📣 Abstraction seminars are back! 🗓️ 13 February 2026, 10:30 (Rome time, UTC+1) 📍 Bologna (in presenza) or 💻 Microsoft Teams (link: shorturl.at/dBI5L) 🎆 Join us for another seminar, details in the figure! 👉 Save the date & spread the word! ✨ @abstractionerc.bsky.social

Our ritual picture during lunch break 😎: Team @abstractionerc.bsky.social and the invited speaker @kristinadespot.bsky.social discussing metaphors around the table! @mariannabolog.bsky.social @caterinavillani.bsky.social @lauraocchipinti.bsky.social @paolavernillo

@kristinadespot.bsky.social on the truthfulness of metaphor in conceptual metaphor theory @abstractionerc.bsky.social

🚨 IconicITA dataset is now available! We present Italian iconicity ratings from L1 and L2 speakers showing that more iconic words are more specific, and that higher L2 proficiency boosts sensitivity to form–meaning resemblance in L1. 📄 More details in the paper: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Say hi to the IconicITA dataset! We introduce iconicity ratings for Italian produced by L1 and L2 speakers, and show how iconicity relates to key psycholinguistic variables and chronometric data. Note: Specificity emerges as a good predictor of iconicity! journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Per chi fosse interessato a leggere cosa fa il gruppo ABSTRACTION @erc.europa.eu , ecco il flipbook interattivo con gli studi condotti fino ad oggi (in lingua italiana). heyzine.com/flip-book/61... Il flipbook accompagna un video introduttivo, che trovate qui: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIqc...

📣 Abstraction seminars are back! 🗓️ 12 December, 10:30 (CET) 🎙️Prof.ssa Kristina S. Despot 🎓Metaphor literalization strategy: From concrete to abstract and back to concrete again 📍 Bologna 💻 Microsoft Teams (link: shorturl.at/B4H7R) 👉 Save the date & spread the word! ✨@abstractionerc.bsky.social

New theoretical paper: “Beyond concreteness: why word specificity is the missing piece in theories on embodied language comprehension” shorturl.at/6Rv3Y Included in the special issue "Rethinking the Embodiment of Language: Challenges and Future Horizons", led by V. Cuccio, V. Gallese & Y. Shtyrov.

E oggi ho condiviso con il centro interdipartimentale Alma AI e un gruppo di colleghe e colleghi giuristi capitanati da Monica Palmirani i risultati a grandi linee del gruppo @abstractionerc.bsky.social su studi che coinvolgono l'uso di LLMs. Questa settimana è decisamente densa :-)

Dopo il seminario di Valentina Cuccio con una delegazionedi Abstraction, nel magnifico chiostro del dipartimento di storia, San Giovanni in Monte, Bologna.

Seeing this slide after completing my postdoc at @abstractionerc.bsky.social makes me emotional. Great talk of @mariannabolog.bsky.social at the workshop "Large and Small Language Models: stato dell’arte fra limiti e prospettive" at Unibo. Many works about abstraction and LLM are on the horizon! :)

Prof. Valentina Cuccio kicks off her seminar asking whether there are any cross-cutting, neglected dimensions that can explain the concreteness effect. She elaborates on the modality of acquisition of concepts @abstractionerc.bsky.social

Filippo Domaneschi, director of the Lab of Language and Cognition presenting at @abstractionerc.bsky.social on the reclamation of slurs, discussing pragmatic and psycholinguistic aspects in relation to abstraction mechanisms

Veronica Repetti explaining variation in animacy, alienability and syntactic structure of concrete and abstract possession, this morning for the second @abstractionerc.bsky.social seminar. All seminars are recorded and posted on site.unibo.it/abstraction/...

Another academic year at @abstractionerc.bsky.social starts with the seminar of prof. Filippo Domaneschi with his talk "Concretely offensive: the processing of reclaimed slurs". Recordings of the talk will be posted here: site.unibo.it/abstraction/...

Dinner time, to keep the discussion going with our invited speakers Prof Filippo Domaneschi and Dott. Veronica Repetti

📣 November's Abstraction seminar is all set too! 🗓️ 19 November, 11:30 - 12.30 (CEST) 📍 Bologna (in presenza) or 💻 Microsoft Teams (link: shorturl.at/xW7mF ) 🎆 Join us, details in the figure! 👉 Save the date & spread the word! ✨ @abstractionerc.bsky.social

A big thank you also to the Scientific Administrators of #XPRAG.it, @valentinabambini.bsky.social and @filippodomaneschi, for this picture at #TrinityCollege, and for the great recent conversations! Can't wait for the next conference in Genoa in 2026! 🎉 #XPRAG.it2026

So glad to have partecipated in the #XPRAG2025 conference during its 20th anniversary! 🎂 (see the cake in the picture 🤣) This was my second time in this amazing community, and I had some truly insightful discussions! 🗣️ A big thank to the organizers!!

Excited to share that I contributed to an article just published in #Nature. My role was on the cognitive side, as part of a collaboration evolved from a fantastic #Dagstuhl seminar. Collective works like these are crucial windows into where our communities are going! www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Excited to share that @abstractionerc.bsky.social has even reached #CambridgeUniversity and #TrinityCollege! Yesterday, at the #XPrag2025 conference, I presented how speakers maximize the informativeness of their descriptions in naturalistic conversations. Thanks for the insightful discussions!

Glad to be at #XPrag2025 at the #UniversityOfCambridge! Day 1 was packed with fascinating talks and exciting discussions!

📣The chapter "𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆: 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗼𝗿𝗺𝘀" w/@mariannabolog.bsky.social is now online & forthcoming in the #ElsevierEncyclopedia of Language & Linguistics 🔍 Theoretical overview, quantification tools, and behavioral evidence on specificity. 👉 Read: urly.it/31c4nm @abstractionerc.bsky.social

📣 Abstraction seminars are back! 🗓️ 17 October, 10:00 (CEST) 📍 Bologna (in presenza) or 💻 Microsoft Teams (link: shorturl.at/RjrOU) 🎆 Join us for another seminar, details in the figure! 👉 Save the date & spread the word! ✨ @abstractionerc.bsky.social

📣 Abstraction seminars are back! 🗓️ 16 October, 15:00 (CEST) 📍 Bologna (in presenza) or 💻 Microsoft Teams (link: shorturl.at/0fw5a) 🎆 Join us for a thought-provoking seminar, details in the figure! 👉 Save the date & spread the word! ✨ @abstractionerc.bsky.social

Excited to be at #ESCOP for the first time! 🗣️ Presenting a joint project with @abstractionerc.bsky.social, @mariannabolog.bsky.social and @gabriellavigliocco.bsky.social on naturalistic interactions. Key finding: Speakers use more specific and informative language as a communicative strategy

New Paper Alert 🚨🆕 "Specificity Effect in Concrete/Abstract Semantic Categorization Tasks" doi.org/10.1007/s103... We observed faster response times for specific words compared to general words in a semantic decision task, regardless of their level of concreteness.

@abstractionerc.bsky.social Post-Doc @grambelli.bsky.social giving her talk about LLMs' analogical ability with novel compounds at the last day of the #SLE2025 conference!🗣️🥑 It’s inspiring to work alongside such a brilliant colleague!

Excited to be at #SLE2025 this week! Presented 🗣️ two studies: 🔹 Iconicity ratings for Italian language across L1 & L2 speakers 🔹 Ambiguity of generality in a fantastic workshop on "Lexical Ambiguity in the Mind" Appreciated the feedback & discussions!

Here we are at #SLE2025 in Bordeaux! @tomlamarra.bsky.social

It's me again! Road to Bordeaux 🇫🇷✈️ for #SLE2025 to take part in the "lexical ambiguity in the mind" workshop! 🏏🦇 Tomorrow, I'll be presenting @abstractionerc.bsky.social results on referential ambiguity in abstraction and generality! @mariannabolog.bsky.social @caterinavillani.bsky.social

Road to Bordeaux ✈️🇫🇷 for #SLE2025! Where I am going to present IconicITA!! An @abstractionerc.bsky.social @unibo and @unimib joint project on iconicity ratings ☑️ for the Italian language across L1 and L2 speakers!

Did you know that language shifts in specificity to better support comunication in semi-naturalistic conversations? Check-out our virtual poster presentation 📄🎦 at the @cogscisociety.bsky.social conference! @mariannabolog.bsky.social @gabriellavigliocco.bsky.social @abstractionerc.bsky.social

Deadline (March 14th) is approaching! ⏳ 🕙 Submit your abstract 📜 and join the Second edition of the PhD CLUB Doctoral conference 🗣️ about individual and contextual differences in linguistic research! The conference will be held in english at University of Bologna (IT) on June 5th!

🧪 Our Behavioral Findings: 👉Specificity & concreteness explain unique variance in Lexical decision (word recognition) and Semantic decision (meaning judgment) 👉In conversations, specificity shapes: 👉👉How much clarification a word needs. 👉👉Plausibility of follow-up responses (curiosity vs. closure).

I'm very happy to join the metaphor community 👥 at the RaAM17 @raammetaphor.bsky.social, in Lawrence, MI (US) @al-azary.bsky.social I will present 🗣️ an @abstractionerc.bsky.social research by @mariannabolog.bsky.social and me about the importance of different levels of abstraction▪️◾◼️ in metaphors!

Interested in social interaction and abstract concepts? Dive into our latest paper for interesting results! A joint project by @abstractionerc.bsky.social, @ballabrome.bsky.social With @claudiamazzuca.bsky.social, @caterinavillani.bsky.social, @mariannabolog.bsky.social, @annaborghi.bsky.social

📢 ABSTRACTION presents: A workshop with brilliant speakers who will discuss language, conversations, and social interaction! 🗓️ April 3rd | 9-18 (Rome time) 📍 In person: Bologna, IT 💻 From remote: shorturl.at/oEM7S 🔴 Limited in-person seats–Register by March 21st (see the flyer) Don’t miss it!

Word Ladders is a free mobile app developed by @abstractionerc.bsky.social to collect linguistic data site.unibo.it/abstraction/en Join more than 3200 players to help us study the role of language in Abstraction. Download: Android 👉 shorturl.at/kqAOS Apple 👉 shorturl.at/buIS2