Laura Pissani, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Departments of Language Science and Technology & Computer Science
Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
I am a postdoctoral researcher at Saarland University, where I investigate how language is processed and represented in the brain. My interdisciplinary research integrates theoretical frameworks from Linguistics—particularly semantics and pragmatics—with experimental paradigms and advanced statistical modeling from Psychology and Data Science. I examine how language comprehension and production unfold in real time to inform our theoretical understanding while also contributing to practical applications.
📩 Email: laura.pissani@uni-saarland.de
📍 Office: Saarland University
Language Science and Technology
Campus C7 2, Room 3.04
66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
News
19 September 2025 — I presented a poster at XPRAG on awakening the literal meaning of metaphors using eye tracking during reading (in collaboration with C. Antal and R. G. de Almeida).
6 September 2025 — I presented a talk at AMLaP on how diffusion models can jointly explain response time and accuracy patterns in maze decisions (in collaboration with J. Duff).
10 August 2025 — I presented a talk at RAaM 2025 on individual differences in metaphor comprehension (in collaboration with M. Scholman and V. Demberg).
1 August 2025 — I presented a talk at CogSci 2025 on the effects of music-induced mood on metaphor comprehension (in collaboration with my student, M. V. Meiser, and V. Demberg).
27 July 2025 — My students, K. Trinley and N. Dzhubaeva, presented their poster at ACL-SRW on stream-of-consciousness narrative production in humans and LLMs.
20 June 2025 — I presented a talk at MenLex 2025 on the effects of familiarity, aptness, and concreteness on metaphor comprehension (in collaboration with C. Genovesi and R. G. de Almeida).
24-27 September 2024 — I presented a poster at XPRAG.it on preliminary results of the effects of individual differences in metaphor comprehension (in collaboration with M. Scholman and V. Demberg).
