Gerald Altmann

Professor

Degree: Ph.D., 1986, University of Edinburgh
Webpages: Psycholinguist: Gerry Altmann

CT Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences

Altmann Lab
Research Interests: Sentence processing; event cognition; object representation
Research Synopsis: My research focuses on how, as language unfolds, we incrementally build representations of the events described by that unfolding language. I use a mix of behavioral methods (predominantly eye-tracking) and neuroscientific methods (fMRI, EEG). Some of my research focuses also on how high-level knowledge impacts on lower-level attentional processing (and eye movement control).
Courses: Undergraduate: PSYC 3500 – Introduction to Psychology of Language

Graduate: Event Cognition
Students in Research: Zac Ekves

Yanina Prystauka

Kyra Krass

Emily Yearling
Recent publications: Altmann, G.T.M. & Ekves, Z., (2019). Events as intersecting object histories: A new theory of event representation. Psychological Review. doi: 10.1037/rev0000154

 

Mirkovic, J., & Altmann, G. T. M. (2019). Unfolding meaning in context: The dynamics of conceptual similarity. Cognition, 183, 19-43.
Representative Publications:  

Altmann, G.T.M. (2017). Abstraction and generalization in statistical learning: implications for the relationship between semantic types and episodic tokens. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 372: 20160060. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0060

 

Staudte, M. & Altmann, G.T.M. (2016). Recalling what was where when seeing nothing there. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, doi:10.3758/s13423-016-1104-8

 

Solomon, S. H., Hindy, N. C., Altmann, G. T., & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (2015). Competition between mutually exclusive object states in event comprehension. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 27(12), 2324-2338

 

  1. Hindy, N.C., Altmann, G.T.M., Kalenik, E., & Thompson-Schill, S.L. (2012). The effect of object state-changes on event processing: Do objects compete with themselves? Journal of Neuroscience, 32 (17), 5795-5803.

 

  1. Altmann, G.T.M. and Mirkovic, J. (2009). Incrementality and prediction in human sentence processing. Cognitive Science, 33, 583-609.

 

  1. Altmann, G.T.M. and Kamide, Y. (2009). Discourse-mediation of the mapping between language and the visual world: eye-movements and mental representation. Cognition, 111, 55-71.

 

  1. Altmann, G.T.M. and Kamide, Y. (2007). The real-time mediation of visual attention by language and world knowledge: Linking anticipatory (and other) eye movements to linguistic processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 57, 502-518.
Current and recent career highlights:
  • Director, CT Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences

 

  • Editor-in-Chief, Cognition, 2006-2015

 

  • I moved to UConn from University of York, UK, in 2014. I have served on grant panels in both the USA (NIH LCOM) and UK (ESRC) as well as on various panels in Europe (Spain, Germany). I was Hon. Secretary of the UKs Experimental Psychology Society from 2004-2007.
Research Opportunities: Dr. Altmann is currently looking for undergrads to work in his lab. Connect with him to learn more.

 

Contact Information
Emailgerry.altmann@uconn.edu
Mailing Address406 Babbidge Road Storrs, CT 06269 Unit-1020
Office LocationBousfield 134C
Linkhttp://psych.uconn.edu/perception-action-cognition-division/