Problem-centered research training:
Integrating formal and empiral methods in the cognitive science of language

Our program represents a new paradigm for graduate education: problem-centered training, delimited not by the boundaries of an academic discipline, but by the demands of solving a problem. Students are trained in a broad range of research methods derived from a diverse set of traditional disciplines.

The general problem targeted by this IGERT program is: How does the brain (come to) achieve its function? The program focuses on one particularly important cognitive function: language. Basic research on language has long-term implications for diagnosis and treatment of language-related neurological and learning disorders, for literacy and language education, and for digital language technologies.

The computational framework of cognitive science allows the problem to be formulated more precisely: What are the representational structures, processing algorithms, and learning algorithms underlying our linguistic abilities? How are these representations and algorithms realized in the brain?

Studying with internationally recognized leaders at Johns Hopkins, IGERT trainees acquire both theoretical and empirical sophistication through a uniquely multidisciplinary range of research methods:

• Computational and mathematical modeling of language processing and learning, including symbolic methods and neural networks, in a range of linguistic formalisms.
• Psychological experimentation on adult and infant language processing and learning.
• Neuroimaging of brain activity during language processing.
• Theoritical linguistics: syntax, phonology, morphology, and semantics of natural languages.
• Neuropsychology of language deficits from acquired and developmental neurological damage.
• Computational methods of automatic speech and language processing.

Trainees receive a comprehensive interdisciplinary education through courses on the neurobiological, psychological, computational, linguistic, and philosophical perspectives on cognition, including integrative courses on the Foundations of Cognitive Science and yearly department-wide reading courses on interdisciplinary topics. Strong methodological education, addressing both formal and empirical methods, is provided, including Theory and Methods in Cognitive Psychology and three courses in Formal Methods in Cognitive Science: Language; Inference; and Neural Network Theory. Trainees get hands-on experience with diverse research methods by rotating through two research labs in the first two and a half years and through advanced seminar research projects. Trainees benefit from an active Visiting Faculty program, and from participation in the IGERT topical workshops and general conferences in cognitive science. In addition to their stipends and tuition cost, trainees receive considerable support for equipment, research, and travel.

IGERT trainees satisfy the departmental Ph.D requirements and actively participate in all IGERT specific activities.