Friederike Contier (née Schütte)

Friederike Contier (née Schütte)

PhD Student

Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, University of Potsdam

I am curious how language processing is intertwined with other aspects of human cognition. This question goes in both directions: How do other phenomena, like verbal working memory, inherently rely on linguistic representations? And at the same time: How do language comprehension and production exploit other cognitive processes, such as attention and executive control?

Download my CV.

Interests
  • Neurocognition of language & meaning
  • Sentence comprehension
  • Event-related potentials
  • Verbal working memory
  • (Early) word learning
Education
  • M.A in Applied Linguistics - Acquisition, Processing, & Use of Language, 2018

    University of Erfurt, Germany

  • B.A. in Cultural Studies and Sciences, 2015

    European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany

  • Erasmus Semester at the Faculty of Arts and Communication, 2013

    Malmö Högskola, Malmö, Sweden

Conference Contributions

The P600 and explicit memory formation.
Poster presentation
Co-registration of EEG and pupil size links the P600 to norepinephrine activity
Poster presentation
Do pragmatic inferences aid word learning in young children and adults?
Poster presentation
Syntax, morphosyntax, and serial recall - How language supports short-term memory for order
Talk
Preschoolers Make Retrospective Inferences in Their Selective Trust Choices
Poster presentation

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
PhD Student & Research Associate
Cognitive Neuroscience lab, University of Potsdam
Aug 2020 – Present Potsdam, Germany
In my PhD, I further investigate the P600 ERP component (see Contier et al., 2022 and further info in Projects). Supervised by Milena Rabovsky, Mathias Weymar, and Isabell Wartenburger.
 
 
 
 
 
PhD Student & Research Associate
Cognitive Development lab, University of Göttingen
Oct 2018 – Jul 2020 Göttingen, Germany
Behavioral experiments on children’s early word learning. The project focused on how children learn selectively from reliable rather than unreliable speakers (see Schütte, Mani, & Behne, 2020). Supervised by Tanya Behne & Nivedita Mani.
 
 
 
 
 
Research Associate
Department of Cognitive and Instructional Psychology, University of Erfurt
Jul 2018 – Sep 2018 Erfurt, Germany
Finished an experimental series on the role of linguistic long-term representations on verbal short-term memory (see Schweppe, Schütte et al., 2021). Supervised by Judith Schweppe.
 
 
 
 
 
Research Assistant
Department of Language Acquisition and Multilingualism, University of Erfurt
Jul 2017 – Mar 2018 Erfurt, Germany

Responsibilities included:

  • Preprocessing of longitudinal bilingual language acquisition data (children, M-CDI and FRAKIS)
  • Assistance in conference organization (Harmonious Bilingual Network Colloquium, La Hulpe, Belgium, May 24-26, 2018)
  • Analysing longitudinal data: Development of production and comprehension of translation equivalents in 24 months old bilingual toddlers
  • Supervised by Annick De Houwer
 
 
 
 
 
Research Assistant
Department of Cognitive and Instructional Psychology, University of Erfurt
Feb 2016 – May 2018 Erfurt, Germany

Responsibilities included:

  • Behavioral testing of verbal working memory studies
  • Assistance in creating experimental stimuli
  • (Behavioral) data processing
  • Supervised by Ralf Rummer & Judith Schweppe
 
 
 
 
 
Research Trainee
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Apr 2017 – Jun 2017 Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Designed & conducted a study on how (visual) perspective-taking influences language comprehension. Supervised by Shiri Lev-Ari.
 
 
 
 
 
Visiting Researcher
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Aug 2014 – May 2015 Leipzig, Germany
Designed & conducted an experiment investigating how musical “semantics” support novel word learning (see Fritz et al., 2019). Supervised by Tom H. Fritz.
 
 
 
 
 
Student Assistant
Department of Pragmatics and Contrastive Linguistics, European University Viadrina
Oct 2013 – Sep 2015 Frankfurt (Oder), Germany

Responsibilities included:

  • Teaching assistance in linguistics seminars (e.g., “Applied Linguistics”)
  • Assistance in organizing the third Conference of the German Association of Applied Linguistics (GAL), Frankfurt (Oder) / Słubice, Germany (September 23-25, 2015)
  • Assistance in proof-reading the “Manual of Deixis in Romance Languages” (2015, De Gruyter)
  • Supervised by Peter Rosenberg & Konstanze Jungbluth
 
 
 
 
 
Tutor
European University Viadrina
Apr 2012 – Sep 2015 Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
Lead 1-2 tutoring groups (seminars) per semester, accompanying the “Introduction to Linguistics” (Peter Rosenberg). Tutoring included discussing the readings, giving talks on background literature, and evaluating students essays and presentations.

Skills

Methods

EEG (ERPs), behavioral testing, eye-tracking/pupillometry, language screenings, transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation

Exp. stimulus presentation

PsychToolBox, E-Prime, Experiment Builder

Statistical software

IBM SPSS Statistics, JASP

Programming

R (experimental data pre-processing & analyses, using e.g., mixed regression models), Matlab (stimulus presentation & data processing for eye-tracking and EEG experiments)

Languages

English (fluent), German (native), Spanish (fair), Swedish (beginner), German Sign Language (beginner)

Cheese making

E.g., Ricotta, paneer, mozzarella

Contact

  • University of Potsdam, Dep. of Psychology, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, Potsdam, 14476
  • LinguaFriede