Personal profile
Research interests
My research explores the structure and cognition of drawings and visual narratives. In particular, my work argues that drawings and sequential images are structured and processed using similar principles and mechanisms as verbal and signed languages. My work explores these "visual languages" across all levels of structure. I use linguistic theory to detail the structure of these systems, and corpus analysis to examine how they differ across cultures. Finally, I use psychological methods of experimentation, primarily cognitive neuroscience (EEG), to examine how people's brains process individual and sequential images.
My work can be found online at: http://www.visuallanguagelab.com
Career
2014-2015. Postdoctoral Fellow. Institute for Neural Computation, UCSD.
2012-2013. Postdoctoral Fellow. Center for Research in Language, UCSD. (Advisors: Marta Kutas, Jeff Elman)
Current courses
Click here for my courses.
External positions
Consultation (BBC News Labs)
1 Mar 2019 → 31 Mar 2019
Consultation and promotion (LingoZING Holdings LTD)
1 Jul 2015 → 30 Jun 2019
Keywords
- visual language
- visual narrative
- multimodality
- cognitive neuroscience
- linguistics
- cross-modal cognition
- drawing
- visual communication
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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SDG 4 Quality Education -
SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Fingerprint
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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The Visual Language of Comics: Introduction to the Structure and Cognition of Sequential Images
Cohn, N., 2013, London: Bloomsbury Academic. 224 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book › Scientific
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(Pea)nuts and bolts of visual narrative: structure and meaning in sequential image comprehension
Cohn, N., Paczynski, M., Jackendoff, R., Holcomb, P. J. & Kuperberg, G. R., Aug 2012, In: Cognitive Psychology. 65, 1, p. 1-38 38 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review
127 Link opens in a new tab Citations (Scopus) -
The grammar of visual narrative: Neural evidence for constituent structure in sequential image comprehension
Cohn, N., Jackendoff, R., Holcomb, P. J. & Kuperberg, G. R., Nov 2014, In: Neuropsychologia. 64, p. 63-70 8 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review
69 Link opens in a new tab Citations (Scopus) -
Explaining 'I Can't Draw': Parallels between the Structure and Development of Language and Drawing
Cohn, N., 2012, In: Human Development. 55, 4, p. 167-192 26 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review
76 Link opens in a new tab Citations (Scopus) -
What is your neural function, visual narrative conjunction? Grammar, meaning, and fluency in sequential image processing
Cohn, N. & Kutas, M., 2017, In: Cognitive research: principles and implications. 2, 1, p. 27Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review
Open AccessFile196 Downloads (Pure)
Activities
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Markus Huff
Cohn, N. (Host)
10 Oct 2018Activity: Hosting a visitor types › Hosting an academic visitor › Scientific
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Benjamin Bach
Cohn, N. (Host)
26 Sept 2018Activity: Hosting a visitor types › Hosting an academic visitor › Scientific
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John Bateman
Cohn, N. (Host)
12 Sept 2018Activity: Hosting a visitor types › Hosting an academic visitor › Scientific
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Complexity in visual narrative grammar
Cohn, N. (Speaker)
27 Jul 2018Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation › Scientific
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The architecture of multimodal cognition
Cohn, N. (Speaker)
7 Jun 2018Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk › Scientific
Press/Media
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Back to the Caveman: Are Emojis Replacing Words?
10/07/18
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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All smilies; are emoji meanings changing how we date?
2/05/17
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
Prizes
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Language processing: domain general or domain specific? ERP studies of verbal and visual language processing in children with typical and atypical language development
Andersson, A. (Recipient), Cohn, N. (Recipient), Hansson, K. (Recipient) & Drury, J. (Recipient), 2020
Prize
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LOT Grotevragenprijs
van Miltenburg, E. (Recipient), Backus, A. (Recipient), Cohen, M. (Recipient), Cohn, N. (Recipient), Faber, M. (Recipient), Krahmer, E. (Recipient), Laparle, S. (Recipient), Sciubba, M. E. (Recipient), Shterionov, D. (Recipient), Sie, M. (Recipient), Tomas, F. (Recipient), Vanmassenhove, E. (Recipient), Venhuizen, N. (Recipient) & de Vos, C. (Recipient), 2023
Prize
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Datasets
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The Visual Language Research Corpus (VLRC) Project
Cohn, N. (Contributor), DataverseNL, 19 Apr 2022
DOI: 10.34894/lwmz7g, https://dataverse.nl/citation?persistentId=doi:10.34894/LWMZ7G
Dataset
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Lexicalization and compositionality of emoji
Cohn, N. (Creator), Weissman, B. (Creator), Engelen, J. (Creator), Thamsen, L. (Creator) & Baas, E. (Creator), DataverseNL, 14 Apr 2022
DOI: 10.34894/grmyi6, https://dataverse.nl/citation?persistentId=doi:10.34894/GRMYI6
Dataset
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Refiner processing in visual narrative grammar
Cohn, N. (Creator), Schilperoord, J. (Creator), Foulsham, T. (Creator) & Van Middelaar, L. (Creator), DataverseNL, 8 Nov 2023
DOI: 10.34894/bvdlzx, https://dataverse.nl/citation?persistentId=doi:10.34894/BVDLZX
Dataset
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Understanding Lightbulb Moments: Meaning-making in Visual Morphology From Comics and Emoji
Lichtenberg, L. D. (Creator), Klomberg, B. (Creator), Schilperoord, J. (Creator) & Cohn, N. (Creator), DataverseNL, 22 Nov 2023
DOI: 10.34894/rmvzjv, https://dataverse.nl/citation?persistentId=doi:10.34894/RMVZJV
Dataset
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Processing and understanding inferential techniques in visual narratives
Klomberg, B. (Contributor) & Cohn, N. (Contributor), DataverseNL, 31 Jan 2022
DOI: 10.34894/dtbw7m, https://dataverse.nl/citation?persistentId=doi:10.34894/DTBW7M
Dataset