Publications  

Language and vision in conceptual processing: Multilevel analysis and statistical power

Research has suggested that conceptual processing depends on both language-based and vision-based information. We tested this interplay …
Bernabeu, P., Lynott, D., & Connell, L.
2022 conceptual processing, embodied cognition, statistical power, research methods, statistics
PDF Code Dataset DOI

Language and sensorimotor simulation in conceptual processing: Multilevel analysis and statistical power

Research has suggested that conceptual processing depends on both language-based and sensorimotor information. In this thesis, I …
Bernabeu, P.
2022 Lancaster University conceptual processing, embodied cognition, statistical power, research methods, statistics
PDF Code Dataset DOI

Preregistration: The interplay between linguistic and embodied systems in conceptual processing

This preregistration outlines a study that will investigate the dynamic nature of conceptual processing by examining the interplay …
Bernabeu, P., Lynott, D., & Connell, L.
2021 conceptual processing, individual differences, psycholinguistics
PDF

Investigating object orientation effects across 14 languages

Mental simulation theories of language comprehension propose that people automatically create mental representations of real objects. …
Chen, S.-C., Szabelzka, A., Chartier, C. R., Kekecs, Z., Lynott, D., Bernabeu, P. … Schmidt, K.
2020 Conditionally accepted in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review conceptual processing, individual differences, conceptual replication
PDF Code Dataset Video DOI

More refined typology and design in linguistic relativity: The case of motion event encoding

Linguistic relativity is the influence of language on other realms of cognition. For instance, the way movement is expressed in a …
Bernabeu, P., & Tillman, R.
2019 Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics linguistic relativity
PDF Poster DOI

Dutch modality exclusivity norms for 336 properties and 411 concepts

Part of the toolkit of language researchers is formed of stimuli that have been rated on various dimensions. The current study presents …
Bernabeu, P.
2018 linguistic materials, conceptual replication
PDF Code Dataset Data dashboard

Modality switch effects emerge early and increase throughout conceptual processing: Evidence from ERPs

We tested whether conceptual processing is modality-specific by tracking the time course of the Conceptual Modality Switch effect. …
Bernabeu, P., Willems, R. M., & Louwerse, M. M.
2017 In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. J. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1629-1634). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. conceptual processing, conceptual replication
PDF Code Dataset Poster DOI Stimulus data dashboard Results data dashboard Conference proceedings Master's thesis

Modality switches occur early and extend late in conceptual processing: Evidence from ERPs [Master's thesis]

The engagement of sensory brain regions during word recognition is widely documented, yet its precise relevance is less clear. It would …
Bernabeu, P.
2017 conceptual processing, psycholinguistics, event-related potentials
PDF Code Dataset Poster Stimulus data dashboard Results data dashboard Conference paper

Language evolution: Current status and future directions

The topic of language evolution is characterised by the scarcity of records, but also by a large flow of research produced within …
Bernabeu, P., & Vogt, P.
2015 Tenth Language at the University of Essex (LangUE) Postgraduate Conference evolution of language
PDF

Web applications and dashboards  

Articles republished on R-bloggers

WebVTT caption transcription app

This open-source, R-based web application allows the conversion of video captions (subtitles) from the Web Video Text Tracks (WebVTT) …
2021 research and teaching applications, R

Web application for the simulation of experimental data

This open-source, R-based web application is suitable for educational or research purposes in experimental sciences. It allows the …
Bernabeu, P., & Lynott, D.
2020 research and teaching applications, R

Data dashboard: Butterfly species richness in Los Angeles

Dashboard with open data from a study by Prudic et al. (2018), that compares citizen science with traditional methods in butterfly …
2020 data visualisation, R

Web application: Dutch modality exclusivity norms

This app presents linguistic data over several tabs. The code combines the great front-end of Flexdashboard—based on R Markdown and …
2018 linguistic materials, research methods, web-application, R

Web application: Modality switch effects emerge early and increase throughout conceptual processing

We tested whether conceptual processing is modality-specific by tracking the time course of the Conceptual Modality Switch effect. …
2017 conceptual processing, R

Workshops

Introduction to R, statistics, visualisation, reproducible documents, web applications and dashboards, HTML, CSS, web hosting (further details).

Date Title Event and location Registration
Aug 2020 Open data and reproducibility: R Markdown, data dashboards and Binder v2.1 (co-led with Florencia D'Andrea) CarpentryCon@Home, The Carpentries [online] Link
July 2020 Open data and reproducibility: R Markdown, data dashboards and Binder (co-led with Eirini Zormpa) UK Cognitive Linguistics Conference, University of Birmingham [online] Link
May 2020 R Markdown Lancaster University [online]

Presentations

Date Type Title Event and location
Oct 2022 Talk Language and sensorimotor simulation in conceptual processing: Multilevel analysis and statistical power AcqVA Aurora Centre, University of Tromsø, Norway
Sept 2022 Talk The interplay between linguistic and embodied systems in conceptual processing Presented by Dr. Dermot Lynott at the 22nd Meeting of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCOP), in Lille, France
Feb 2022 Talk Language and vision in conceptual processing: Multilevel analysis and statistical power Language and Cognition Seminars, Dept. Psychology, Lancaster University
May 2021 Talk Linguistic and embodied systems in conceptual processing: Variation across individuals and items Lancaster University Postgraduate Psychology Conference 2021
May 2021 Talk Towards reproducibility and maximally-open data Open Science Week 2021, Open Scholarship Community Galway
Nov 2020 Talk Mixed-effects models in R, and a new tool for data simulation New Tricks Seminars, Dept. Psychology, Lancaster University
Oct 2020 Talk Reproducibilidad en torno a una aplicación web Reprohack en español, LatinR Conference 2020
Apr 2020 Talk Embedding open research and reproducibility in the UG and PGT curricula (with Andrew Stewart and Phil McAleer) Collaborations Workshop, Software Sustainability Institute
Event cancelled Talk Open Data and Reproducibility v2.0 SatRday, Newcastle University
Dec 2018 Talk Presenting data interactively online using R Shiny Research Software Forum, Lancaster University
Nov 2018 Talk Linguistic and embodied systems in conceptual processing: Role of individual differences Psychology postgraduate medley, Lancaster University
Jan 2017 x2, Apr 2017, July 2017, Nov 2017 Poster Modality switch effects emerge early and increase throughout conceptual processing: Evidence from ERPs (1) Event representations in episodic and semantic memory, U. York;
(2) Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics, Radboud U.;
(3) Juniorendag, Utrecht U.;
(4) 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, London;
(5) 58th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Vancouver
June 2016 Talk Conceptual processing at different speeds: Probing linguistic and embodied systems Synapsium, Radboud University
May 2016 Poster Norming study of modality exclusivity in Dutch, and an ongoing EEG study of linguistic and embodied conceptual processing Psycholinguistics in Flanders, University of Antwerp. Tilburg University travel scholarship
June 2015 Talk New reviews and insights on language evolution Tenth Language at the University of Essex (LangUE) Conference, University of Essex
Feb, May 2015 Talk Shallow and deep conceptual representation: An ERP design Theme Meetings, Radboud U.; Neurobiology of Language Lab meeting, MPI Psycholinguistics
Jan, Mar 2015 Poster Linguistic relativity of motion events: Walking down the cline Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics (U. Amsterdam), Juniorendag (Radboud U.)
Avatar

Pablo Bernabeu

Postdoctoral fellow at UiT –
The Arctic University of Norway

p.bernabeu@uit.no
pcbernabeu@gmail.com

             

Interests

  • Cognitive psychology and neuroscience
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Multilingualism
  • Semantic / conceptual processing
  • Statistics
  • Open science
  • Programming

After doing a research master's, I became a PhD student and graduate teaching assistant in Psychology at Lancaster University, where I investigated how conceptual processing—that is, the comprehension of the meaning of words—is supported by linguistic and sensorimotor brain systems, and how research on this topic is influenced by methodological aspects such as the operationalisation of variables and the sample size of experiments. Currently, I am a postdoctoral fellow at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, where I am investigating the behavioural and neural underpinnings of multilingualism. Throughout my research, I have used methods such as behavioural and electroencephalographic experiments, corpus analysis, statistics and programming. My CV is available at https://osf.io/84ktq.

Work since PhD

Education

Further courses

  • Advanced R programming, 2017

    Coursera / Johns Hopkins University

  • Improving your statistical inferences, 2017

    Coursera / Eindhoven University of Technology

  • Neurobiology of language, 2017

    Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics

    -  Course focussed on multilingualism, including the interesting and hotly-debated topic of cognitive benefits.

  • Big data in society, 2016

    Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

    -  I honed my experience in R and learned about techniques such as topic modelling and crowdsourcing.

    -  Coursework

  • Linear mixed-effects models in R, 2016

    Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

  • Statistics: Analyzing in R, 2016

    Radboud University

  • Introduction to cognitive neuroscience, 2015

    Radboud University Summer School

    -  I became acquainted with the cognitive neuroscience approach to language, perception and action.

  • Language science: Current methods and interdisciplinary perspectives, 2015

    Radboud University Summer School

    -  Psycholinguistic, neurobiological and computational approaches to language.

  • Transcranial brain stimulation, 2015

    Donders Institute, Radboud University

    -  I gained theoretical and practical experience in the technique of transcranial brain stimulation. This technique occupies a privileged position in the area of conceptual processing (i.e., the comprehension of words in the brain), as it allows tapping into the causality of experimental effects with a greater precision than most other techniques.

  • Neurobiology of language, 2015

    Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics

    -  I learned about the functional mapping of language in the brain, and the toolkit used for this research.

  • Psycholinguistics: Self-monitoring, 2015

    Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics

    -  I learned about how speech errors can serve as a window into the psychology of language.

  • [Part of] Neuroimaging 1, 2014

    Radboud University

    -  I followed the first two months of this course as a listener to learn the principles of electroencephalography, event-related potentials, magnetoencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Teaching

My PhD scholarship was teaching-based, so I contributed to my department’s curriculum for 180 hours a year. Each year, I led 30 seminars and marked 80 essays in developmental, cognitive and social psychology, while also helping in 30 statistics labs. This activity is detailed below.

Course and remit
2021–22 Introduction to developmental psychology (115) — Seminars and essay marking
Introduction to neuroscience (112) — Seminars
Introduction to cognitive psychology (111) — Seminars and essay marking
Social psychology in the digital age (113) — Seminars
Statistics for psychologists I (121) using R — Labs
2020–21 Introduction to developmental psychology (115) — Seminars and essay marking
Introduction to neuroscience (112) — Seminars
Introduction to cognitive psychology (111) — Seminars and essay marking
Social psychology in the digital age (113) — Seminars
Statistics for psychologists I and II (121 and 122) using R — Labs
2019–20 Understanding psychology (101) — Seminars and essay marking
Cognitive psychology (201) — Seminars and essay marking
Master's statistics (401) using R — Labs
2018–19 Understanding psychology (101) — Seminars and essay marking
Investigating psychology: Analysis (102) using SPSS — Labs

In addition, I was a representative for graduate teaching assistants in my department for a year.

I am also a Certified Carpentries Instructor and I have led several workshops on data analysis using R. Earlier in my career, I taught English to secondary-education students in Spain, and Spanish to adults in Lithuania.

Other funding and awards
2021 Joint second place in the Open Scholarship Prize Competition organised by Open Scholarship Community Galway Prize awarded after a final series of presentations, and used in PhD research.
2020 RepliCATS Grant, University of Melbourne Awarded for completing 20 RepliCATS research assessments, and used in PhD research.
2020 Gorilla Grant from Gorilla and Prolific Conducting a large-sample experiment on the internet.
2020–2021 Software Sustainability Institute Fellowship Organising training and practice activities in research software. I focussed on data presentation using R.
2017 Psychonomic Society Graduate Travel Award for 58th Annual Meeting Presenting a poster on research from my master's.
2017 Experimental Psychology Society Grindley Grant Presenting a poster on research from my master's at conference ‘Event representations in episodic and semantic memory’.
2017 Experimental Psychology Society Grindley Grant Presenting a poster on research from my master's at Cognitive Science Society Conference.
2017 Student Volunteer, Cognitive Science Society Conference Presenting a poster on research from my master's.
2016 Funding for experiment from Neurobiology of Language Dept., Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Psycholinguistics Conducting an EEG experiment for my master's thesis.

Other work
May – July 2018
 Service analyst. Onfido, London, UK.
I contributed to the verification of semi-automated identity checks. In addition to random sampling, I used Power BI to extract sections from a large data set, and created a self-updating data dashboard in Excel containing tables and plots that summarised the data.
Dec 2015 – Feb 2016
 Part-time Data Science market research and student recruitment. Tilburg U..
I contributed to the elaboration of a leaflet, and informed prospective students at open days.
2015 – 2016
 Student representative at master’s fairs in Spain. Radboud U., Tilburg U.
I worked at three fairs with Radboud University, and at one with Tilburg University.
2013 – 2016
 Presenter of my master's programme at open days. Tilburg U.
2013 – 2016
 Communication, website and student recruitment. Academia Bravosol, Madrid, Spain
2011 – 2013
 I taught English and Spanish in the summers of 2011, 2012 and 2013. Academia Bravosol, Madrid, Spain

Skills
Cognitive science Electroencephalography, event-related potentials, Brain Vision (e.g., ), transcranial brain stimulation, eye tracking, online experiments, jsPsych, E-Prime and Presentation
Statistics Frequentist and Bayesian statistics. Linear mixed-effects models (e.g., ), principal component analysis (), etc.
Programming in R Statistics, R Markdown, web applications, Binder environments (e.g., ), analysis of Big Data, natural language processing (e.g., ), Tidyverse (e.g., )
Data, web, typesetting Git, Bash, High-Performance Computing, HTML, CSS, Javascript, LaTeX, Zotero (e.g., )
Business and administration Quantitative and qualitative service analysis. Power BI, Zendesk, Jira, Confluence, Asana
Languages English: C1. IELTS 2018 (out of 9): Writing, 7.5; Reading, 7.5; Speaking, 7.5; Listening, 8.5. Spanish: native. Catalan: B1. French: B1. Dutch: A2. Italian: A2

Videos

2021 ·  Linguistic and embodied systems in conceptual processing: Variation across individuals and items (watch)

2021 ·  Towards reproducibility and maximally-open data (watch)

2020 ·  Reproducibilidad en torno a una aplicación web (ver más)

2020 ·  Workshop on R Markdown, dashboards and Binder (see programme and materials)

2020 ·  Personal profile and experience at Lancaster U. Psychology Dept.

2020 ·  Embedding open research and reproducibility in the UG and PGT curricula

2019 ·  Part of application for Gorilla Grant

2019 ·  Part of application for Software Sustainability Institute Fellowship

2019 ·  Demonstration of procedure for PSA experiments (watch)

Blog

Some of the posts involving R code have been republished on R-bloggers, R Weekly, Data Science Central and dev.to. Some other posts were republished on Mapping Ignorance.

A table of results for Bayesian mixed-effects models: Grouping variables and specifying random slopes

Here I share the format applied to tables presenting the results of Bayesian models in Bernabeu (2022). The sample table presents a …
2022 R, statistics

A table of results for frequentist mixed-effects models: Grouping variables and specifying random slopes

Here I share the format applied to tables presenting the results of frequentist models in Bernabeu (2022). The sample table presents a …
2022 R, statistics

Plotting two-way interactions from mixed-effects models using alias variables

Whereas the direction of main effects can be interpreted from the sign of the estimate, the interpretation of interaction effects often …
2022 R, data visualisation

Plotting two-way interactions from mixed-effects models using ten or six bins

Whereas the direction of main effects can be interpreted from the sign of the estimate, the interpretation of interaction effects often …
2022 R, data visualisation

Why can't we be friends? Plotting frequentist (lmerTest) and Bayesian (brms) mixed-effects models

Frequentist and Bayesian statistics are sometimes regarded as fundamentally different philosophies. Indeed, can both qualify as …
2022 R, statistics

Bayesian workflow: Prior determination, predictive checks and sensitivity analyses

This post presents a run-through of a Bayesian workflow in R. The content is closely based on Bernabeu (2022), which was in turn based …
2022 R, statistics

Deception in a survey from Polar Insight / Polar Intelligence

I recommend caution when receiving an invitation from Polar Insight (also dubbed ‘Polar Intelligence’) to complete a survey. When I …
2022

Avoiding (R) Markdown knitting errors using knit_deleting_service_files()

The function knit_deleting_service_files() helps avoid (R) Markdown knitting errors caused by files and folders remaining from previous …
2021 R

A new function to plot convergence diagnostics from lme4::allFit()

When a model has struggled to find enough information in the data to account for every predictor—especially for every random …
2021 R, linear mixed-effects models

Walking the line between reproducibility and efficiency in R Markdown: Three methods

As technology and research methods advance, the data sets tend to be larger and the methods more exhaustive. Consequently, the analyses …
2021 R

Tackling knitting errors in R Markdown

When knitting an R Markdown document after the first time, errors may sometimes appear. Three tips are recommended below. 1. Close PDF …
2021 R

Parallelizing simr::powercurve() in R

The powercurve function from the simr package in R (Green & MacLeod, 2016) can incur very long running times when the method used …
2021 R, research methods

Brief Clarifications, Open Questions: Commentary on Liu et al. (2018)

Liu et al. (2018) present a study that implements the conceptual modality switch (CMS) paradigm, which has been used to investigate the …
2021 research methods, psycholinguistics

Collaboration while using R Markdown

In a highly recommendable presentation available on Youtube, Michael Frank walks us through R Markdown. Below, I loosely summarise and …
2020 research methods

Stray meetings in Microsoft Teams

Unwanted, stranded meetings, overlapping with a general one in a channel, can occur when people click on the Meet (now)/📷 button, …
2020 research and teaching applications

Notes about punctuation in formal writing

When writing formal pieces, some pitfalls in the punctuation are easy to avoid once you know them. Punctuation marks such as the comma, …
2020 writing

R Markdown amidst Madison parks

This document is part of teaching materials created for the workshop ‘Open data and reproducibility v2.1: R Markdown, dashboards …
2020 programming, R

What's in a fluke? The problem of trust and distrust

The label ‘fluke’ may in principle be skewed by the eye of the beholder, the mind of the perceiver and the availability or …
2020 viewpoint

How to engage Research Group Leaders in sustainable software practices

Rand et al.
2020 research

Incentives for good research software practices

Cooper et al.
2020 software

Data is present: Workshops and datathons

This project offers free activities to learn and practise reproducible data presentation. Pablo Bernabeu organises these events in the …
2020 education, programming, R

Event-related potentials: Why and how I used them

Event-related potentials (ERPs) offer a unique insight in the study of human cognition. Let's look at their reason-to-be for the …
2020 event-related potentials

Review of the Landscape Model of reading: Composition, dynamics and application

Throughout the 1990s, two opposing theories were used to explain how people understand texts, later bridged by the Landscape Model of …
2018 psycholinguistics

Naive principal component analysis in R

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a technique used to find the core components that underlie different variables. It comes in very …
2018 statistics, R

At Greg, 8 am

The single dependent variable, RT, was accompanied by other variables which could be analyzed as independent variables. These included …
2017 statistics

Modality switch effects emerge early and increase throughout conceptual processing: Evidence from ERPs

Research has extensively investigated whether conceptual processing is modality-specific—that is, whether meaning is processed to a …
2017 psycholinguistics

The case for data dashboards: First steps in R Shiny

Dashboards for data visualisation, such as R Shiny and Tableau, allow the interactive exploration of data by means of drop-down lists …
2017 R, data dashboards, open data

Modality exclusivity norms for 747 properties and concepts in Dutch: A replication of English

2016 linguistic materials

The Louisiana-Minnesota-Texas crisis across media and time: A big data exercise

Racism has long been ingrained in human societies. Ancient Greek Aristotle already claimed that non-Greeks were slaves by nature, as …
Risto Hinno and Pablo Bernabeu
2016 data mining, big data

Common topics

Bayesian statistics brms cognition conceptual modality switch conceptual processing CSS event-related potentials Flexdashboard HTML linear mixed-effects models open data psycholinguistics R R Markdown R Shiny reading s Software Sustainability Institute Fellowship statistics web application