Tilbe Göksun

Language and Cognition Lab

The Language and Cognition lab at Koç University investigates the relation between language and various thinking processes using multiple populations (children, adults, brain injured patients) and methodologies (e.g., looking time-eye tracking, act-out tasks, linguistic analyses). In particular, our developmental studies focus on how children learn their native language, what the precursors are for learning language, and how other modalities such as gesture interact with these processes. We are also interested in how child- and parent-related factors interact for children’s development of language, spatial and mathmematical thinking. Our adult cognitive studies examine the interaction of language with multiple domains such as time perception, time-space interaction, and events. Recently, we have started to examine the link between emotion and language. In most of our research questions, we closely examine the role of gestures in thinking, communicating, and executing information. In this line of research, we also investigate the questions related to understanding and comprehending gestures. For more information please visit our Language and Cognition Lab webpage.

Research Areas

  • Early language development
  • Causal understanding and causal language
  • Language and thought (time & space, time & language, spatial events)
  • Gesture (gesture comprehension, gesture & language)
  • Emotion and language
  • Neuropsychology of language
  • Development of aesthetics

People

Current Post-Docs and Graduate Students

  • İbrahim Akkan
  • Begüm Yılmaz
  • Can Avcı
  • Sultan Karakaş
  • Can Ceylan
  • Kardelen Koç

Undergraduate Independent Study/Honors Students

  • Berkay Bayram
  • İlhan Emre Yavuz
  • Emre Köseoğlu

Alumni

  • Dila Aleyna Falay (MA student, After the lab: PhD Student at the University of Warwick)
  • Hazal Civelek – (MA student, After the lab: PhD Student at George Mason University)
  • Yiğitcan Emir Akbuğa – (PhD student, After the lab: Post-doc at Lund University)
  • Can Avcı – (MA student, Current Position: PhD Student at Koç University)
  • Gyulten Hyusein – (PhD student, Current Position: Asst. Prof. at Kadir Has University)
  • Salih Can Özdemir – (MA student, After the lab: PhD Student at the University of California, San Diego)
  • Şeref Can Esmer – (MA student, After the lab: PhD Student at Yale University)
  • Burcu Arslan – (PhD student)
  • Dilay Karadöller – (Post-doc, After the lab: Asst. Prof. at METU)
  • Ceylan Beşevli – (PhD student, After the lab: Post-doc at University College London)
  • Işıl Doğan – (MA student, After the lab: PhD Student at University of California, Davis)
  • Demet Özer – (Post-doc, PhD & MA student, Current Position: Asst. Prof. at Bilkent University)
  • Esma Nur Asalıoğlu – (MA student)
  • Erim Kızıldere – (MA student, After the lab: PhD Student at University of California, Davis)
  • Mert Kobaş – (MA student, After the lab: PhD Student at New York University)
  • Zeynep Adıgüzel – (MA student)
  • Aslı Aktan Erciyes – (Post-doc, Current Position: Asst. Prof. at Kadir Has University)
  • Junko Kanero – (Post-doc, Current Position: Asst. Prof. at Sabancı University)
  • Gökçe Elif Baykal – (PhD student, After the lab: Postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University, Current Position: Asst. Prof. at Özyeğin University)
  • Ahmet Börütecene – (PhD student, After the lab: Postdoctoral researcher at Linköping University)
  • Sümeyra Saatçi – (MA student, After the lab: MA student in Clinical Psychology at Koç University)
  • Zeynep Aslan – (MA student, After the lab: PhD Student at the University of Chicago)
  • Hazal Kartalkanat – (MA student, After the lab: Project Coordinator at Social Innovation Center)
  • Seda Akbıyık – (MA student, After the lab: PhD Student at Harvard University)
  • Niloofar Akhavan – (MA student, After the lab: PhD Student at UCSD-San Diego State University)
  • Esra Nur Çatak – (MA student, After the lab: PhD Student at Bilkent University)
  • Ayşenur Karaduman – (MA student, After the lab: PhD Student at Bilkent University)
  • Eylül Turan – (Undergraduate Honors Thesis student, After the lab: MA Student at University of Amsterdam, PhD Student at KU Leuven)
  • Orhun Uluşahin – (Undergraduate Honors Thesis student, After the lab: MA Student at Radboud University, PhD Student at Max Planck Psycholinguistics)
  • Can Çarkoğlu – (Undergraduate Honors Thesis student, After the lab: MA Student at University of Chicago, PhD Student at Purdue University)
  • Yağmur Deniz Kısa – (Undergraduate student, After the lab: PhD Student at University of Chicago)
  • Melis Çetinçelik – (Undergraduate Honors Thesis student, After the lab: PhD Student at Radboud University)
  • Deniz Çetin – (Undergraduate Honors Thesis student, After the lab: PhD Student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
  • Sevgi Bahtiyar – (Undergraduate Honors Thesis student, After the lab: PhD Student at Radboud University)

Current Collaborators