Veni grant for Xiaochen Zheng to explore cognitive control processes of language
'Psychologists think I’m a linguist but linguists think I’m a psychologist,' says cognitive neuroscientist Xiaochen Zheng. With the Veni grant she will be able to bring these two fields of research closer together. Read her answers to five questions.
What will you be able to do with the Veni grant?
'I always feel excited about the cognitive control processes that language and other cognitive systems share. But this somehow puts me in an uncomfortable position, where psychologists think I’m a linguist but linguists think I’m a psychologist: well, that’s probably one of the risks of being an interdisciplinary scientist. The Veni grant will allow me to explore my passion further while bringing these two fields of research closer together.'
Why have you been awarded a Veni subsidy?
'I was lucky this year. It's a highly competitive group and the final choice has to be somewhat random - also saying this to last year's me who didn't get the grant. Having said that, I must have done something right this time: probably it helped that I made sure I clearly highlighted the importance of the research and its relevance to society.'
How will your research benefit society?
I believe my project will contribute to society in two ways:
(a) In my project, I aim to address the question 'How do our brains maintain focus while translating thoughts into words?'. This question is also interesting to a broad non-academic audience. I will share the knowledge gained in the project by engaging in multiple public activities.
(b) At the same time, the research question is driven by societal needs, such as school children or individuals with ADHD, who have problems expressing their thoughts coherently in today’s information-overloaded environment.
I will ensure that knowledge gained in this project will contribute to solving societal problems by aligning follow-up research with societal needs. I will also participate in the ongoing collaboration between the Cognitive Psychology unit and a national community of ADHD patients, doctors and scientists: Impuls en Woortblind.
Who would you like to work with?
In my Veni project I will be collaborating closely with Sander Nieuwenhuis and Bryant Jongkees. I’m also open for all kinds of collaborations - I usually get very creative when it comes to team science.
How are you going to share your research data, and with whom?
I have a strong commitment to open science. I pre-register my studies, publish my papers open access, and also publicly share all my research data. The plan for the Veni project is to share the data publicly on the DANS repository DataverseNL.