Hans Rutger Bosker

How is it possible to have a proper conversation, even when the speaker is talking very fast, talks with a lisp, wears a face mask, or speaks amidst loud traffic noise?

Hans Rutger Bosker is Principal Investigator of the Speech Perception in Audiovisual Communication research group at the Donders Institute of Radboud University Nijmegen (see https://hrbosker.github.io/). He is also Senior Investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. His research centers around the question how human speech perception can be so robust, even in quite challenging listening conditions. Key interests include audiovisual integration, gesture-speech coupling, prosody, speech rate, and speech rhythm.

For some video and audio examples of my research, see Public Outreach below.

 

Voor voorbeelden van gastlezingen en media-optredens, zie Public Outreach hieronder en mijn blog bij Psychology Today.

 

Public Outreach

Research examples

  • Manual McGurk effect: Do you hear "PLAto" or "plaTEAU"?

    In this clip, you'll see two videos from Experiment 1B in Bosker & Peeters (2021). In both videos, a talker pronounces the Dutch sentence: "Nu zeg ik het woord [pla.to]" == "Now say I the word [pla.to]". Importantly, the two videos have exactly the same audio, but the first video has a beat gesture on the first syllable /pla/, while the second video has the beat gesture on the second syllable /to/. Our research showed that the timing of the beat gesture can decide whether you hear "PLAto" (the famous Greek philosopher) or "plaTEAU" (a highland). Try it yourself!

    --- video available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW7oBD0UmMU and https://osf.io/b7kue/ ---

 

Popular science activities

  • InScience Film Festival, Nijmegen, 13th Nov 2021.
  • Museum Jeugd Universiteit, Museon, Den Haag, 2nd October 2016.

  • Science of Tomorrow lectures, Museon, Den Haag, 15th March 2016.
  • MPI Open Day, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, 27th June 2015.
  • Science Live, speech rate experiment in NEMO museum, Amsterdam, Febr-May 2015.

 

TV interview

  • Hart van Nederland (SBS6), 26th May 2014.

 

Radio interviews

  • De Ochtendspits (BNR), 17th Jul 2019.


    (for older browsers: download the file here)

  • Nieuws en Co (Radio 1, NOS), 15th Mar 2019.
    Cavemen hardly said the sounds -f and -v


    (for older browsers: download the file here)

  • Nieuws en Co (Radio 1, NOS), 18th Oct 2016.
    Rhythmicity in the speech of Clinton vs. Trump


    (for older browsers: download the file here)

  • Wekker Wakker (Omroep Max), 20th July 2015.


    (for older browsers: download the file here)

  • Spitsuur (BNR), 20th May 2014.


    (for older browsers: download the file here)

  • De Kennis van Nu (NTR), 20th May 2014.


    (for older browsers: download the file here)

  • Utrecht komt thuis (Radio M Utrecht), 20th May 2014.


    (for older browsers: download the file here)

  • Cappuccino (NCRV), 24th May 2014, webcam recording.

  • De Taalstaat (KRO), 24th May 2014.


    (for older browsers: download the file here)

  • Gijs 2.0 (KRO), 26th May 2014.


    (for older browsers: download the file here)

  • Evers staat op (Radio 538), 30th May 2014.


    (for older browsers: download the file here)

Written media

Het Parool, "Praten doe je ook met je handen en bij luisteren gebruik je je ogen". Dutch national newspaper, 3rd Apr 2021.

Quest, "Waarom hoor je soms heel iets anders dan er gezegd wordt". Popular science magazine, 12th Febr 2021 [April issue].

Het Nieuwsblad, "Waarom je je handen beter in beeld houdt tijdens videovergaderen". Belgian national newspaper, 29th Jan 2021.

Trouw, "Ritmische handgebaren helpen ons horen met onze ogen". Dutch national newspaper, 28th Jan 2021.

Nature, "Hands speak: how casual gestures shape what we hear". Nature 589 (7844), Research Highlight, published in print Febr 4, 2021.

Nu.nl, "Zes redenen waarom ‘eh’ zeggen heel nuttig kan zijn". Dutch national news website, 16th Aug 2020.

Psychology Today, "In the Realm of ‘Ahh’". By Abigail Fagan in Psychology Today, March/April issue, 2019.

Discover Magazine, "There’s A Good Reason for Why We ‘Uh’ and ‘Um’ When We Talk". By Lacy Schley for Discover Magazine, 6th March 2019.

Earth.com, "People adjust to interruptions in speech to predict what comes next". By Chrissy Sexton for Earth.com, 6th March 2019.

Sciency Daily, "People track when talkers say ‘uh’ to predict what comes next". Popular science website, 6th March 2019.

NRC, "Het woordje 'eigenlijk' kondigt een verrassing aan". Dutch national newspaper, 10th Sept 2018.

De Standaard, "Wat betekent 'eigenlijk' nu eigenlijk?". Belgian national newspaper, 10th Sept 2018.

Kennislink, "Ritme cruciaal om getrommelde taal te verstaan". Popular science news site, 26th Apr 2018.

Spiegel, "Hilft Alkohol beim Sprechen von Fremdsprachen?". German newspaper, 27th Oct 2017.

Welt, "Alkohol hilft womöglich bei der Aussprache". German newspaper, 27th Oct 2017.

Berliner Morgenpost, "Alkohol hilft womöglich bei der Aussprache". German newspaper, 27th Oct 2017.

Kennislink, "Eigen spreeksnelheid beïnvloedt wat je hoort". Popular science news site, 23rd Jan 2017.

Kennislink, "Ritmische spraak geeft Clinton voorsprong op Trump". Popular science news site, 3rd Nov 2016.

Het Parool, "Onderzoek als museumattractie". Dutch national newspaper, 30th May 2015.

Kennislink, "Een kijkje in het hoofd van rappe sprekers". Popular science news site, 12th May 2015.

New Scientist, "Eh zeggen is nuttig". Popular science magazine, no. 13, July/August 2014.

Quest, "Waanzinnige wetenschap: het nut van soort van stopwoordjes zoals bijvoorbeeld 'zeg maar'". Popular science magazine, 27th June 2014.

7days, "Zeg eens eh". Weekly newspaper for children aged 12-18, 30th May 2014.

Kidsweek, "'Eh...' is helemaal zo gek nog niet". Weekly newspaper for children aged 0-12, 29th May 2014.

Algemeen Dagblad, "Het woordje uh heeft echt een functie". Dutch national newspaper, 26th May 2014 [jpg image].

NRC, "Het grote nut van het stopwoordje 'eh'". Dutch national newspaper, 22nd May 2014 [jpg image].

NRC Next, "Eh... en dan nu iets belangrijks!". Dutch national newspaper, 22nd May 2014.

Teaching

Courses

  • 2021: Fonetiek [Phonetics] (BA course, Nijmegen)
  • 2017: Fonetiek [Phonetics] (BA course, Nijmegen)
  • 2017: Introduction to R (IMPRS course, MPI). Designed and taught together with Joe Rodd. Download the zipped tutorial materials (from 2017).
  • 2014-2019: Statistics with R (EMLAR, Utrecht University). Download the latest zipped tutorial materials (from 2019).

 

Lectures

2019
  • Trends and Topics in Neurolinguistics, International Summer School (MAs/PhDs; Nijmegen)
  • Speech Production and Speech Comprehension (MA, Nijmegen)

2018
  • Speech Comprehension (MA, Nijmegen)

2016
  • Phonetics (BA, Nijmegen)
  • Speech Perception (BA Honours Course, Nijmegen)
  • Second Language Acquisition (MA, Nijmegen)

2015
  • Phonetics (BA, Nijmegen)
  • Speech Perception (BA Honours Course, Nijmegen)
  • Second Language Acquisition (MA, Nijmegen)

2013
  • Second Language Acquisition (MA,Utrecht)
  • Introduction to Language and Communication (BA, Utrecht)

 

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