Language and Thought Laboratory

The Language and Thought Laboratory (LPLab) at Universidad de San Andrés (UdeSA) is dedicated to the experimental study of language and other cognitive processes, communication, and human behavior. We seek to produce high-quality scientific knowledge while contributing to the training of the next generation of researchers through their active involvement in research projects.

The LPLab provides a collaborative research environment in which undergraduate and graduate students, thesis students, and recent graduates work alongside senior researchers to develop expertise in experimental design, data collection and analysis, interpretation of findings, and academic writing.

Our mission is to train young researchers in linguistics, communication, cognitive science, and the behavioral sciences through the use of experimental methodologies.

Methods

Our research areas draw on the following methodologies:

★ Self-paced reading: LPLab's core experimental paradigm for measuring and comparing reading and reaction times across different tasks, using E-Prime 3.0.
★ Electroencephalography (EEG): EEG experiments allow us to identify, with high temporal resolution, the processing costs associated with language comprehension and their underlying nature (e.g., morphological, syntactic, semantic).
★ Eye tracking: Eye tracking techniques enable us to examine the local processing costs of linguistic expressions and their impact on overall sentence reading. We also use eye tracking to investigate reading comprehension difficulties among young people in Latin America in contexts of educational inequality.
★ Mixed methods: We combine surveys, in-depth interviews, focus groups, content analysis, digital archive analysis, and other qualitative and quantitative research methods.