Expertise
My primary research interest involves the development of computational models of human language acquisition. Computational modeling is an effective tool for studying human cognition: whereas linguistic and psychological theories often give a high level explanation for the experimental data, computational models provide a detailed account of the underlying mechanisms for the cognitive task at hand. Moreover, the behaviour of a model can be directly compared to that of humans through computational simulation.
Keywords
Principal publications
- Afra Alishahi (2010). Computational Modeling of Human Language Acquisition. Synthesis Lectures on Human Language Technologies, Morgan & Claypool.
- Afra Alishahi and Suzanne Stevenson (2010). Learning general properties of semantic roles from usage data: a computational model. Language and Cognitive Processes, 25:1, 50-93.
- Afsaneh Fazly, Afra Alishahi and Suzanne Stevenson (2010). A probabilistic computational model of cross-situational word learning. Cognitive Science, 34:6, 1017-1063.
- Afra Alishahi and Suzanne Stevenson (2008). A computational model for early argument structure acquisition. Cognitive Science, 32:5, 789-834.
- Afra Alishahi, Afsaneh Fazly, Judith Koehne and Matthew Crocker (in press). Sentence-based attentional mechanisms in word learning: Evidence from a computational model, To appear in the special issue of Frontiers in Developmental Psychology.
Click here for the list of publications in the Research Portal
Education
Sep. 2002 - June 2008 Ph.D., Computer Science, University of Toronto, Canada.
Sep. 1995 - Sep. 1998 M.S., Computer Engineering, Machine Intelligence & Robotics, University of Tehran, Iran.
Sep. 1990 - Dec. 1994 B.S., Computer Software Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Iran.
Career
Sep. 2011 - presentAssistant Professor, Department of Communication and Information Sciences, Tilburg University, Netherlands.
Aug. 2008 - Aug. 2011Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Computational Linguistics and Phonetics, Saarland University, Germany.
Publications
Principal publications
- Afra Alishahi (2010). Computational Modeling of Human Language Acquisition. Synthesis Lectures on Human Language Technologies, Morgan & Claypool.
- Afra Alishahi and Suzanne Stevenson (2010). Learning general properties of semantic roles from usage data: a computational model. Language and Cognitive Processes, 25:1, 50-93.
- Afsaneh Fazly, Afra Alishahi and Suzanne Stevenson (2010). A probabilistic computational model of cross-situational word learning. Cognitive Science, 34:6, 1017-1063.
- Afra Alishahi and Suzanne Stevenson (2008). A computational model for early argument structure acquisition. Cognitive Science, 32:5, 789-834.
- Afra Alishahi, Afsaneh Fazly, Judith Koehne and Matthew Crocker (in press). Sentence-based attentional mechanisms in word learning: Evidence from a computational model, To appear in the special issue of Frontiers in Developmental Psychology.
Click here for the list of publications in the Research Portal
Teaching
- Research Workshop HAIT, Spring 2012
- Lecture: Digital Collaboration, Spring 2012
- Lecture: Cognitive Linguistics, Fall 2011
- Research skills module: Methods of Analysis of Functional Document, Fall 2011
A. (Afra) Alishahi teaches the following subjects:
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Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Common Ground in Communication (PL,CO,LA)(880067)More information
Teaching activities elsewhere
Department of Computational Linguistics & Phonetics, Saarland University, Germany
Summer Schools and Conferences
Contact details
Room
D 328
PO Box 90153
5000 LE Tilburg
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Phone
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+31 13 466
2584 |
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Secretary
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+31 13 466
8118 |
Personal homepage
Global / English
Nederlands