{"id":7,"date":"2024-04-04T09:13:50","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T06:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/lyu\/research\/"},"modified":"2025-04-16T11:20:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T08:20:16","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/lyu\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-ad2f72ca wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\">Our group\u2019s research activity is mainly funded by the Estonian Research Council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"489\" height=\"154\" src=\"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/678\/Screenshot-2024-08-15-at-2.31.18%E2%80%AFPM-e1723721647894.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-159\" style=\"object-fit:cover;width:400px;height:120px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/678\/Screenshot-2024-08-15-at-2.31.18\u202fPM-e1723721647894.png 489w, https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/678\/Screenshot-2024-08-15-at-2.31.18\u202fPM-e1723721647894-300x94.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 489px) 100vw, 489px\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 22px;\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Auditory perception<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Estonian Research Council project <a href=\"https:\/\/www.etis.ee\/Portal\/Projects\/Display\/ea0cc92e-5bd7-4e5f-af17-7ea40345422d\">PSG902 \u201cNative Language Experience and the Brain\u2019s Perception and Learning of a Foreign Language\u201d (2024\u20132028)<\/a> asks how the phonetic systems in different languages affect the brain\u2019s auditory perception ability differently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whereas Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language where pitch is dominantly used to discriminate word meanings, English is a non-tonal language. Estonian is a \u201cpartially tonal\u201d language where pitch is important but secondary to duration. Pitch has different statuses in the three languages. How the difference in the phonetic systems affects their native speakers\u2019 brains\u2019 perception and learning of a foreign language is what we are currently investigating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Representative work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Lyu, S., P\u00f5ldver, N., Kask, L., Wang, L., &amp; Kreegipuu, K. (2024). Native language background affects the perception of duration and pitch. <em>Brain and Language. 256,<\/em> 105460.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lyu, S., P\u00f5ldver, N., Kask, L., Wang, L., &amp; Kreegipuu, K. (2024). Effect of musical expertise on the perception of duration and pitch in language: A cross-linguistic study.\u00a0<em>Acta Psychologica, 244<\/em>, 104195.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 22px;\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Language and social psychology<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Human beings communicate through language. In this line of research, we examine how a variety of social and psychological factors affect verbal communication in different social contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>(1)<\/strong> <span style=\"color: #212121;\">When we utter a sentence, we deliver a message through it. However, quite often, we say things implicitly. Implicity makes it challenging for the hearer to correctly understand what message the speaker wants to deliver and leaves room for the speaker to deny what he\/she has said. We combine pragmatics theory and psychological research methods to understand how people (as message receivers) interpret implicit expressions and how the interpretation is affected by linguistic and non-linguistic factors.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Representative work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Lyu, S., &amp; Yuan, W. (2023). Perception of implicit promise in face-threatening contexts.\u00a0<em>Journal of Pragmatics<\/em>,\u00a0<em>208<\/em>, 53\u201371.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Yuan, W., &amp;\u00a0Lyu, S.\u00a0(2022). Speech act matters: Commitment to what\u2019s said or what\u2019s implicated differs in the case of assertion and promise.\u00a0<em>Journal of Pragmatics<\/em>,\u00a0<em>191<\/em>, 128\u2013142.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>(2)<\/strong> Culture affects the use of language. Under the framework of cross-cultural psychology, we view culture as an independent variable and examine how it affects human language behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Representative work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>How culture affects the language of communicating one\u2019s positive performance: Across eight cultures. (in preparation)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Power distance affects the language to refuse and promise: Comparing Chinese and Estonian cultures. (in preparation)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 22px;\">Sentence and discourse processing<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We investigate how the brain builds complex discourse relations (e.g., causal and concessive) in a fast manner. We measure eye movements or non-invasively brain electric signals millisecond by millisecond as people read or listen to texts. We aim to understand how people make use of linguistic (e.g., sentence structures, discourse connectives) and non-linguisitc (e.g., world knowledge) cues to comprehenn the language they are processing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Representative work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Lyu, S., Tu, J.-Y., &amp; Lin, C.-J. C. (2024). Structural position affects topic transition: An eye-tracking study.\u00a0<em>Language and Linguistics<\/em>,\u00a0<em>25<\/em>(1), 56\u201379.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lyu, S., &amp; Wang, L. (2022). Implicit causality and pronoun resolution in intersubjective discourse relations.\u00a0<em>Frontiers in Psychology<\/em>,\u00a0<em>13<\/em>, 866103.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lyu, S., Tu, J.-Y., &amp; Lin, C.-J. C. (2020). Processing plausibility in concessive and causal relations: Evidence from self-paced reading and eye-tracking.\u00a0<em>Discourse Processes<\/em>,\u00a0<em>57<\/em>(4), 320\u2013342.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Our group\u2019s research activity is mainly funded by the Estonian Research Council. Auditory perception The Estonian Research Council project PSG902 \u201cNative Language Experience and the Brain\u2019s Perception and Learning of a Foreign Language\u201d (2024\u20132028) asks how the phonetic systems &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/lyu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/lyu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/lyu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/lyu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/335"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/lyu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/lyu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":350,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/lyu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions\/350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/lyu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}