Shravan Vasishth, Professor of Linguistics
Chair of Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics
Head of the Department of Linguistics
University of Potsdam
Department of Linguistics, Haus 14 
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25
D-14476 Potsdam, Germany	
Tel (office): +49-(0)331-977-2457
Tel (Annett Esslinger, secretary): -2950, Fax: -2087
Email: last name at rz dot uni-potsdam dot de
location map
how to get there: see bvg or deutsche bahn web pages (arrival station: Bahnhof Golm)

tools and software

data

• Here is the data for the Vasishth et al data submitted to PLoS ONE. This is for reviewers only and is password protected. Please do not download it if you are not a reviewer.

lab policies

• Lab authorship guidelines, prepared for the lab by Esther Sommerfeld and Rukshin Shaher.
• Ethically problematic behaviors (deprecated in this lab)


lab discussion forum, wiki, tools, events

• Mailing list and wiki etc. are accessible from here (restricted access).
• Technical/planning wiki here (restricted access).
  
  a few basic tools and some advice for doing experiments
  
• Pilot the experiment before running it for real
• Make sure software works and records all data you need
• Simulate the data you expect, define the predictions you have before running the experiment
• Formatting specs. Please use these to prepare an experiment for the Eyelink and/or SMI tracker.
• Eyelink cheat sheet.
• As a general rule please do not deviate from this briefing text: briefing sheet (German); briefing sheet (English).


software

• R Code+Book. The foundations of statistics: A simulation-based approach.
• Saccade detection See here for Titus von der Malsburg's R implemention of the Engbert and Kliegl algorithm.
• R package em (Logacev and Vasishth): Computes commonly used fixation durations, and some novel ones, from raw eyetracking-during-reading data. License: GPL 2 or later. Alpha release available from me.
• Source code for An activation-based model of sentence processing as skilled memory retrieval. Cognitive Science, 29:1-45, May 2005.. Download from here. You might find it easier to first work through the source code for the model provided below (it's better documented).
  
  References:
  Richard L. Lewis and Shravan Vasishth. An activation-based model of sentence processing as skilled memory retrieval. Cognitive Science, 29:1-45, May 2005.
  [ bib | .pdf ]
  
  Richard L. Lewis, Shravan Vasishth, and Julie Van Dyke. Computational principles of working memory in sentence comprehension. In Press, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2006.
  [ bib | .pdf ]
  
  
• Source code for Processing Polarity: How the Ungrammatical Intrudes on the Grammatical.
  Download from here (Sven's Heidelberg page).
  Reference:
  Shravan Vasishth, Sven Bruessow, Richard L. Lewis, and Heiner Drenhaus. Processing polarity: How the ungrammatical intrudes on the grammatical. Cognitive Science, accepted 2007.
  [ bib | .pdf ]







advice for students
Below is a minimal reading list that should cover most of the issues one encounters in academia.

• If you plan to start graduate school, especially in Potsdam, you will be well-served to spend time reading Stuff Worth Knowing, by Paul Johnson.
• Ethics for students: please read this before starting work with me; and this document on authorship guidelines is also required reading.
• Learn to relax: the relaxation response
• But don't waste time:
  • manage your time (also see this)
  • But if you have to waste time, at least do it right
• Learn to live in an adverse world (especially relevant for women): Mentoring in engineering
• Advice for women: here
• Be professional:
  • On Being a Scientist
  • Ten rules for getting published. There is an eleventh rule: always maintain a respectful and neutral tone in your writing.
  • How to publish in top journals
  • How to have a bad career in research/academia
  • Twelve Steps to Easy Stardom
  • Other advice by Patterson
• Learn to be part of a community:
  • Networking on the network (89 pages, but a must-read for anyone in science)
  • Other important advice
  • How to be a good graduate student
  • 10 easy ways to fail a PhD (a nice self-help guide)
• Know what science is: Strong inference
• Learn to present your work: The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint
• Learn to choose your research problem: You and your research
• Learn to write: (please do not ask me for a copy---I stopped lending books after several students simply never returned borrowed books)
  1. Scientific papers and presentations, by Martha Davis
  2. The craft of scientific writing, by Michael Alley
  3. Handbook for academic authors, by Beth Luey
  4. The craft of research, by Booth, Colomb, and Williams
  5. Style: Toward clarity and grace, by Joseph H. Williams
  6. Professors as writers, by Robert Boice
  7. Keys to great writing, by Stephem Wilbers
  8. How to write a lot, by Paul J. Silvia
  9. Communicating in Science, by Vernon Booth
  10. A Handbook for Scholars, by Mary-Claire van Leunen
• Learn to teach yourself new things:
  1. Techbooks for free
  2. Online Science and Math books
  3. Free Techbooks
• Become a Bayesian.
• Here is an interesting article on deliberate practice. The point of the article is that excellence does not require exceptional intelligence. To achieve excellence, you need (a) to be extremely motivated (you have to want to be excellent) (b) to identify skills you need to learn in order to operate at the level you want to be at (c) to work out what steps need to be taken to achieve those skills, and to take those steps (d) to get informative feedback on your mistakes during the course of taking those steps (e) to perfect your technique with that skill, and (f) move on to the next skill and repeat the above process. If you are slow and stupid like me, reading this article should give you hope.
• Learn to program, because a program is an idea. (Thanks to Titus von der Malsburg for pointing this out to me)