Conceptual representation in humans
Our purpose is to understand better human category representation via investigating category learning strategies, the development of early lexical-semantic networks, and event memory processing. Within this comprehensive framework, we plan smaller sub-projects according to the local research infrastructure and societal needs. Understanding categorization behavior helps us predict learning disabilities at an early stage of development, revealing systematic errors and strategies behind generalization and lets us develop better visual learning aids in the future.
Ambition: Human conceptual system is impossible to model completely. However, we can understand better categorization behavior, the acquisition of the early concepts, and systematic errors in event memory.
To achieve our ambition, we will:
- Use our existing results to accomplish a grant proposal for Helse Nord on atypical conceptual development, where we focus on prematurely born infants’ early lexical-semantic knowledge network development. We will test the role of atypical audio-visual integration and inhibition capacities on lexical-semantic knowledge network formation. The project is planned to be patient involvement research, so we reach the families of preterm infants to fit the project proposal to their actual needs. We also contact the SMI-skolen, TFFK.
- We announced a Forskelinje project for a better understanding of event cognition. Here, we focus on the role of working memory capacity in segmentation at and within the event boundaries. Related research aims at visual analogies, namely, the role of language in finding relations between two visual scenes.
- We are launching a doctoral project with Mahdis Jafari on understanding the role of sentence parsing in communicative situations. We are designing an adaptation of a well-known paradigm testing sentence comprehension in adults and children to Norwegian. We will conduct a behavioral study with Norwegian speakers and bilinguals (L1 Norwegian, L2 English) to test the role of the communication context and the control functions in interpreting the acoustic information.
Sample presentations and publications
Varga, Z., Szabó, M., Kói, T., Kas, B., Nyilas, N., Dósa, A., ... & Ragó, A. (2025). Early language delay among infants with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy after therapeutic hypothermia: A prospective cohort study. Early Human Development, 106444.
Andrea, L., Nóra, N., Anett, R., Eszter, R., Tímea, S., Enikő, S., … Varga, Z. (2024). Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging for predicting early language delay in HIE infants. Conference presentation, European Pediatric Neuroradiology Congress, Budapest, Hungary, 13-16 November 2024.
Varga, Z., Anett, R., Nóra, N., Tímea, S., Andrea, L., Agnes, J., … Enikö, S. (2024). Early clinical and neuroradiological markers of expressive language development in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Conference presentation, EAPS 2024. Vienna, 2024.10.17-20.
Ragó, A., Varga, Z., & Szabo, M. (2023). Stable organization of the early lexical-semantic network in 18- and 24-month-old preterm and full-term infants: an eye-tracker study. FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY, 14. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1194770
Ragó, A., Varga, Z., Garami, L., Honbolygó, F., & Csépe, V. (2021). The effect of lexical status on prosodic processing in infants learning a fixed stress language. PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, 58(12). http://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13932
Varga, Z., Ragó, A., Honbolygó, F., & Csépe, V. (2021). Disrupted or delayed? Stress discrimination among preterm as compared to full-term infants during the first year of life. INFANT BEHAVIOR & DEVELOPMENT, 62. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101520
Dahl, T. I., & Ludvigsen, S. (2014). How I see what you're saying: The role of gestures in native and foreign language listening comprehension. The Modern Language Journal, 98(3), 813-833.