upward or downward between two cardboard boxes, may not seem meaningful. But a study published online January 27, 2010 in Cognition shows that motor actions can partly determine people's emotional memories. Moving marbles upward caused participants to remember more positive life experiences, and moving them downward to remember more negative experiences, according to Daniel Casasanto (MPI Nijmegen) and Katinka Dijkstra (Erasmus University). ‘Meaningless’ motor actions can make people remember the good times or the bad. more >
Jan 26, 2010
'Close to scientific paradise'
'Close to scientific paradise'
The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics is 30 years old this very month! During three turbulent decades, the MPI has set the research agenda for the whole world in the psychology of language. Time to look back - and forth - with the institute's founders: Pim Levelt and Wolfgang Klein. One statement might summarise the interview: 'This place comes close to scientific paradise…' more >
Jan 25, 2010
Researchers identify universal emotions
Researchers identify universal emotions
Laughter is a universal language, according to a new study of MPI researcher Disa Sauter and others. The study suggests that basic emotions such as amusement, anger, fear and sadness are shared by all humans. It was funded by the Wellcome Trust, Economic and Social Research Council, UCL (University College London), and the University of London Central Research fund. The article has appeared in the Early Edition of this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. more >
Jan 12, 2010
MPI opens virtual reality lab
MPI opens virtual reality lab
From now on, researchers at the MPI for Psycholinguistics can study language in more complex settings, that is, in a virtual reality world. On January 11, 2010, the institute gathered for the official opening of the first virtual reality lab in the world of psycholinguistics. MPI's Technical Group, especially Gerd Klaas and Albert Russel, spent over a year developing the groundbreaking experimental facility that has cost almost half a million euros. more >
Dec 29, 2009
New book on functional categories in learner language
New book on functional categories in learner language
Research on the spontaneous processes of both children learning their mother tongue and adults learning a second language has shown that early learner languages are based on lexical structures. At some point in acquisition this lexical-semantic system is given up in favor of a target-like functional category system. MPI researcher Christine Dimroth and Peter Jordens (VU Amsterdam) have just published a book on functional categories in learner language in November, 2009. more >
Dec 18, 2009
Gesturing enhances speech comprehension
Gesturing enhances speech comprehension
If you need to be understood, let your words and your hands do the talking. Gesturing while speaking helps people to understand your message quickly and clearly. In an international research collaboration, Spencer Kelly (Colgate University, Hamilton, USA), Asli Özyürek (MPI for Psycholinguistics and Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen) and Eric Maris (Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour) showed that gesture and speech mutually and obligatorily interact to enhance language comprehension. Their study will appear in the next issue of Psychological Science. more >
Dec 14, 2009
Step to the left, or step to the east?
Step to the left, or step to the east?
Even the way people remember dance moves seems to depend on the culture they come from. While a German or other Westerner might think in terms of 'step to the left, step to the right', a nomadic hunter-gatherer from Namibia will think more in terms of 'step to the east, step to the west'. A new study by a cross-disciplinary team from the MPI's for Psycholinguistics and Evolutionary Anthropology shows that remembering movements of one's own body varies dramatically between cultures. The study will be published in the December 14th issue of Current Biology. more >

       Max Planck Institute
       for Psycholinguistics


       Street address
       Wundtlaan 1
       6525 XD Nijmegen
       The Netherlands


       Mailing address
       P.O. Box 310
       6500 AH Nijmegen
       The Netherlands

       Phone:  +31-24-3521911
       Fax:      +31-24-3521213

 

 

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