Blog CRC1646

Moritz Wackerbarth (Project X02), Dilara Balaban and Amelie Ewald (both Project C01) attended the International Word Processing Conference (WoProc) in Lisbon from July 6 to 8. The conference was held by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FLUL) at the Rectory of the University of Lisbon located in the north of the city. In their (poster) presentations, they shared insights from their Master's thesis and discussed their current work, respectively. Moritz Wackerbarth further participated in a two-day workshop on Bayesian statistics offered to conference attendees (July 9 and 10).

WoProc 2026 builds upon the tradition of the International Morphological Processing Conference (MoProc), a biennial gathering that has, since 1999, united researchers from around the globe to exchange ideas and discuss advances in morphological processing. Over the years, the conference's focus has expanded to encompass all aspects of word processing research. As a forum for the exchange of findings from psycholinguistic and neurocognitive research, the conference provided an ideal environment for the three doctoral students to present their own ideas for discussion and receive feedback.

The program featured several thematic sessions over the three days and a poster session on the first day, rounded off by Davide Crepaldi’s and Jana Reifegerste’s keynotes speeches that addressed the domain and species generalizability of word processing and the effects of ageing on word retrieval, respectively. The thematic session on “Novel Words and Novel Meanings” was closely aligned with the CRC’s research topics. More general research findings on the representation and processing of language usefully complemented the CRC’s internal reflections regarding which general principles of processing we can rely upon in both conventional and creative speech.

Moritz Wackerbarth presented collaborative work with Antje Lorenz (X02), Katja Kölkebeck and Juliane Bergdolt (Universitätsklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie Bielefeld-Bethel) in a talk titled “Sensorimotor Simulation in Schizophrenia: Evidence from Action and Object Naming”. The study investigated the potential impairment of sensorimotor simulation during semantic memory in patients with schizophrenia as an effect of dopaminergic dysregulation.

Dilara Balaban presented a poster on collaborative work with Amelie Ewald, Jana Häussler and Joana Cholin in project C01, which explored strategies and preferences in naming fictious objects and creatures, thus investigating the morphological possibilities under invention pressure. Amelie Ewald, in her poster titled “Processing wordplay: Individual differences in wordplay affinity in German speakers”, presented her ongoing dissertation project, in which she examines the inclination toward playful language use and its role in linguistic creativity.

WoProc 2026 proved to be a particularly engaging conference both in content and networking opportunities. With its broad scope and the great hospitality of its hosts, it offered attendees the perfect environment to exchange and discuss findings from diverse fields of research.

Ponte 25 de Abril over the Tagus © Amelie Ewald

Conference Inside © Amelie Ewald

Rectory of the University of Lisbon © Amelie Ewald

Torre de Belem © Amelie Ewald

Public Viewing FIFA World Cup © Moritz Wackerbarth