University of Minnesota & Partners
Where
language
meets mind.
TextGroup is an interdisciplinary reading group at the intersection of psycholinguistics, cognitive science, NLP, and educational psychology. We meet regularly to share and discuss work in progress.
Browse sessions ↓Research areas
Members
Leading Organizers
Varun Athilat
University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
Although people perceive text as being inherently less emotional than speech, text language still affects our emotions — and how we feel shapes how we read.
athil003@umn.eduAndreas Schramm
Hamline University – Professor Emeritus
Researches the cognitive processing and acquisition of time in language — the system of linguistic expressions for meanings articulating the probability of events.
Homepage →Members
Dongyeop Kang
University of Minnesota
Natural Language Processing, combining language and cognition. Builds human-centric NLP systems through cognitively-aligned models and interactive AI.
Homepage →
Sashank Varma
Georgia Tech – School of Interactive Computing
Investigates the alignment between how humans and Large Language Models understand language and, more generally, perform cognitive tasks.
Homepage →
Evelyn Milburn
North Dakota State University
Investigates how we use knowledge beyond words to flexibly comprehend real-life language use — figurative language, language learning, and cognitive aging.
Homepage →Püren Öncel
University of Valencia
Examines how individuals differ in their phenomenological experiences during reading, especially how language relates to visual imagery and inner-speech.
Scholar →Amanda Jensen
University of Minnesota
Adolescent reading comprehension and text readability.
Affiliated Labs
Reading & Learning Lab
Lab website →Language of Learning (LOL) Lab
Natural Language Processing Lab
Lab website →Affect, Cognition, & Computation Lab
Sessions
Contact & Join
TextGroup welcomes researchers at all career stages whose work touches on language, text, and cognition. Whether you study reading, NLP, psycholinguistics, or learning, there is likely a connection to be made.
To present your work, attend a session, or join our mailing list, reach out to the organizers below. Early-stage and in-progress work is especially encouraged.
Organizers
Student lead athil003@umn.edu
Faculty lead aschramm@hamline.edu