Past projects

Lexical retrieval in the bilinguals’ first language

Investigators: Marie Anna Hamanová, Jan Chromý

The project aims to analyze lexical retrieval in bilingual speakers with Czech as a first language. We plan to test speakers with differing levels of their L2 (from speaker with low proficiency in L2 to almost balanced bilinguals) and see whether the degree of proficiency in L2 correlates with the performance in the experimental tasks such as picture naming and verbal fluency. We will also test a specific group of translation studies (speakers with a very high knowledge of L2 with a deep training in switching between the languages).

Mental simulation of the illusory and the factual in negation processing

Investigators: Norbert Vanek, Ana Matić, Sara Košutar

Imagine a fish not jumping out of the water. How do comprehenders process negative statements? This study builds on the assumption that linguistic structure can facilitate or hinder negation processing and thereby affect mental simulations amongst speakers. We test this claim by manipulating the factual and the illusory in negation to directly explore native speakers’ mental simulations. We examine whether differences in sentential negation lead to differences in negation processing between languages (in this case Croatian and English), as well as between negation types within languages. For this purpose we designed an eye-tracking experiment, using a combination of pictures and audio recordings (N=42/group). We manipulated Negation type and Language, and measured anticipatory fixations (first fixations to indicate early mental simulation of factual vs. illusory & proportions of looks during auditory processing in the absence of pictures to indicate the strength of mental simulations) and integratory fixations (proportions of looks after reappearance of pictures).

More information about this study (including the materials and preregistration details) can be found here.

Picture naming norms for Czech

Investigators: Jan Chromý, Marie Anna Hamanová

In this project, we would like to create picture naming norms for 300 pictures for Czech. The pictures are selected from BOSS II database and they will be normed for various measures such as naming agreement, familiarity, lexical frequency etc. The norms will be made public for broad scientific audience.

Multipic 2.0 project: Czech, Slovak and Hungarian

Invesitgators: Jan Chromý, Marie Anna Hamanová, Jiří Januška, Maroš Filip

Picture naming and familiarity norms for ca. 500 pictures for Czech (Jan Chromý, Marie Anna Hamanová), Slovak (Maroš Filip, and Hungarian (Jiří Januška) under the Multipic 2.0 project organized by Christos Pliatsikas (University of Reading) and Jon Andoni Duñabeitia (Universidad Nebrija).