Jacolien van Rij

I'm interested in the processing of (seemingly) ambiguous sentences. These are sentences that potentially have multiple potential interpretations, such as sentences with pronouns or idioms. For interpreting these sentences correctly, the listeners need to combine different sources of information in a relative short time (for example, world knowledge, visual context, and preceding linguistic information).

My research focuses on 1) how listeners combine different sources of information during sentence processing, and 2) how regularities in the linguistic input may facilitate this process. I combine computational simulations (error-driven learning), experimental studies, and advanced statistical methods to answer my research questions.

PhD students

Current projects:

Abby Toth
Topic: Influence of visual context on the acquisition of discourse processing.
Other supervisors are Prof. Petra Hendriks and Prof. Niels Taatgen
Mark Ji
Topic: Modeling infant's acquisition of rule-like algebraic patterns using PRIMs
Co-supervised by Prof. Niels Taatgen
Joshua Krause
Topic: Revealing the underlying mechanisms of language processing using machine learning techniques applied to neuro-physiological signals
Co-supervised by Prof. Jelmer Borst

Finished projects:

Dorothée Hoppe (2022): Linear Order in Language: an error-driven learning account. PhD Thesis, University of Groningen. Cum laude.
Dorothée was co-supervised by Prof. Petra Hendriks (Faculty of Arts) and Dr. Michael Ramscar (University of Tübingen, Germany).

publications

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submitted, under revision, accepted, or in press:

Tomas O. Lentz, Jessie S. Nixon, and Jacolien van Rij: Signal response modelling uncovers electrophysiological correlates of trial-by-trial error-driven learning. Under review.

2022

Abigail G. Toth, Petra Hendriks, Niels A. Taatgen, & Jacolien van Rij (2022): A cognitive modeling approach to learning and using reference biases in language. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence 5:933504. link

Dorothée Hoppe, Petra Hendriks, Michael Ramscar, & Jacolien van Rij (2022): An exploration of error-driven learning in simple two-layer networks from a discriminative learning perspective. Behavioral Research Methods. link

2021

Abigail G. Toth, Niels Taatgen, Petra Hendriks, & Jacolien van Rij (2021): Learning reference biases from language input: A cognitive modelling approach. In T.C. Stewart (Ed.), Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Cognitive Modelling (ICCM 2021). (pp. 282-288). link

2020

Dorothée Hoppe, Jacolien van Rij, Petra Hendriks, and Michael Ramscar (2020): Order matters! Influences of linear order on linguistic category learning. Cognitive Science, 44: e12910. link

Jacolien van Rij, Nemanja Vaci, Lee Wurm, and Laurie B. Feldman (2020). Alternative quantitative methods in psycholinguistics: Implications for theory and design. In Vito Pirrelli, Ingo Plag, & Wolfgang Dressler (eds.), Word Knowledge and Word Usage: a Cross-disciplinary Guide to the Mental Lexicon, pp. 83-126. De Gruyter. link

2019

Simone Sprenger, Amélie la Roi, and Jacolien van Rij (2019): The Development of Idiom Knowledge across the Life Span. Frontiers in Communication 4, p. 1-29. link

Laurie Beth Feldman, Rick Dale, and Jacolien van Rij (2019): Lexical and frequency effects on keystroke timing: Challenges to a lexical search account from a type-to-copy task. Frontiers in Communication 4, p. 1-17. link

Jacolien van Rij, Petra Hendriks, Hedderik van Rijn, R. Harald Baayen, and Simon N. Wood (2019): Analyzing the time course of pupillometric data. Trends in Hearing Science 23, 1-23. link
Supplementary Materials: GitLab | html

Abigail Toth, Monique Charest, Jacolien van Rij, and Juhani Järvikivi (2019). Applying the Visual World Paradigm in the Investigation of Preschoolers’ Online Reference Processing in a Naturalistic Discourse. In A.K. Goel, C.M. Seifert, & C. Freksa (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2981-2987). Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society. link

Mark Y. Ji, Jacolien van Rij, and Niels A. Taatgen (2019): Discoveries of the Algebraic Mind: A PRIMs Model. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Cognitive Modelling (ICCM) 2019. link

2018

Natalie Boll-Avetisyan, Jessie S. Nixon, Tomas O. Lentz, Liquan Liu, Sandrien van Ommen, Çağri Çöltekin, and Jacolien van Rij (2018): Neural response development during distributional learning. In: Proceedings of Interspeech 2018 (pp. 1432-1436). doi: 10.21437/Interspeech.2018-2072. pdf

Jessie S. Nixon, Natalie Boll-Avetisyan, Tomas O. Lentz, Sandrien van Ommen, Brigitta Keij, Çağri Çöltekin, Liquan Liu, and Jacolien van Rij (2018): Short-term exposure enhances perception of both between- and within-category acoustic information. In: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2018, (pp. 114-118). doi: 10.21437/SpeechProsody.2018-23. pdf

R. Harald Baayen, Jacolien van Rij, Cecile de Cat, and Simon N. Wood (2018): Autocorrelated errors in experimental data in the language sciences: Some solutions offered by Generalized Additive Mixed Models. In: Speelman, D., Heylen, K., and Geeraerts, D. (Eds.), Mixed Effects Regression Models in Linguistics (pp. 49-69). Berlin, Springer. link | arxiv

2017

Margreet Vogelzang, Anne C. Mills, David Reitter, Jacolien van Rij, Petra Hendriks, & Hedderik van Rijn (2017). Toward cognitively constrained models of language processing: A review. Frontiers in Communication 2:11. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2017.00011 link

Vince Porretta, Aki Kyröläinen, Jacolien van Rij, & Juhani Järvikivi (2017). Visual world paradigm data: From preprocessing to nonlinear time-course analysis. In I. Czarnowski, R. Howlett, & L. Jain (Eds.), Intelligent decision technologies: 2017 (pp. 1–10). Smart Innovation Systems and Technologies. Springer. link

2016

Kaidi Lõo, Jacolien van Rij, Juhani Järvikivi, & R. Harald Baayen (2016). Individual Differences in Pupil Dilation during Naming Task. In: Papafragou, A. and Grodner, D. and Mirman, D and Trueswell, J. C. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 550-555), Austin, TX.

Jessie S. Nixon, Jacolien van Rij, Peggy Mok, R. Harald Baayen, and Yiya Chen (2016). The temporal dynamics of perceptual uncertainty: eye movement evidence from Cantonese segment and tone perception. Journal of Memory and Language, 90, 103-125. link

Jacolien van Rij, Bart Hollebrandse, & Petra Hendriks (2016). Children's eye gaze reveals their use of discourse context in object pronoun resolution. In: Holler, A. and Suckow, K. (Eds.), Empirical perspectives on anaphora resolution. Berlin, Walter de Gruyter. supplementary materials

2015

Jessie S. Nixon, Jacolien van Rij, Li, X., & Yiya Chen (2015). Cross-category phonological effects on ERP amplitude demonstrate context-specific processing during reading aloud. In A. Botinis, (Ed.), ExLing 2015: Proceedings of the International Conference of Experimental Linguistics (pp. 50-53). Athens, Greece. link

Jessie S. Nixon, Jacolien van Rij, Peggy Mok, & Yiya Chen (2015) Eye movements reflect acoustic cue informativity and statistical noise. In: A. Botinis, (Ed.), ExLing 2015: Proceedings of the International Conference of Experimental Linguistics. (pp. 54-57). Athens, Greece. link

2013

Deniz Başkent, Jacolien van Rij, Zheng Yen Ng, Rolien Free, & Petra Hendriks (2013). Perception of spectrally degraded pronouns and reflexives by children. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 134(5), 3844–3852. link

Jacolien van Rij, Hedderik van Rijn, & Petra Hendriks (2013). How WM load influences linguistic processing in adults: A computational model of pronoun interpretation in discourse. Topics in Cognitive Science, 5(3), 564-580. link

2012

Jacolien van Rij (2012). Pronoun processing: Computational, behavioral, and psychophysiological studies in children and adults. PhD Thesis, University of Groningen. pdf | code model Chapter 2 | code model Chapter 3

2011

Jacolien van Rij, Hedderik van Rijn, & Petra Hendriks (2011). Towards a cognitively plausible model of reference. In: Kees van Deemter, Albert Gatt, Roger van Gompel & Emiel Krahmer (Eds), Proceedings of the PRE-CogSci 2011 workshop on Production of Referring Expressions: Bridging the gap between computational, empirical & theoretical approaches.

Petra Hendriks, Arina Banga, Jacolien van Rij, Gisi Cannizzaro, & John Hoeks (2011). Adults' on-line comprehension of object pronouns in discourse. In: A. Grimm, A. Müller, C. Hamann, & E. Ruigendijk (Eds.), Production-comprehension asymmetries in child language. De Gruyter, Berlin, 193-216.

Petra Hendriks & Jacolien van Rij (2011). Language acquisition and language change in bidirectional Optimality Theory. In: Anton Benz & Jason Mattausch (Eds.), Bidirectional Optimality Theory, Benjamins, Amsterdam, 97-123. link

Jacolien van Rij, Hedderik van Rijn, & Petra Hendriks (2011). WM load influences the interpretation of referring expressions. In: Proceedings of the 2nd workshop on Cognitive Modeling and Computational Linguistics. Association for Computational Linguistics, Portland, OR, pp. 67-75. link

2010

Jacolien van Rij, Hedderik van Rijn & Petra Hendriks (2010). Cognitive Architectures and Language Acquisition: A Case Study in Pronoun Comprehension. Journal of Child Language, 37(3), 731-766. link | model code

2009

Jacolien van Rij, Petra Hendriks, Jennifer Spenader & Hedderik van Rijn (2009). Modeling the selective effects of slowed-down speech in pronoun comprehension. In: Jean Crawford, Koichi Otaki, & Masahiko Takahashi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (GALANA 2008) (pp. 291-302), Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.

Jacolien van Rij, Petra Hendriks & Hedderik van Rijn. Integrating discourse in a computational model of the production and comprehension of referring expressions. In: Kees van Deemter, Albert Gatt, Roger van Gompel & Emiel Krahmer (Eds), Proceedings of the PRE-CogSci 2009 workshop on Production of Referring Expressions: Bridging the gap between computational and empirical approaches to reference. link

Jacolien van Rij, Petra Hendriks, Jennifer Spenader & Hedderik van Rijn (2009). From group results to individual patterns in pronoun comprehension. In J. Chandlee, M. Franchini, S. Lord & M. Rheiner (Eds.), BUCLD 33: Proceedings of the 33rd annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (Vol. 2, pp. 563-574), Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

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