Publications  

Investigating object orientation effects across 18 languages

Mental simulation theories of language comprehension propose that people automatically create mental representations of objects …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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) …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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
May 2023 Reading group discussion Discussion of Labotka et al. (2023): Testing the effects of congruence in adult multilingual acquisition with implications for creole genesis Reading group of the PoLaR Lab, UiT The Arctic University of Norway
Jan 2023 Reading group discussion Discussion of Jost et al. (2019): Input complexity affects long-term retention of statistically learned regularities in an artificial language learning task Reading group of the PoLaR Lab, UiT The Arctic University of Norway
Oct 2022 Talk Language and sensorimotor simulation in conceptual processing: Multilevel analysis and statistical power AcqVA Aurora Centre, UiT The Arctic University of 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
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. In my thesis, 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. I work at the Department of Language and Culture, and specifically within the PoLaR Lab and the AcqVA Aurora Centre. As a member of the LESS Project (Language Economy through Transfer Source Selectivity), I investigate how language learners coordinate several languages early in the acquisition process, how this process is influenced by the characteristics of the languages, and how the process is reflected in the brain. Earlier, I also worked part-time as a data analyst in the CLICK Project (Cross-Linguistic Influence of Competing Knowledge), which investigates multilingualism in heritage speakers.

Throughout my research, I have used methods such as behavioural and electroencephalographic experiments, corpus analysis, statistics and programming. The materials from my research are available at https://osf.io/25u3x and my CV is available here.

Recent work

  • Postdoctoral fellowship, Nov 2022Nov 2024

    UiT The Arctic University of Norway

    -  As a member of the LESS Project (Language Economy through Transfer Source Selectivity), I am investigating how language learners coordinate several languages early in the acquisition process, how this process is influenced by the characteristics of the languages, and how the process is reflected in the brain.

    -  Service: peer-review for Cognition and Cognitive Science; facilitation of AcqVA Aurora Lunch Seminars.

  • Part-time data analysis contribution, Nov 2022 – Jan 2023

    UiT The Arctic University of Norway

    -  I worked part-time on data analysis within the CLICK Project (Cross-Linguistic Influence of Competing Knowledge), which investigates multilingualism in heritage speakers.

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 and supervision

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

During my PhD, I was a representative for graduate teaching assistants in my department for a year.

Furthermore, during my PhD and my postdoc, I advised some students and colleagues about conducting behavioural and EEG experiments, and about data processing and statistics.

Last, I am a Certified Carpentries Instructor and 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 Grindley Grant from Experimental Psychology Society Presenting a poster on research from my master's at conference ‘Event representations in episodic and semantic memory’.
2017 Grindley Grant from Experimental Psychology Society 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
Data Science market research and student recruitment (part-time). 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 (part-time). 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 (part-time). Tilburg U.
2013 – 2016
Communication, website and student recruitment (part-time). Academia Bravosol, Madrid, Spain
2011 – 2013
Teacher of English and Spanish (part-time). Academia Bravosol, Madrid, Spain

Skills

Cognitive science Electroencephalography, event-related potentials, Brain Vision (e.g., ), transcranial brain stimulation, eye tracking, online experiments, jsPsych, OpenSesame
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. Spanish: native. Catalan: B1. French: B1. Dutch: A2. Italian: A2, Norwegian: A1

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 and resources

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

Preprocessing the Norwegian Web as Corpus (NoWaC) in R

The present script can be used to pre-process data from a frequency list of the Norwegian as Web Corpus (NoWaC). Before using the …

An inline script for OpenSesame to send EEG triggers via serial port

The OpenSesame user base is skyrocketing but—of course—remains small in comparison to many other user bases that we are used to. …

How to correctly encode triggers in Python and send them to BrainVision through serial port (useful for OpenSesame and PsychoPy)

I'm sending the triggers in a binary format because Python requires this. For instance, to send the trigger 1, I run the code …

ggplotting power curves from the 'simr' package

The R package ‘simr’ has greatly facilitated power analysis for mixed-effects models using Monte Carlo simulation (which involves …

How to break down colour variable in sjPlot::plot_model into equally-sized bins

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

How to map more informative values onto fill argument of sjPlot::plot_model

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

How to visually assess the convergence of a mixed-effects model by plotting various optimizers

To assess whether convergence warnings render the results invalid, or on the contrary, the results can be deemed valid in spite of the …

Intermixing stimuli from two loops randomly in OpenSesame

I’m developing a slightly tricky design in OpenSesame (a Python-based experiment builder). My stimuli comprise two kinds of sentences …

Simultaneously sampling from two variables in jsPsych

I am using jsPsych to create an experiment and I am struggling to sample from two variables simultaneously. Specifically, in each …

Table joins with conditional "fuzzy" string matching in R

Here’s an example of fuzzy-matching strings in R that I shared on StackOverflow. In stringdist_join, the max_dist argument is used to …

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 …

Pronominal object clitics in preverbal position are a hard nut to crack for Google Translate

Some Romance languages allow the movement of pronominal object clitics to the preverbal position (Hanson & Carlson, 2014; Labotka …

Assigning participant-specific parameters automatically in OpenSesame

OpenSesame offers options to counterbalance properties of the stimulus across participants. However, in cases of more involved …

Specifying version number in OSF download links

In the preparation of projects, files are often downloaded from OSF. It is good to document the URL addresses that were used for the …

Covariates are necessary to validate the variables of interest and to prevent bogus theories

The need for covariates—or nuisance variables—in statistical analyses is twofold. The first reason is purely statistical and the second …

Cannot open plots created with brms::mcmc_plot due to lack of `discrete_range` function

I would like to ask for advice regarding some plots that were created using brms::mcmc_plot(), and cannot be opened in R now. The plots …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Parallelizing simr::powercurve() in R

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

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 …

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 …

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, …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

At Greg, 8 am

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

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 …

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 …