The Language and Cognition Laboratory (LCL) hosted by the Department of Linguistics and Translation at City University of Hong Kong offers state-of-the-art research facilities for studying the behavioural, cognitive, and neural underpinnings of language and language-related abilities in humans. With a strong focus on real-time language processing the LCL is geared toward measurements with high temporal precision that enable the tracking and disentangling of the dynamic dance of cognitive and neural processes that ultimately give rise to our linguistic abilities. It supports research in the department ranging from child language acquisition to adult second-language learning, from single-language studies in Cantonese, English, and Mandarin (amongst others) to cross-linguistic and comparative studies, and from self-paced reading and speech recordings to psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics.
Behaviour and Eye Tracking
The lab is equipped with two research-dedicated stimulus presentation PCs, the latest versions of stimulus presentation software (E-Prime, Psychopy, Experiment Builder), and various timing-sensitive response peripherals to ensure precise millisecond timing in all experiments run in the lab.
- A classic eye tracker, EyeLink 1000 (SR Research Ltd., Canada), is available in the lab for recording eye movement data (including gaze and pupil dilation) during reading and other language-related tasks with a sampling rate of 1000 Hz.
- An advanced eye tracker, EyeLink Portable DUO (SR Research Ltd., Canada), has also been launched, with head-fixed and free-movement options and the highest sampling rate of up to 2000 Hz.
Electroencephalography (EEG)
A 128 Channel EEG recording system is available in the lab for recording electrical potentials from participants’ scalp while they engage in a variety of linguistic tasks. Research-dedicated data recording PCs are equipped with the latest versions of EEG recording software to ensure precise millisecond timing. The same recording system offers the possibility to perform 64 channel hyperscanning (simultaneous EEG recordings) with 2 participants to observe how their brains synchronize and desynchronize during conversation and other linguistic and non-linguistic interactions. An electrode digitizer is available in the lab to enable precise recordings of the position of each electrode relative to the scalp of participants. This is designed to facilitate and improve source reconstruction analyses performed on the recorded EEG data. Another 30 channel Neuroscan EEG system (Quick-Caps in combination with NuAmps amplifiers) is available in the lab for experiments that require fewer electrodes and shorter preparation time.
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Language and Cognition Lab News Updates:
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Enquiry: LTenquiry@cityu.edu.hk