Research Group: New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour (NZILBB)

The New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour is a multi-disciplinary centre dedicated to the study of human language. The researchers come from a wide range of disciplines, forging connections across linguistics, speech production and perception, language acquisition, language disorders, social cognition, memory, brain imaging, cognitive science, bilingual education, and interface technologies. This highly interdisciplinary team is working together toward a truly unified understanding of how language is acquired, produced and understood in its social and physical contexts. The Institute collects audio, visual, articulatory, neural and behavioural data on how individuals speak, listen, interact, and otherwise use language in their day-to-day lives. With this data, we study the foundations of language as an integrated, multi- modal, statistical system operating in a social, physical and physiological context. We study the relationship between language and other modes of cognition and behaviour, including memory, gesture, facial expression and gait. We are interested in language development throughout the lifespan, and in how non-language information (social, physical, contextual, visual) affects individuals' speaking and listening behaviours. Our research is organised around four primary language themes: acquisition, variation and change, ageing, and bilingualism (with a focus on English/Māori bilingualism).

You are here