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Staff Profile

Dr Joel Wallenberg

Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Science

Background

My research and teaching focus on the human language faculty and what linguistic behaviour can tell us about human cognition. I also have interests in risk, linguistic and financial, and maintain work outside of academia in the financial realm.


Please note that I work part-time, and am generally on campus on Wednesdays and Thursdays (subject to some malleability). I also usually check emails on those days. Please email me for meetings, and if you would like to talk on another day, I may be able to accommodate you.

Research

My research focuses on the human language faculty and what linguistic behaviour can tell us about human cognition. I am particularly interested in the application of information theory to syntactic planning, and the adaptation of syntax to noise of all types. I also have interests in risk, linguistic and financial, and maintain work outside of academia in the realm of finance and financial journalism.


Some specific research interests are the following:


The theory of language change, with particular emphasis on the quantitative study of morphosyntactic change; he relationship between language acquisition and change; and the use of information theory to state precise hypotheses about the patterns of change. These patterns can show how the choice between syntactic variants interacts with more general cognitive biases. I am thus also interested in the place of variation in the grammar, and its implications for general cognition and memory. The empirical realm in which I usually work is the Germanic language family, and I often use and develop syntactically parsed corpora in order to do so.


I currently lead a project to develop and use syntactically parsed diachronic corpora of Yiddish and Scots, "Investigating and Treebanking Scots and Yiddish Together (InTSaYT)" (2026-2030) along with colleagues at Newcastle, Edinburgh, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Teaching

I currently teach PSY2030, "Cognitive Computations: Real and Artificial Intelligence."


This module explores the Computational Theory of Mind, a foundational idea underlying modern cognitive science (including, but not limited to, linguistics). We begin with the question, "What, exactly, is 'computation'?" Students will be able to give a precise answer to this question, and one which holds regardless of whether the computation is performed by a human visual cortex, the human language faculty, a barn owl, or a computing machine. Students will also learn how to mathematically characterise different types of computation, and meaningfully ask what level of computational power is involved in various things humans (and non-human animals) do every day, including language and memory.

 

We explore both the usefulness and limitations of computing machines (including archaic and modern computers) as a metaphor for understanding the brain and a number of its cognitive functions, not accepting the Computational Theory of Mind uncritically. We will also discuss technical, socioeconomic, and ethical issues surrounding “AI,” and come to a more precise understanding of that problematic term and its historical context.

Publications