This rather pretty plot shows correlations among measures from adult writers providing written names for pictures of everyday objects in one of 14 (yes 14) different European languages. Courtesy of jens-roeser.shinyapps.io/multilangapp/ . A short thread follows...

Writers composing multi-sentence texts often pause briefly, glance back at isolated words or short phrases, then continue writing. We think we have evidence that this cues what to say next. rpubs.com/mark-torranc... or, better, talk to me on Thursday morning at #AMLAP25.

This paper, of which I'm inordinately proud, is now out in JEP-General doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/.... Huge credit to Jens Roeser @sentwrite.bsky.social for conception and all the heavy lifting.

Understanding written composition as fluent, semi-parallel process with occasional hesitations - work led by @sentwrite.bsky.social. We might possibly have already mentioned doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/... And... 2/

Paper in Language and Cognition with @marktorrance.bsky.social and @seriousstats.bsky.social We show that semantic contrast shapes timing of pre-planning in speech and writing. doi.org/10.1017/lang... If you're into how context shapes how we plan language, check it out!

Psychologists assume that bilinguals have shared mental representations of their languages. However most research comes from languages that are relatively similar. We tested bilinguals in languages that are typologically different to challenge this idea. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

"What effect has knowing multiple languages or even languages with two different scripts such as English and Arabic on people's ability to communicate meaning in writing?" Together with @marktorrance.bsky.social, our final year UG students will explore this exciting topic this year.

Our mind translates ideas into language in a remarkable speed. When we asked people to describe pictures, they often respond in only 1 sec. That's because our mind priorities quick responses over fully developed utterances and even more so in writing than speaking. psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-...

We thoroughly enjoyed our discussions at #AMLaP2025. Thanks to everyone who came by to talk to us about spelling and what we can learn from it about how peope produce language.

Spelling can be tricky but imagine switching between two spelling systems where some words are spelled differently ("hånd" in Norwegian) and others look similar ("gift" in Norwegian isn't nice). Check out Helene's research (poster 200 on Thursday Afternoon, 4 Sept. 2025 at #AMLaP in Prague).

My first `posterdown` adventure using @posit.co . The poster for AMLaP 2025 in Prague can now be found here: rpubs.com/jensroes/aml...

If you want to chat about how difficulty with word spelling affects our ability to produce language, please come to the poster sessions on Friday Morning, 5 September 2025 at the AMLaP conference in Prague and say hi :) amlap2025.ff.cuni.cz/poster-sessi... Look out for "Write here, write now!"

When do we actually think about what we want to say and what words to use? Interestingly our mind does a lot of this work while we're writing text. In fact, we demonstrated (psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...) that even young writers often don't stop before starting a new sentence. Way to multitask!

How do we explore how spelling affects our ability to push keys on a keyboard or to move a pen. Well, one way is to get you to face the limits of your spelling skills when naming everyday objects. For example, what would you call the object in the gif below? I'd have to ask google to get it right.

Ever wondered what happens in our mind when we write simple messages, posts, or full essays? Also how can psychologists tests theories about writing? English is known for it's tricky spelling rules which allows psychologists to study what's going on, when things are going wrong.