Lately out in Psychonomic Bulletin Review from Anne Marie Crinnion @jimmagnuson.bsky.social and me, an exploration of how listeners differ in their use of bottom-up (acoustic) and top-down (lexical-semantic) information. link.springer.com/article/10.3...

Phonetic stability predicts individual differences in acoustic–phonetic cue weighting - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

When processing speech, not every listener relies to the same degree on the various available types of information. It is unknown, however, whether differences in cue reliance reflect chronic or task-...

link.springer.com

8 years ago, I started a science magazine. There was a critical gap between speech science and non-experts, and I also wanted to provide writing and outreach instruction to undergrads. Check out our latest issue here, headed by Portia Washington: thespokenworddigest.substack.com

The Spoken Word | The Language and Brain Lab | Substack

Science digested by the Language and Brain Lab, where we cover topics in aphasia, speech and language science, and outreach. Available via print and podcast. Based at the University of Connecticut. Cl...

thespokenworddigest.substack.com

What a whirlwind it's been! I came here in 2018 to work as a lab manager not knowing anything about speech or language and came away with more knowledge than I know what to do with (though, I still have a lot to learn)! Thank you to @emilymyers.bsky.social for your mentorship and the LAB Lab!

Emily Myers@emilymyers.bsky.social · 4mo ago

NEW DOCTOR ALERT! Hannah Mechtenberg successfully defended her dissertation on Monday. @hannahmech.bsky.social is a phenomenal science communicator and basal ganglia expert that I tricked into doing a language science PhD with me. Congrats, Dr. Mechtenberg!!!

New paper our from our lab led by postdoc Holly Zaharchuk, with @overhannahlyze.bsky.social , @hannahmech.bsky.social , and @mattcphillips.bsky.social We measured individual differences in sensitivity to phonetic contrasts using VAS and eyetracking 1/2

Acoustical Society of America@asa-news.bsky.social · 7mo ago

JASA EDITOR'S PICK Listeners vary in their sensitivity to acoustic-phonetic variation. In this study, researchers explored different ways of measuring such sensitivity. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0042998

Were you at the NEA Spring meeting? Looking for new research opportunities? We're searching for Beta Testers for the next Sourcery update! 🥳 ✨Ready to begin? Start here: https://go.sourceryapp.org/register #BetaTesters #RemoteResearch #SourceryApp #HigherEd #Academia

Paper alert! (1/2) We examined brain activation for each content word in a podcast relative to incrementally larger ngrams (1-word, 5-words, 10-words) that precede each word with a focus on semantic distance. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Measuring brain sensitivity to semantic distance in spoken narrative comprehension

Discourse comprehension requires simultaneous integration of local and global constituents. When hearing a narrative, for example, listeners must link…

sciencedirect.com

Glad to see this work led by the talented @hannahmech.bsky.social (and also with @emilymyers.bsky.social and @reilly-coglab.com) is out in the world. It's been fun to be thinking in units beyond the sentence.

Jamie Reilly 🦜@reilly-coglab.com · 10mo ago

Paper alert! (1/2) We examined brain activation for each content word in a podcast relative to incrementally larger ngrams (1-word, 5-words, 10-words) that precede each word with a focus on semantic distance. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Scientists scanned people in an fMRI as they listened to me talk about my book She Has Her Mother's Laugh. I altered their brains! (Or at least my semantics did...)

Jamie Reilly 🦜@reilly-coglab.com · 10mo ago

Paper alert! (1/2) We examined brain activation for each content word in a podcast relative to incrementally larger ngrams (1-word, 5-words, 10-words) that precede each word with a focus on semantic distance. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Why are we so good at adapting to "sub-optimal" speech? I argue, in this review paper, that adaptation may be driven by the combined action of dopamine and norepinephrine via prediction error signaling. It's early days with this idea, but I'm excited to have it out there and to keep exploring more!

Emily Myers@emilymyers.bsky.social · last yr.

Stop, drop everything and pick up this new review paper from LABlab member @hannahmech.bsky.social. In it, Hannah argues for considering speech adaptation through the lens of reinforcement learning. Good stuff. link.springer.com/epdf/10.3758...

Awwwww Yeah -- it's official

CRAN Package Updates Bot@cranberriesfeed.bsky.social · last yr.

New CRAN package SemanticDistance with initial version 0.1.1 #rstats https://cran.r-project.org/package=SemanticDistance

Absolutely thrilled to share the 🌟 FIRST PAPER 🌟 from ACORN Lab! 🐿️ I’m beyond proud of all-star grad student @heatherarobinson.bsky.social for this review of “exposome” effects on neurodevelopment & cognition! Paper here rdcu.be/ezUqx & thread below 👇 /1 #neuroskyence #PsychSciSky #devsky #cogdev

The effect of the “exposome” on developmental brain health and cognitive outcomes

Neuropsychopharmacology - The effect of the “exposome” on developmental brain health and cognitive outcomes

rdcu.be

From farm to faculty. Writing home to his community in Minnesota, Prof Jim Magnuson explains that the powerhouse behind U.S. research is the infrastructure, paid by “indirect costs”. “This system has made U.S. science the strongest in the world.” 🧪🏠 www.hometownsource.com/county_news_...

Farm to faculty: How federal research funding changes lives and boosts Minnesota's economy

When I was growing up on a farm near Cambridge, I never met a scientist. I didn’t know what scientific research was or how people became scientists. I graduated from

hometownsource.com

Such a fun experience to travel down to Georgia and have our team of talented students show the summit attendees what the @langscistation.bsky.social is all about! It's been a few summers since I've had the pleasure of running studies with the LSS and it was lovely to reprise my role :)

Language Science Station at Planet Word@langscistation.bsky.social · last yr.

An exciting month for the The LSS crew! A delegation of our team traveled to Milledgeville, Georgia in early July, where they ran studies with attendees at the Sandra Dunagan Deal Center Governor's Summit on Early Language and Literacy & talked about making language science engaging & interactive!

Our conversation analysis software is now on CRAN! Reach out with any questions. We hope it’s useful for all you language and social interaction folks out there.

CRAN Package Updates Bot@cranberriesfeed.bsky.social · last yr.

New CRAN package ConversationAlign with initial version 0.2.0 #rstats https://cran.r-project.org/package=ConversationAlign

As you listen to a story, the meaning of each word you hear relates to the meaning of prior words. But how? We operationalized semantic distance, and identified brain regions that correspond to this rolling summary measure during naturalistic listening. #neuroscienceoflanguage

Hannah Mechtenberg@hannahmech.bsky.social · last yr.

Check out our preprint (linked again here: osf.io/preprints/ps...) where we measured neural sensitivity to changes in semantic space while listening to a podcast. Not only do we look at word-to-word but larger chunks too (2-gram, 5-gram, 10-gram) to examine meaning construction at multiple levels.

Check out our preprint (linked again here: osf.io/preprints/ps...) where we measured neural sensitivity to changes in semantic space while listening to a podcast. Not only do we look at word-to-word but larger chunks too (2-gram, 5-gram, 10-gram) to examine meaning construction at multiple levels.

Jamie Reilly 🦜@reilly-coglab.com · last yr.

Our new work led by the incomparable @hannahmech.bsky.social examining brain sensitivity to semantic distance jumps between rolling ngrams (each new word to n-words before it) during auditory narrative perception. osf.io/preprints/ps...

In this new pub we ask whether a small rewards (cents) might get people to learn the phonetic details of talker more quickly (e.g. a s--sh shift). Answer: probably not. The fact that we got to title the paper "Cents and Shenshibility" was just a bonus. Explainer below!

Hannah Mechtenberg@hannahmech.bsky.social · last yr.

New science alert!!! Myself, Shawn Cummings, Sahil Luthra, & @emilymyers.bsky.social tested whether monetary reward during talker-specific phonetic recalibration biased listeners to learn more about one talker vs another. The results are complicated? doi.org/10.3758/s13414-025-03048-z (1/thread)

New science alert!!! Myself, Shawn Cummings, Sahil Luthra, & @emilymyers.bsky.social tested whether monetary reward during talker-specific phonetic recalibration biased listeners to learn more about one talker vs another. The results are complicated? doi.org/10.3758/s13414-025-03048-z (1/thread)

Cents and shenshibility: The role of reward in talker-specific phonetic recalibration - Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

To what degree might speech perception be affected by factors external to the speech signal? Here, we consider whether listeners consider the value of individual talkers (e.g., a person that is import...

doi.org

The Society for the Neurobiology of Language meeting will be at Gallaudet University, September 12-14th. We have 4 outstanding keynotes (Fumiko Hoeft, Duane Watson, Carol Padden, Fatemeh Geranmayeh). Abstract submissions are open! Hope to see you there! #SNL2025 2025.neurolang.org/abstract-sub...

Thank you for the shout-out! We have an open-source model (osf.io/db79q/) for anyone who wants to start a lab digest -- it leads your writers through all the skills they need to learn about public science communication! Stay tuned for our 10th issue that will be released soon!

An Adaptable Model for Science Communication and Lab Outreach: The Lab Digest

Materials to create an in-lab research digest intended to share academic work with non-scientist audiences. It is designed for novice writers and science communicators to learn the skills needed to wr...

osf.io

Amanita (Termy) 🍄@amanitatermy.bsky.social · 2y ago

@hannahmech.bsky.social's and Portia Washington's research digest (written by a "passionate group of undergraduate researchers") sharing and communicating research on speech, language and hearing science. A really wonderful project. thespokenworddigest.substack.com

Researchers at Annenberg and @umdscience.bsky.social show that proposed NIH funding cuts lead to an estimated $16 billion in economic loss and 68,000 jobs lost nationwide. Learn about their project and view the interactive map here:

Data-Driven, Interactive Map Shows Local Economic Impact of Cuts to Federal Funding for Health Research

asc.upenn.edu

Today, a broad coalition of scientific professional societies who represent over 92,000 scientists are speaking out against the politicization and demonization of Federally funded science and government scientist jobs. It was an honor to help the Union of Concerned Scientists with this! 🧪🌎

48 Scientific Societies Representing Almost 100,000 Scientists Ask Congress to Protect the Future of Science

48 scientific societies representing almost 100,000 scientists signed on to a letter asking Congress to protect the future of science

ucsusa.org

If you need a break, come visit our new Substack space where you can read articles that translate work in speech and hearing science, aphasia, caregiving, and more. It's a small drop in the bucket, but increasing the reach of critical knowledge feels worthwhile: thespokenworddigest.substack.com

The Spoken Word | The Language and Brain Lab | Substack

Science digested by the Language and Brain Lab, where we cover topics in aphasia, speech and language science, and outreach. Available via print and podcast. Based at the University of Connecticut. Cl...

thespokenworddigest.substack.com

Across the government, probationary employees and Schedule A workers—including individuals with severe physical, psychiatric, or intellectual disabilities, as well as veterans—are being let go.

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Look up the impact of NIH funding in your state: www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-...

NIH In Your State - United For Medical Research

Select a state on the map to see the impact of NIH funding across America.

unitedformedicalresearch.org

National Science Foundation suspends salary payments, leaving researchers unable to pay their bills www.statnews.com/2025/01/30/t... Story by @ericboodman.bsky.social

National Science Foundation suspends salary payments, leaving researchers unable to pay their bills

An NSF online payment system remained down after the federal funding freeze was lifted, leaving early-career scientists scrambling to pay bills

statnews.com

Ever been curious about what happens in your brain when there is a topic shift during listening? I thought so. @hannahmech.bsky.social has some answers for you. But also more questions?

Hannah Mechtenberg@hannahmech.bsky.social · 2y ago

In case you missed it at @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social's annual meeting - I worked with @jamiereillycog.bsky.social, @jpeelle.bsky.social, and @emilymyers.bsky.social to model changes in semantic distance during a podcast, which correlated with neural activity! drive.google.com/drive/u/0/fo...

In case you missed it at @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social's annual meeting - I worked with @jamiereillycog.bsky.social, @jpeelle.bsky.social, and @emilymyers.bsky.social to model changes in semantic distance during a podcast, which correlated with neural activity! drive.google.com/drive/u/0/fo...

Thanks to all who made the #psynom24 65th Annual Meeting in the Big Apple unforgettable! See you in Denver next year. buff.ly/49pjpD3