I’m a cognitive neuroscientist investigating how language processing interacts with domain-general cognitive mechanisms such as attention, memory, arousal, and prediction. My research combines EEG/ERP, MEG, pupillometry, behavioral modeling, and neuromodulation approaches to study adaptive cognitive processes during language comprehension and cognition.

Download my CV.

Interests
  • Neurocognition of language & meaning
  • Predictive processing and uncertainty
  • Attention and adaptive control
  • Neural dynamics of memory and prediction
  • EEG/MEG, neurophysiology, and computational modeling
Education

  • PhD in Psychology, 2025

    University of Potsdam, Germany

  • 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

Publications

Friederike Contier, Isabell Wartenburger, Mathias Weymar, Milena Rabovsky (2026). No effect of continuoustranscutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation on the P3, P600, or physiologicalmarkers of noradrenergic activity in an oddball and sentence comprehension task. Psychophysiology.

PDF Cite DOI

Hong Xiao, Judith Schweppe, Pauline Querilla, Lucie Attout, Friederike Contier, Steve Majerus (2025). Syntactic knowledge does support working memory for serial order: A comparison across French and German languages. Memory & Cognition.

PDF Cite DOI

Friederike Contier, Melissa Hoeger, Milena Rabovsky (2025). The P600 during sentence reading predicts behavioral and neural markers of recognition memory. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

PDF Cite DOI

Friederike Contier, Isabell Wartenburger, Mathias Weymar, Milena Rabovsky (2024). Are the P600 and P3 ERP components linked to the task-evoked pupillary response as a correlate of norepinephrine activity?. Psychophysiology, 61(7).

PDF Cite DOI

Natalie Bleijlevens, Friederike Contier, Tanya Behne (2023). Pragmatics aid referent disambiguation and word learning in young children and adults. Developmental Science 26 (4).

PDF Cite Code Dataset DOI

Friederike Contier, Mathias Weymar, Isabell Wartenburger, Milena Rabovsky (2022). Sustained Attention as Measured by Reaction Time Variability Is a Strong Modulator for the P600, but Not the N400. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 34(12).

PDF Cite DOI

Judith Schweppe, Friederike Schütte, Franziska Machleb, Marie Hellfritsch (2021). Syntax, morphosyntax, and serial recall: How language supports short-term memory. Memory and Cognition, 50.

PDF Cite Code Dataset DOI

Friederike Schütte, Nivedita Mani, Tanya Behne (2020). Retrospective inferences in selective trust. Royal Society Open Science, 7(2).

PDF Cite Code Dataset DOI

Thomas Hans Fritz, Friederike Schütte, Agnes Steixner, Oliver Contier, Hellmuth Obrig, Arno Villringer (2019). Musical meaning modulates word acquisition. Brain and Language, 190(3).

Cite DOI

Conference Contributions

Phasic NE release during sentence comprehension? Influence of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation on the P600.
Poster presentation
Oct 6, 2022 — Oct 8, 2022 14th annual meeting of the Society of the Neurobiology of Language, Philadelphia, US
The P600 and explicit memory formation.
Poster presentation
Oct 6, 2022 — Oct 8, 2022 14th annual meeting of the Society of the Neurobiology of Language, Philadelphia, US
The P600 and P3 ERP components are linked to pupil dilation as correlate of norepinephrine activity.
Poster presentation
Jul 27, 2022 — Jul 30, 2022 Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Toronto, Canada
The P600 and P3 are linked to noradrenergic activity. Evidence from EEG and pupillometry
Poster presentation
Jun 16, 2022 — Jun 18, 2022 47th Annual Conference of Psychology and the Brain, Freiburg, Germany,
Co-registration of EEG and pupil size links the P600 to norepinephrine activity
Poster presentation
Mar 16, 2022 — Mar 17, 2022 Neurobiology of Language - Key Issues and Ways Forward II (virtual, hosted by the MPI for Psycholinguistics)
The P600, but not the N400, is modulated by sustained attention
Slide slam presentation
Oct 5, 2021 — Oct 8, 2021 13th annual meeting of the Society of the Neurobiology of Language (virtual)
Is the P600 linked to phasic noradrenaline release? Relating ERPs to pupil size in a sentence processing paradigm
Short talk
Sep 2, 2021 — Sep 4, 2021 Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP) Conference (Paris, France / virtual)
Do pragmatic inferences aid word learning in young children and adults?
Poster presentation
Aug 30, 2021 — Sep 2, 2021 28th Conference of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology (Leipzig, Germany / virtual)
The role of object novelty and pragmatic reasoning in referent selection and retention
Poster presentation
Jan 4, 2021 — Jan 8, 2021 Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development (Budapest, Hungary / virtual)
Syntax, morphosyntax, and serial recall - How language supports short-term memory for order
Talk
Sep 1, 2020 — Sep 3, 2020 10th European Working Memory Symposium (Cardiff, United Kingdom / virtual)
Verbal short-term memory without language processing? The role of syntax and morpho-syntax
Poster presentation
Jun 3, 2020 — Jun 5, 2020 IMPRS Conference (Nijmegen, The Netherlands / virtual)
Now I know who was right before! When learning from others, preschoolers consider subsequent cues of informant reliability
Poster presentation
Jan 9, 2020 — Jan 11, 2020 Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development (Budapest, Hungary)
Preschoolers Make Retrospective Inferences in Their Selective Trust Choices
Poster presentation
Oct 17, 2019 — Oct 19, 2019 Bi-Ennial Conference of the Cognitive Development Society (Louisville, Kentucky, United States)
Retrospective inferences in selective trust
Talk within the symposium on “Preschoolers selective trust in different contexts”
Sep 9, 2019 — Sep 12, 2019 paEpsy (Leipzig, Germany)
Immediate serial recall at the transition from unrelated word lists to sentences
Poster presentation
Aug 29, 2018 — Aug 31, 2018 9th European Working Memory Symposium (Pavia, Italy)
Production and comprehension of translation equivalents in 24 months old bilingual toddlers - An investigation on the basis of M-CDI and FRAKIS data
Poster presentation
May 24, 2018 — May 26, 2018 Harmonious Bilingual Network Colloquium (La Hulpe, Belgium)

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Postdoctoral Researcher (MSCA-PF)
Predictive Brain Lab, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour
Oct 2026 – Present Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Investigating prediction under uncertainty in language comprehension
 
 
 
 
 
Postdoctoral Researcher
Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, University of Potsdam
Feb 2025 – Sep 2026 Potsdam, Germany
Further research on the P600 and domain-general mechanisms in language comprehension
 
 
 
 
 
PhD Student & Research Associate
Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, University of Potsdam
Aug 2020 – Feb 2025 Potsdam, Germany
In my PhD, I further investigate the P600 ERP component (see Contier et al., 2022, 2024, 2025). 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

Projects

*
All P600 Other

The P600, P3, and phasic noradrenaline release

PhD project