Future of Psychology of Language: Workshop series 2026 

“The Max Planck Society is about to start the process of finding a new director for a new department at the MPI for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen. The directors of the institute have identified that the field of Psychology of Language remains a core area that distinctly and uniquely covers a research area integral to our institute’s mission.

To discuss in more detail the promising developments in this field and to guide the search procedure, we plan a series of afternoon workshops with the title “The future of the Psychology of Language”.   Psychology of Language should in this case be broadly construed.  Classically, research in this area has investigated how complex language skills such as signing, speaking, listening, and reading are organised, acquired, and executed in real time by the human mind/brain. Recently the quest has been extended in multiple directions including, but not limited to the role of language in the cognitive architecture of the human mind, recognising that language does not operate in isolation but interfaces with other cognitive and social systems; language adaptation across time and space, recognising that language is a dynamic and flexible system that adapts to variation at multiple levels; analysis of how linguistic representations are encoded in neural activity; and the use of computational models to implement, test and generate new hypotheses and formal theories in humans and machines. 

Workshop structure

Each workshop will feature three or four invited speakers. Each speaker is invited to give a 30 minute presentation that addresses the topic:  The Future of the Psychology of Language. Speakers will be asked to outline their vision for the future of the field, and how their research will contribute to this vision. The presentations will then be followed by a 45 minute moderated discussion, including questions from the audience.”

Workshop 1: May 20 14.00-17.00 hrs, online only

Workshop 2: June 3 10.00-13.00 hrs, MPI room 163 & online

Workshop 3: Date to be confirmed, online only

Workshop 4: June 30, 14.00-17.00 hrs, online only

For Workshop 1:

The invited speakers are:

• Julian Jara-Ettinger, Yale University

  Title of the talk: Inside the loop: language, cognition, and how to study them

• Nadine Gaab, Harvard Graduate School of Education

  Title of the talk: From the womb to the classroom: How a neurobiological framework of early language and reading development can Inform educational practice and policy 

• Reyna Gordon, Vanderbilt University

  Title of the talk: Understanding the connections between Language, Musicality, and Health through an Integrative Science Approach 

This workshop will be held online at the link below. All welcome!

https://mpi-nl.zoom-x.de/j/61592632224?pwd=VAUSppbfIewl4vth5maS1pLXVE5Kbq.1

Meeting ID: 615 9263 2224
Passcode: 58463