Teams

Team Empirical and Experimental Linguistics of German – Psycholinguistics

The team for empirical and experimental linguistics of German around Professor Dr. Mertins conducts research on numerous aspects of psycholinguistics. The team focuses primarily on the areas of language and cognition, spatial cognition, speech pathology, language acquisition, bilingualism, and giftedness. Research is currently underway on the influence of expertise on spatial perception, the role of language in understanding mathematical text tasks, studies of giftedness in language, and studies of language production and aphasia in Alzheimer's dementia. To this end, the team in the psycholinguistics laboratories has at its disposal state-of-the-art eye-tracking and EEG technology, which provide researchers with information about the visual attentions and cognitive mechanisms of the study participants and thus also reveal their reading and problem-solving strategies. The Mertins team also uses these methods in the interdisciplinary research project Space, Language and Cognition, in which the perception of architectural space is specifically investigated. This creates a unique interface between psycholinguistics and architecture as well as the associated chairs at TU Dortmund University. Mertin's internationally diversified team consists of doctoral students, research assistants, and student and research assistants. Many of them are bilingual themselves, come from a wide variety of disciplines, and therefore bring with them equally diverse interdisciplinary interests.

Team Mertins is managed with a strong focus on promoting young talent and women. In addition, the leadership is committed to a close interweaving of studies and research and encourages students to also participate and contribute to research themselves.