prof. dr. P. (Petra) Hendriks

My research concerns the semantics and pragmatics of language, language development in children, and the relation between language and cognition.

Currently, I am the principal investigator of the following research project:

• NWO SSH Open Competition L project "Unraveling language learning in autism" (2025-2030)
  

In this project, I collaborate with Catharina Hartman (Faculty of Medical Sciences / UMCG), Kirstin Greaves-Lord (Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences) and Jacolien van Rij and Abby Toth (Faculty of Science and Engineering) to investigate how children and young adults with and without autism process referring expressions. To address our research questions, we use psycholinguistic experiments, virtual reality, and computational cognitive modeling.

Previously, in my NWO Vici project "Asymmetries in Grammar" that ended in 2014, I investigated the relation between language production and language comprehension in typically developing children, children with autism, children with ADHD, and adults.

Photo: Milette Raats