Starting in the Spring of 2025, the Human Sentence Processing Society will present a series of on-line seminars presenting research that uses large-scale computational language models for human psycholinguistics. By computational language models, we mean both large-scale (many-parameter) machine learning systems, such as generative pretrained transformer networks, as well as other computational approaches to modeling human language learning and knowledge.  We’ve invited scholars who are using such systems to conduct research in human psycholinguistics to present on a range of topics within this area. The goal of these seminars is to present important findings, to share some methodological and technical knowledge, and to inform our community about both the strengths and limitations of using computational language models in psycholinguistic research. The seminar series was initiated by Yuhan Zhang, Stanford University, current junior member of the HSP Executive Committee. 

Seminars will meet over Zoom.  Attendance is free but requires registration at the links provided below.

Our initial line up of speakers is as follows:

Kyle Mahowald, University of Texas Austin.

April 4, 2025, 2pm Eastern (11/12/1 PT/MT/CT). 

Title:  Psycholinguistic Insights from Small Language Models

To attend this seminar, please register here.  

Kanishka Misra

April 11, 2025, 2-3:30pm Eastern (11/12/1 PT/MT/CT) 

Title:  TBD

To attend this seminar, please register here.

Archived

Grusha Prasad, Colgate University

Friday, March 21, 2025, 2-3:30pm Eastern (11/12/1 PT/MT/CT)

Title: Using (L)LM predictability to model psycholinguistic effects: a guide to the why and how.

To attend this free seminar, register here

Sarah Brown-Schmidt and Tom McCoy are organizing a special session entitled The Science of Human Language: Insights For and From AI at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which will meet in Boston on Feb 13-15, 2025.