Events
Upcoming events
March 27-29, 2025
University of Maryland, College Park, MD
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION NOW OPEN
DEADLINE: DECEMBER 9, 2024
Special Session: Connecting Minds, Building Bridges: Community Outreach in Language Processing Research
HSP's Computational Language Models and Psycholinguistics online seminar series presents
Grusha Prasad, Colgate University
Title: Using (L)LM predictability to model psycholinguistic effects: a guide to the why and how.
March 21, 2-3:30pm Eastern (11/12/1 PT/MT/CT)
**To attend this free seminar, please register here (you will receive a Zoom link for the seminar).
Abstract:
There has been a growing body of work measuring the extent to which predictability estimates from (Large) Language Models can capture psycholinguistic effects. What can this comparison tell us about human sentence processing? The answer to this depends on why and how we are measuring the fit to human behavior, brain responses, or acceptability judgments. In the first part of this talk, I will survey existing work to articulate the different reasons people cite for why they compare LM predictability estimates to various empirical effects in humans, and the different approaches they use to measure this alignment between the two. In the second part of the talk I will motivate a particular method of measuring alignment that my collaborators and I have used (Huang et al 2024), and present an interactive tutorial on implementing the pipeline for this method from scratch for a targeted question. Then I will open up the space to discuss how we might extend this particular method, or the more general arguments to other questions or phenomena the audience is interested in exploring.
Bio:
Grusha Prasad is a Computational Psycholinguist and an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Colgate University. She got her PhD from the department of Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins University. In her research, she uses symbolic and neural-network based computational models to generate quantitative behavioral predictions from theories in (psycho)linguistics and then test these predictions using a variety of experimental paradigms. Outside of her direct research interests, she enjoys analyzing and visualizing different kinds of data. She also cares about open science, replicability and making computational tools accessible to people from diverse backgrounds.
Science of Human Language at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) February 15, 2025
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. Learn more about the meeting here: https://meetings.aaas.org
Synopsis: The scientific study of human language provides valuable insight into the structure, promise, and pitfalls of the artificial intelligence systems known as large language models (LLMs). The science of language shows how and why some forms of language are hard to understand, such as legal contracts and waivers, and identifies ways to leverage artificial intelligence to improve readability and support informed decision-making. Advances in the cognitive and neurobiological bases of language demonstrate distinct human competencies for knowledge of linguistic rules versus how to use language in the real world that rely on distinct neural mechanisms. These distinctions can be leveraged to identify potential new capabilities in LLMs, improve evaluation of their performance, and in turn support development of even better neurobiologically grounded models of human language. The scientific study of the sociocultural context of language explains how language reflects and evokes stereotypes and biases in the world, and their manifestation in LLMs. Leveraging tools from the scientific study of social language use, researchers can measure stereotypes and biases in LLMs, a crucial first step in creating the artificial intelligence systems of tomorrow. The speakers bring expertise from law, neuroscience and computer science to provide insight into mechanisms of human language and LLMs and how their differences and similarities provide insights that can advance the value of these emerging technologies.
Archived events
Academic Career Paths for Psycholinguists April 23, 2024
Are you considering a career in academia? Whether you're driven by a passion for research, teaching, or both, understanding the landscape of the current academic job market is crucial.
Dan Parker, Associate Professor of Linguistics at The Ohio State University, led this workshop designed to guide aspiring academics through the complexities of the application process. In this workshop, the following topics were discussed: the various positions available in academia, guidance on crafting a compelling application, tips on how to best prepare for interviews, and strategies for effectively navigating the job search process. The workshop concluded with a Q&A session, so bring your questions!
Video recording available below.
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Industry Career Paths with a Cognitive Science or Linguistics Degree March 7, 2024
Rachel Ostrand, staff research scientist at IBM Research, and Brendan Tomoschuk, senior data scientist at Cruise, hosted a session to talk about various industry job roles that can be a good fit for cognitive scientists and linguists. It included a discussion of skills that are useful to develop and highlight in a job application, tips for crafting an industry-appropriate resume, and how to search for industry jobs in the first place.
Video recording available below.
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Online Workshop on the Peer Review Process January 10, 2024
Matt Goldrick, of Reviewer Zero and Northwestern University, hosted a workshop to introduce researchers to the peer review process. The workshop gave an overview of the peer review process, including its goals and aims. It also discussed a range of practical tools for navigating the peer review process.
Video recording available: click the thumbnail below
HSP Abstract Writing Workshops November 13 & November 14, 2023
Rebecca Holt and Maayan Keshev, current and previous HSP Executive Committee junior representatives, hosted abstract writing workshops to provide students and early career researchers of various backgrounds with concrete tips to bring their abstracts to the next level.
Video recording available below.
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Rebecca Holt's Session
Maayan Keshev's Session
Meet the NSF Program Officers September 22, 2023
NSF Program Officers Jorge Valdes Kroff (Linguistics), Leher Singh & Anna Fisher (Developmental Sciences), Dwight Kravitz (Cognitive Neuroscience), and Betty Tuller (Perception, Action and Cognition) presented and answered questions about submitting grants, getting feedback on project ideas or resubmissions, and other issues related to funding and reporting at the NSF.
Video recording available below.
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