Central Department of Linguistics · Tribhuvan University
Estd. 2021 · First lab of its kind in Nepal
स्थापना २०७७ · नेपालमा यस विषयको पहिलो प्रयोगशाला
CSPL studies how bilingualism, trilingualism, literacy, and culture shape language processing and the mind.
संज्ञानात्मक विज्ञान तथा मनोभाषाविज्ञान प्रयोगशाला
भाषाविज्ञान केन्द्रीय विभाग · त्रिभुवन विश्वविद्यालय, नेपाल
From the lab
Talks, workshops, and collaborations carrying CSPL's work beyond Kirtipur.
Dr. Lekhnath Sharma Pathak delivered an invited lecture at the international conference on Language, Mind, and Society. He also led a hands-on workshop on mouse tracking in language-processing research.
Watch the invited talkThe Kathmandu University team is developing Card AI for children with autism, learning difficulties, and speech delays. Its physical cards open into 3D visuals and natural sounds in Nepali and English.
Team Synaptic has been collaborating with CSPL and the Hope Care Centre while testing its prototype with teachers, parents, and therapists.
Read the Kathmandu Post featureAbout
The Cognitive Science and Psycholinguistics Laboratory (CSPL) was founded in February 2021 at the Central Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University, the first and only laboratory of its kind in Nepal.
We investigate parallel language activation among bilinguals and multilinguals and its cognitive mechanisms. Our core finding (that all three languages are simultaneously active in the mental lexicon, with dominant languages processed faster in the presence of a weaker third) challenges established models of bilingual language control. We measure this using mousetracking, capturing the continuous dynamics of cognitive processing in real time.
Nepal's extraordinary multilingual landscape, with over 120 languages across multiple language families, provides a unique setting for studying how the human mind manages competing linguistic representations in non-WEIRD populations. Our work bridges cognitive science and linguistics in a region where experimental approaches to language are only beginning to take root.
Timeline
Latest from the lab
Research
Most of what we know about how the brain handles multiple languages comes from labs in the West, studying Western (WEIRD) populations. We work in a place where speaking three or four languages is ordinary life, and ask what that means for the mind.
How does the brain manage multiple languages at once? We study how bilinguals and trilinguals activate, select, and inhibit competing languages during comprehension and production, and what that tells us about cognitive control more broadly.
How do bilingualism, biliteracy, and language of instruction shape cognitive abilities? We examine the relationship between multilingual experience and executive function across different populations and educational contexts in Nepal.
Does second-language instruction harm the first language? How do children acquire language in multilingual Nepal? We have shown that L2 instruction can enhance rather than attrite L1 abilities, and contributed Nepali data to a 29-language, 34-lab study on spatial cognition published in Nature Human Behaviour.
Methods in practice
01 · Action dynamics
MouseTracker records kinematic action control as participants make mouse-click responses to linguistic and cognitive stimuli, measured in milliseconds. Curvature toward a competitor target directly indexes the degree of parallel language activation, making covert cognitive competition visible in the arc of a cursor.
02 · Visual attention and Cognition
Eye-tracking records where and for how long participants look while reading or viewing experimental stimuli. Fixations and gaze paths help us examine lexical processing, attention, and language–script interactions as they unfold.
