About the lab

Introduction

The Language and Thought Investigative Lab was founded in 2022 by Dr Gwijde Maegherman upon joining Queen Mary, University of London. The lab focuses on questions at the intersection of psychology, language and thought, with a more recent interest of interaction between psychology and AI emerging as voice models become more available to the public, and the question of voice identity processes becoming more important. The headings below describe some of the research done in our lab.

Note: the lab is led by a Teaching & Scholarship member of staff and so does not engage full-time research students/staff, but it remains important to recognise students who help to build a collegial lab environment during their BSc, MSc and internship projects. This webpage aids students in feeling part of a research team, allows current students to disseminate their research project more widely, and helps prospective students understand the foci of previous, current and future research projects. 

Research foci

Inner speech, thought, and language

Among the more philosophical interests of the lab is the connection between inner speech and thought. Inner speech is a phenomenon that many, but certainly not all people, experience as a matter of course. Some of the questions we ask are:

• How does inner speech come to be, and what is its function?

• What is the difference between inner speech and thought?

• How do inner speech and thought relate to language as we use it to communicate with others?

Self-talk and mental health

We often talk to ourselves, using our inner speech or even out loud, when we find it useful: for instance, when trying to work out a difficult problem or when pushing ourselves to go the extra mile. Evidently we use self-talk as a cognitive aid, but there are also issues surrounding rumination, intrusive thoughts, and auditory verbal hallucinations. Some of the questions we ask are:

• What is the role of self-talk in sustaining a positive mental health state?

• How do our self-talk (i.e., our own voice) and other voices we might hear affect our mental health?

• How does our perception of our own voice relate to our sense of self?

Voice identity, AI, and learning

We find it easy to identify family and friends by their voice alone, and our voice is an important part of our identity. At the same time, people often rehearse information in order to memorise and learn it. Recent advances in AI have led to interesting questions regarding how automated narration may change how we see voice identity, and how we approach learning. Some of the questions we ask are:

• What role does voice identity play in our behaviour?

• Do we learn better if, e.g., we hear information in our own voice, our parents' voices, or our educators' voices?

• How might AI voice generation affect the way we learn?

Please drop us an email at ltil-psych@qml.ac.uk if you would like more information about our work!