Linguistic knowledge and individual differences in speech segmentation: A collaboration with BogaertsLab

• Grant number: 25/00382-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: September 01, 2025
• End date: August 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Human Development Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Débora de Hollanda Souza
• Grantee: Isabella Toselli Prequero Sbrocco
• Supervisor: Louisa Charlien Bogaerts
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Ghent University (UGent), Belgium
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/01386-4 - Finding words: an investigation with electrophysiological measures on the role of statistical cues in language acquisition, BP.DD

Abstract

Infants and adults track statistical regularities from spoken language to find relevant word boundaries across continuous speech. This process can be measured with behavioral tasks, such as two alternative forced-choice and rating scales. However, behavioral tasks do not fully capture learning dynamics and specific cognitive processes of speech segmentation. Integrating non-invasive neurophysiological and behavioral measures provides a fine-grained window on statistical learning as it unfolds. In addition, participants' prior linguistic knowledge and experience with their native language influence learning and must be integrated into the analysis. The current proposal seeks support for a 12-month internship at Dr. Louisa Bogaerts' laboratory, at the Universiteit Gent. Dr. Bogaerts is an expert on statistical language learning and is very familiar with the methodological challenges of combining behavioral and electrophysiological measures to capture this phenomenon. The internship will benefit the candidate in three main aspects. First, it will begin with a 3-month intensive training on electroencephalography, eye-tracking, and pupillometry. Second, the candidate will collect neural entrainment data on a speech segmentation experiment with native Dutch speakers. She will then compare her findings with the data currently being collected with native Brazilian-Portuguese speakers. Third, the candidate will participate in a project involving the Universiteit Gent and Università di Pavia to learn how to conduct advanced distributional semantic models such as semantic coherence and semantic neighborhood density analysis. In parallel, the candidate will also participate in lab meetings, attend and present in the Department's lunch seminars, and attend the faculty-wide talks on neuroimaging. The skills and knowledge gained during the proposed internship will directly support the candidate's main research project with Brazilians by providing strong methodological, analytical, and theoretical foundations to understand statistical language learning when combining behavioral and neurophysiological measures.