معرفی
Prof. Dr. Katharina Spalek serves as Professor of Psycho- and Neurolinguistics at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf's Faculty of Arts and Humanities within the Institute of Linguistics since her appointment in August 2021. Her research examines human language processing across multiple linguistic levels—from phonetics to narrative discourse—with particular emphasis on focus alternatives and memory mechanisms. Current affiliations include leadership of ERC-funded projects and active participation in international research collaborations.
Her educational background spans German linguistics and psychology studies at Heidelberg University, University of Oxford, and Humboldt University Berlin, culminating in a doctoral degree from Radboud University Nijmegen (2005). Postdoctoral research followed in the USA and UK before her 2007 appointment as junior professor at Humboldt University Berlin.
Spalek's research trajectory evolved from language production in monolingual/bilingual speakers toward language comprehension, investigating how humans process sounds, words, phrases, and narrative discourse. Recent work integrates electrophysiological (ERP), behavioral, and computational methods to explore focus alternatives, cross-linguistic variation (including Vietnamese tonal systems), and the interplay between linguistic and visual information. Her experimental paradigms frequently employ picture-word interference, recall tasks, and discourse analysis to uncover cognitive mechanisms underlying alternative set representation.
Analysis of her 15 most recent publications (2019-2024) reveals three dominant trends: (1) neurocognitive investigation of focus alternatives using ERP methodology, (2) cross-linguistic studies of intonation and tonal processing, and (3) computational modeling of human performance in language tasks. These works consistently bridge theoretical linguistics with experimental validation, emphasizing memory encoding for contextual alternatives and individual differences in processing.
- ERC Starter Grant for 'focus alternatives in the human mind' (2016)
- Posterpreis at 17th Herbsttreffen Patholinguistik (2023)
Her ERC-funded research program examines how focus particles and pitch accents modulate alternative set representation in production and comprehension. Current projects investigate neural correlates of discourse memory, Vietnamese intonation patterns, and computational models of human language processing limitations. Collaborative work spans institutions in Germany, Netherlands, and Vietnam, with methodological emphasis on controlled experiments and cross-linguistic comparison.
Spalek leads the Psycho- and Neurolinguistics research group within the Institute of Linguistics, utilizing facilities for ERP recording, eye-tracking, and behavioral experimentation. Her team conducts interdisciplinary research at the intersection of linguistics, cognitive science, and neuroscience, with particular focus on how information structure shapes language processing and memory.
