Welcome
Language is one of the most powerful windows into the human mind. I find referentiality especially compelling because it sits at the intersection of verbal and non-verbal communication and recruits a range of cognitive resources—including working memory, executive functions, predictive processing, and theory of mind—offering a unique window into how people construct meaning and why communication succeeds or breaks down. Understanding these mechanisms not only advances our knowledge of human language and cognition but also has important implications for identifying, assessing, and supporting communication difficulties across clinical and educational settings.
My research is driven by a central question: How do humans construct coherent discourse and express thoughts through language? Studying communication in psychiatric and neurological disorders provides a unique opportunity to understand the mechanisms that normally support language and cognition, and to advance fundamental theories of language processing. To address this question, I collaborate across psycholinguistics, cognitive neuroscience, psychiatry, computational linguistics, and artificial intelligence, I combine behavioural experiments, eye-tracking, EEG/ERP, neuroimaging, computational language analysis, and clinical speech analysis to investigate language processing across both healthy and clinical populations. This interdisciplinary approach lets me build a unified understanding of language, cognition, and communication—from linguistic representations to brain function and behaviour.
A major focus of my work is developing objective linguistic and neural markers of cognitive and psychiatric disorders, integrating psycholinguistic research with computational methods, cognitive neuroscience, and clinical science. Ultimately, my goal is to translate discoveries about human communication into practical applications that support earlier identification of communication disorders, more precise clinical assessment, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), educational practice, and the development of language technologies and artificial intelligence.
I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Cologne, where I work with Prof. Klaus von Heusinger in the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) on discourse processing and referential communication. I also lead the LAMBDA Project, an interdisciplinary research programme investigating language and neural biomarkers for psychiatric disorders.
Research Interests
My work focuses on the following interconnected research areas.
1. Referential Processing and Discourse Comprehension
Understanding how speakers and listeners establish, maintain, and interpret reference during discourse, and how these processes support coherent communication.
2. Prediction, Referential Ambiguity, and Uncertainty
Investigating how people process underspecified, ambiguous, and/or uncertain linguistic input, and how eye movements and ERP components reveal the cognitive mechanisms underlying prediction, shallow and deep processing, and discourse revision.
3. Multimodal Discourse Processing
Examining how language is integrated with visual information during the comprehension and production of comics, narratives, conversations, and other naturalistic communicative settings.
4. Language Processing in Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders
Investigating how disruptions to language and communication provide unique insights into the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying human language. By combining behavioural experiments, computational language analysis, neuroimaging, and clinical research, I investigate language and neural biomarkers that improve our understanding of psychiatric and neurological disorders while also advancing theories of language processing, discourse, and cognition.
5. Artificial Intelligence and Computational Linguistics
Applying computational linguistics, natural language processing, and large language models to characterize language behaviour, identify clinically relevant linguistic markers, and advance theories of language processing, discourse, and communication.
6. Brain and Language
Investigating how alterations in brain function influence language and communication, and how communication breakdowns provide insights into the neural mechanisms underlying discourse coherence, cognition, and psychiatric and neurological disorders.
⭐⭐New Research Results in 2026 ⭐ ⭐
1. Three Dimensions of Speech Coherence Published in *Schizophrenia* (Nature Portfolio)
Our latest study demonstrates that speech coherence comprises three complementary dimensions—local, global, and thematic coherence. We show that individuals with early psychosis and their family members exhibit distinctive coherence profiles, providing new insights into language-based markers that may precede the onset of psychosis and contribute to earlier detection and intervention.
2. Automated Detection of Referential Features Using Large Language Models
Our article published in *Neuropsychologia* demonstrates that state-of-the-art large language models successfully reproduce findings previously obtained through manual linguistic annotation. Using in-context learning, we show that LLMs can automatically identify clinically relevant referential features associated with formal thought disorder, opening new opportunities for scalable language-based assessment in psychiatry.
3. Reliability of Computational Speech and Language Biomarkers
This article in *Computer Speech & Language* provides one of the first comprehensive evaluations of the test–retest reliability of computational speech and language markers. While acoustic-prosodic measures proved highly reliable, many semantic and syntactic features showed substantially lower stability, highlighting important considerations for future clinical applications of natural language processing.
4. Comparing Language Disorders in Aphasia and Schizophrenia
Published in *Cortex*, this collaborative study compares language production in aphasia and schizophrenia using manual linguistic analyses together with computational methods. The findings reveal both shared and disorder-specific disruptions across lexical, syntactic, and discourse levels, providing new insights into the relationship between language impairment and thought disorder.
📄 Selected Publications📄
Here are some representative publications. A complete list of publications is available on the Publications page.
Language and Neural Biomarkers
Çokal, D., Aloraini, A., Palominos, C. F., Demirlek, C., Verim, B., Yalınçetin, B., Bora, E., & Hinzen, W. (2026). Three dimensions of speech coherence in people with early psychosis and their family members. Schizophrenia (Nature Portfolio), 12, 2.
Çokal, D., Filizer, M., Villalba, M., Turkington, D., Ferrier, I. N., von Heusinger, K., Watson, S., Hinzen, W., & Poesio, M. (2026). Automated detection of referential features in schizophrenic speech using large language models. Neuropsychologia, 230, 109505.
Çokal, D., Villalba, M., He, R., Palominos, F. C., Böke, A., Homan, P., von Heusinger, K., Kambeitz, J., & Hinzen, W. (2026). What is the test–retest reliability of computationally extractable speech and language markers? Computer Speech & Language, 100, 101981.
Çokal, D., Sevilla, G., Jones, W., Zimmerer, V., Douglas, M., Spencer, H., Turkington, D., Ferrier, I. N., Varley, R., Watson, S., & Hinzen, W. (2018). The language profile of formal thought disorder. npj Schizophrenia (Nature Portfolio), 4(1).
Language Processing and Discourse
Çokal, D., Bishop, J., Tarregrossa, J., Patterson, C., Grice, M., Wehrle, S., Lialiou, M., Repp, S., Seeliger, H., Eisenbeiß, S., von Heusinger, K., Vogeley, K., & Schumacher, P. (2025). Individual differences in discourse management. Frontiers in Communication.
Çokal, D., & von Heusinger, K. (2024). German demonstratives in contrast. Dialogue & Discourse, 15(1), 45–76.
Çokal, D., Filik, R., Sturt, P., & Poesio, M. (2023). Anaphoric reference to mereological entities. Discourse Processes, 60 (3), 202–223.
Ferreira, F., & Çokal, D. (2015). Sentence Processing. In G. Hickok & S. Small (Eds.). Neurobiology of Language.
Language, AI, and the Brain
Bruera, A., Tao, Y., Anderson, A., Çokal, D., Haber, J., & Poesio, M. (2024). Encoding brain representations of fine-grained concreteness shifts using contextualized language. Cognitive Science, 47(12), e13388.
Poesio, M., Yu, J., Paun, S., Aloraini, A., Haber, J., & Çokal, D. (2023). Computational models of anaphora. Annual Review of Linguistics, 9 (1), 561–587.
Invited Talks
1. Cognitive Processing of German demonstratives: insights from offline and online processing. Tilburg University, The Netherlands. (2025).
2. Unlocking psychosis: the role and mechanisms of language, University of Malta, Malta. (2024).
3. Individual differences in neurotypicals and mental health disorders, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus. (2024).
4. Processing and production of referential expressions in L2 learners, neurotypical and clinical populations. University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain. (2022).
5. Referentiality across neurotypical and clinical populations. University of Cologne, Germany. (2021).
6. What does “referentiality” tell us about neurotypical and clinical populations? University of Graz, Austria. (2021).
7. Do we always disambiguate referential expressions? The Bilingual Mind Group, Universidad del País Vasco, Spain. (2020).
8. Language and thought. Workshop: What’s Up PaLS? Department of Psychology and Language Sciences, UCL, UK. (2020).
9. The processing and production of referential expressions in Neurotypical and Clinical Groups. LingLunch, Department of Linguistics, Queen Mary University of London, UK. (2019).
10. Linguistically profiling schizophrenia with/without formal thought disorder. Department of Psychology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey. (2019).
11. Sentence processing mechanisms. School of English Language, Nottingham University, Nottingham, UK. (2018)
12. A psycholinguistic approach to this and that in cognitive processing of anaphora in written discourse. University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK. (2017).
13. Processing of noisy input and implications for intercultural communication. School of English Language, Nottingham University, Nottingham, UK. (2016).
Collaborations
Advancing our understanding of language, cognition, and communication requires interdisciplinary and international collaboration. I work with researchers across Europe, North America, and the Middle East bringing together expertise in psycholinguistics, cognitive neuroscience, psychiatry, computational linguistics, and artificial intelligence.
📩 Get in Touch
Interested in collaborating?
Whether you're a researcher, clinician, educator, or student, I'd be delighted to hear from you.
📧 [email protected]
Language is one of the most powerful windows into the human mind. I find referentiality especially compelling because it sits at the intersection of verbal and non-verbal communication and recruits a range of cognitive resources—including working memory, executive functions, predictive processing, and theory of mind—offering a unique window into how people construct meaning and why communication succeeds or breaks down. Understanding these mechanisms not only advances our knowledge of human language and cognition but also has important implications for identifying, assessing, and supporting communication difficulties across clinical and educational settings.
My research is driven by a central question: How do humans construct coherent discourse and express thoughts through language? Studying communication in psychiatric and neurological disorders provides a unique opportunity to understand the mechanisms that normally support language and cognition, and to advance fundamental theories of language processing. To address this question, I collaborate across psycholinguistics, cognitive neuroscience, psychiatry, computational linguistics, and artificial intelligence, I combine behavioural experiments, eye-tracking, EEG/ERP, neuroimaging, computational language analysis, and clinical speech analysis to investigate language processing across both healthy and clinical populations. This interdisciplinary approach lets me build a unified understanding of language, cognition, and communication—from linguistic representations to brain function and behaviour.
A major focus of my work is developing objective linguistic and neural markers of cognitive and psychiatric disorders, integrating psycholinguistic research with computational methods, cognitive neuroscience, and clinical science. Ultimately, my goal is to translate discoveries about human communication into practical applications that support earlier identification of communication disorders, more precise clinical assessment, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), educational practice, and the development of language technologies and artificial intelligence.
I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Cologne, where I work with Prof. Klaus von Heusinger in the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) on discourse processing and referential communication. I also lead the LAMBDA Project, an interdisciplinary research programme investigating language and neural biomarkers for psychiatric disorders.
Research Interests
My work focuses on the following interconnected research areas.
1. Referential Processing and Discourse Comprehension
Understanding how speakers and listeners establish, maintain, and interpret reference during discourse, and how these processes support coherent communication.
2. Prediction, Referential Ambiguity, and Uncertainty
Investigating how people process underspecified, ambiguous, and/or uncertain linguistic input, and how eye movements and ERP components reveal the cognitive mechanisms underlying prediction, shallow and deep processing, and discourse revision.
3. Multimodal Discourse Processing
Examining how language is integrated with visual information during the comprehension and production of comics, narratives, conversations, and other naturalistic communicative settings.
4. Language Processing in Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders
Investigating how disruptions to language and communication provide unique insights into the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying human language. By combining behavioural experiments, computational language analysis, neuroimaging, and clinical research, I investigate language and neural biomarkers that improve our understanding of psychiatric and neurological disorders while also advancing theories of language processing, discourse, and cognition.
5. Artificial Intelligence and Computational Linguistics
Applying computational linguistics, natural language processing, and large language models to characterize language behaviour, identify clinically relevant linguistic markers, and advance theories of language processing, discourse, and communication.
6. Brain and Language
Investigating how alterations in brain function influence language and communication, and how communication breakdowns provide insights into the neural mechanisms underlying discourse coherence, cognition, and psychiatric and neurological disorders.
⭐⭐New Research Results in 2026 ⭐ ⭐
1. Three Dimensions of Speech Coherence Published in *Schizophrenia* (Nature Portfolio)
Our latest study demonstrates that speech coherence comprises three complementary dimensions—local, global, and thematic coherence. We show that individuals with early psychosis and their family members exhibit distinctive coherence profiles, providing new insights into language-based markers that may precede the onset of psychosis and contribute to earlier detection and intervention.
2. Automated Detection of Referential Features Using Large Language Models
Our article published in *Neuropsychologia* demonstrates that state-of-the-art large language models successfully reproduce findings previously obtained through manual linguistic annotation. Using in-context learning, we show that LLMs can automatically identify clinically relevant referential features associated with formal thought disorder, opening new opportunities for scalable language-based assessment in psychiatry.
3. Reliability of Computational Speech and Language Biomarkers
This article in *Computer Speech & Language* provides one of the first comprehensive evaluations of the test–retest reliability of computational speech and language markers. While acoustic-prosodic measures proved highly reliable, many semantic and syntactic features showed substantially lower stability, highlighting important considerations for future clinical applications of natural language processing.
4. Comparing Language Disorders in Aphasia and Schizophrenia
Published in *Cortex*, this collaborative study compares language production in aphasia and schizophrenia using manual linguistic analyses together with computational methods. The findings reveal both shared and disorder-specific disruptions across lexical, syntactic, and discourse levels, providing new insights into the relationship between language impairment and thought disorder.
📄 Selected Publications📄
Here are some representative publications. A complete list of publications is available on the Publications page.
Language and Neural Biomarkers
Çokal, D., Aloraini, A., Palominos, C. F., Demirlek, C., Verim, B., Yalınçetin, B., Bora, E., & Hinzen, W. (2026). Three dimensions of speech coherence in people with early psychosis and their family members. Schizophrenia (Nature Portfolio), 12, 2.
Çokal, D., Filizer, M., Villalba, M., Turkington, D., Ferrier, I. N., von Heusinger, K., Watson, S., Hinzen, W., & Poesio, M. (2026). Automated detection of referential features in schizophrenic speech using large language models. Neuropsychologia, 230, 109505.
Çokal, D., Villalba, M., He, R., Palominos, F. C., Böke, A., Homan, P., von Heusinger, K., Kambeitz, J., & Hinzen, W. (2026). What is the test–retest reliability of computationally extractable speech and language markers? Computer Speech & Language, 100, 101981.
Çokal, D., Sevilla, G., Jones, W., Zimmerer, V., Douglas, M., Spencer, H., Turkington, D., Ferrier, I. N., Varley, R., Watson, S., & Hinzen, W. (2018). The language profile of formal thought disorder. npj Schizophrenia (Nature Portfolio), 4(1).
Language Processing and Discourse
Çokal, D., Bishop, J., Tarregrossa, J., Patterson, C., Grice, M., Wehrle, S., Lialiou, M., Repp, S., Seeliger, H., Eisenbeiß, S., von Heusinger, K., Vogeley, K., & Schumacher, P. (2025). Individual differences in discourse management. Frontiers in Communication.
Çokal, D., & von Heusinger, K. (2024). German demonstratives in contrast. Dialogue & Discourse, 15(1), 45–76.
Çokal, D., Filik, R., Sturt, P., & Poesio, M. (2023). Anaphoric reference to mereological entities. Discourse Processes, 60 (3), 202–223.
Ferreira, F., & Çokal, D. (2015). Sentence Processing. In G. Hickok & S. Small (Eds.). Neurobiology of Language.
Language, AI, and the Brain
Bruera, A., Tao, Y., Anderson, A., Çokal, D., Haber, J., & Poesio, M. (2024). Encoding brain representations of fine-grained concreteness shifts using contextualized language. Cognitive Science, 47(12), e13388.
Poesio, M., Yu, J., Paun, S., Aloraini, A., Haber, J., & Çokal, D. (2023). Computational models of anaphora. Annual Review of Linguistics, 9 (1), 561–587.
Invited Talks
1. Cognitive Processing of German demonstratives: insights from offline and online processing. Tilburg University, The Netherlands. (2025).
2. Unlocking psychosis: the role and mechanisms of language, University of Malta, Malta. (2024).
3. Individual differences in neurotypicals and mental health disorders, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus. (2024).
4. Processing and production of referential expressions in L2 learners, neurotypical and clinical populations. University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain. (2022).
5. Referentiality across neurotypical and clinical populations. University of Cologne, Germany. (2021).
6. What does “referentiality” tell us about neurotypical and clinical populations? University of Graz, Austria. (2021).
7. Do we always disambiguate referential expressions? The Bilingual Mind Group, Universidad del País Vasco, Spain. (2020).
8. Language and thought. Workshop: What’s Up PaLS? Department of Psychology and Language Sciences, UCL, UK. (2020).
9. The processing and production of referential expressions in Neurotypical and Clinical Groups. LingLunch, Department of Linguistics, Queen Mary University of London, UK. (2019).
10. Linguistically profiling schizophrenia with/without formal thought disorder. Department of Psychology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey. (2019).
11. Sentence processing mechanisms. School of English Language, Nottingham University, Nottingham, UK. (2018)
12. A psycholinguistic approach to this and that in cognitive processing of anaphora in written discourse. University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK. (2017).
13. Processing of noisy input and implications for intercultural communication. School of English Language, Nottingham University, Nottingham, UK. (2016).
Collaborations
Advancing our understanding of language, cognition, and communication requires interdisciplinary and international collaboration. I work with researchers across Europe, North America, and the Middle East bringing together expertise in psycholinguistics, cognitive neuroscience, psychiatry, computational linguistics, and artificial intelligence.
📩 Get in Touch
Interested in collaborating?
Whether you're a researcher, clinician, educator, or student, I'd be delighted to hear from you.
📧 [email protected]
