University of Richmond Psychology Professor Awarded National Science Foundation Grant

November 14, 2002

Dr. Ping Li, associate professor of psychology at the University of Richmond, has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to study the complex ways adult speakers organize words in their minds.

Li will study the "mental dictionary" that organizes words in the mind in complex ways, including their grammatical and semantic functions. "An ordinary adult speaker has active control of tens of thousands of words in any given language," Li says.

The three-year grant of $373,063 for Li's project "Self -organization and the Acquisition, Representation and Processing of Language" includes support for Li's summer research, as well as for one post-doctoral associate, two graduate students and two undergraduate students each year.