Alexandre Nikolaev
School of Languages and Cultures
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Full contact details
School of Languages and Cultures
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
- Profile
-
As a Research Associate in the School of Languages and Cultures I have experience conducting research in the area of language processing in children and adults, as well as in the area of language decline in people with dementia. In my doctoral thesis (2011), I studied the morphology of the Finnish language and then morphological decline in people with Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment.
I am also a big snooker fan. Hence, I’m happy to live in Sheffield.
- Qualifications
-
Master of Arts, 2002; University of Joensuu, Finnish Language Department, Finland
Basic degree in Statistics, 2007, University of Eastern Finland
Doctor of Philosophy, 2011; University of Eastern Finland, General Linguistics
Visiting Scholar Fall, 2012; Neurolinguistics Laboratory, City University of New York, GC
Visiting Scholar Fall, 2016; Neurolinguistics Laboratory, City University of New York, GC
Learning in Higher Education (5 cr, 2018, the Degree Program in Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki)
Constructive Alignment in Course Design (5 cr, 2018, the Degree Program in Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki)
Best Practices in Aphasia Management: Illustrative Cases (1.40 ASHA CEUs, Intermediate level, Professional area, 2019, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab Academy, Chicago)
Visiting Scholar Jun, 2019; Center for Aphasia Research and Treatment, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago
Visiting Scholar Jul, 2019; Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago
Academic Supervision and Supervisor Training (5 cr, 2020, the Degree Program in Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki)
Learning Assessment and Feedback (5 cr, 2020, the Degree Program in Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki)
Languages: Russian (native), Finnish, English
Programming languages: R, Python
- Research interests
-
For the past few years, the goal of my research was to develop better tools to assess language in persons with dementia. My research focused on the morphology of the Finnish language and language processing in people with Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment. Results of my research demonstrated that a usage-based approach to language, rather than predictions of generative theories that assume formal symbolic rules, better addresses cognitive mechanisms involved in morphology.
- Teaching activities
-
Beyond my research interest, I have a strong interest and good record of mentoring undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds. For three years I have mentored students from several countries in the Erasmus+ Mundus Joint Master Degree program in Clinical Linguistics (EMCL), many of whom have went on to doctoral programs.
Teaching experience:
2018 – 2020, University of Helsinki, Finland, General Linguistics (graduate level students)
2016, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, the USA (Ph.D students)
2013 – 2019, University of Eastern Finland, & European Master in Clinical Linguistics (EMCL, Erasmus+ Mundus Joint Master Degree program) (undergraduate & graduate level students)
2004 – 2005, University of Joensuu, Finland, General Linguistics (undergraduate level students)
Courses taught:
Brain plasticity
Experimental linguistics laboratory course
Evolution and Language
Introduction to Linguistics
Introduction to R
Language Acquisition
Language Changes in Neurodegenerative Diseases
Linguistics Reading Group
Morphology and Syntax
Neurolinguistics
Propedeutics: Methodology
Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics Advanced
Statistics for Language Technology
- Professional activities and memberships
-
Refereeing for Applied Psycholinguistics (2019)
Refereeing for the Dunhill Medical Trust, the UK (2019)
Refereeing for Bilingualism: Language and Cognition (2018)
Refereeing for PLOS One (2018)
Refereeing for The 31st Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing (2018)
Refereeing for AFinLA-e (Journal) (2017)
Refereeing for Nordic Journal of Linguistics (2017)
Refereeing for SKY Journal of Linguistics (2015)
Refereeing for Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (2014)
Refereeing for Bilingualism: Language and Cognition (2013)
Refereeing for SKY Journal of Linguistics (2006)
Member of Organizing Committees at:
Winter School for Doctoral Students: Writing and Publishing, University of Helsinki, Finland, 2019 Kollegium Talks: Curiosity-driven research in practice. Think Corner, University of Helsinki, Finland, 2019
The Fourth Meeting of the Scandinavian Association for Language and Cognition (SALC), Joensuu, Finland, 2013
Variation and Typology: New trends in Syntactic Research, Helsinki, Finland, 2011
Re-thinking synonymy: semantic sameness and similarity in languages and their description, Helsinki, Finland, 2010
Case in and across languages, Helsinki, Finland, 2009
Quantitative Investigations in Theoretical Linguistics, Helsinki, Finland, 2008 1st Nordic Conference of Clinical Linguistics, Joensuu, Finland, 2008
'Manner' in the Theory of Language, Tampere, Finland, 2007
9th Nordic Conference on Bilingualism (9NCB), Joensuu, Finland, 2006 (Secretary)
15th Nordic Conference of Computational Linguistics, Joensuu, Finland, 2005
Linguistic Association of Finland (2006–2011, board membership)
- Publications
Schneider, F., Marcotte, K., Brisebois, A., Townsend, S., Smidarle, A., Loureiro, F., Franco, A., Soder, F., Nikolaev, A., Marrone, L., Hübner, L. (2021). Neuroanatomical correlates of macrolinguistic aspects in narrative discourse in unilateral left and right hemisphere stroke: A voxel-based morphometry study. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 64, 1650-1665.
Ward, D., Miller, R., & Nikolaev, A. (2021). Evaluating three stuttering assessments through network analysis, random forests and cluster analysis. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 67, 105823.
Nikolaev, A., Higby, E., Hyun, J., Ashaie, S., Hallikainen, M., Hänninen, T., Lehtonen, M., & Soininen, H. (2020). Production of inflected novel words in older adults with and without dementia. Cognitive Science, 40, e12879, 1–22.
Vonk, J., Higby, E., Nikolaev, A., Cahana-Amitay, D., Spiro, A., Albert, M., Obler, L.K. (2020). Demographic Effects on Longitudinal Semantic Processing, Working Memory, and Cognitive Speed. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbaa080
Nikolaev, A., Ashaie, S., Hallikainen, M., Hänninen, T., Higby, E., Hyun, J., Lehtonen, M., Soininen, H. (2019). Effects of morphological family on word recognition in normal aging, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease. Cortex, 116, 91–103.
Nikolaev, A., Higby, E., Hyun, J., Ashaie, S. (2019). Lexical decision task for studying written word recognition in adults with and without dementia or mild cognitive impairment. Journal of Visualized Experiments, 148, e59753, 1–10.
Nikolaev, A., Lehtonen, M. H., Higby, E., Hyun, J., Ashaie, S. (2018). A facilitatory effect of rich stem allomorphy but not inflectional productivity on single-word recognition. Applied Psycholinguistics, 39, 1221–1238.
Nenonen, M., Mulli, J., Nikolaev, A., & Penttilä, E. (2017). How Light Can a Light Verb Be? Predication Patterns in V + NP Constructions in English, Finnish, German and Russian. In: M. Luodonpää-Manni, E. Penttilä, J. Viimaranta (eds.) Empirical Approaches to Cognitive Linguistics: Analyzing Real-Life Data, p. 75–106. Cambridge scholar publishing.
Nikolaev, A., Pääkkönen, A., Niemi, J., Nissi, M. J., Niskanen, E., Könönen, M., Mervaala, E., Soininen, H. (2014). Behavioural and ERP effects of paradigm complexity on visual word recognition. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 10, 1295–1310.
Niemi, J., Mulli, J., Nenonen, M., Niemi, S., Nikolaev, A., Penttilä, E. (2013). Idiomatic proclivity and literality of meaning in body-part nouns: Corpus studies of English, German, Swedish, Russian and Finnish. Folia Linguistica, 47, 1–16.
Niemi, J., Mulli, J., Nenonen, M., Niemi, S., Nikolaev, A. & Penttilä, E. (2013). Figurativeness of NPs Containing Lexemes 'hand', 'head' and 'eye': A Comparison of Frequency of Use in Five Languages. In J.-M. Tirkkonen & E. Anttikoski (eds.), Proceedings of the 24th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics, p. 165–171. Publications of the University of Eastern Finland.
Kirjavainen, M., Nikolaev, A., Kidd, E. (2012). The effect of frequency and phonological neighbourhood density on the acquisition of past tense verbs by Finnish children. Cognitive Linguistics, 23, 273–315.
Niemi, J., Mulli, J., Nenonen, M., Niemi, S., Nikolaev, A., Penttilä, E. (2010). Body-part Idioms Across Languages: Lexical Analyses of VP Body-part Idioms in English, German, Swedish, Russian and Finnish. In Ptashnyk, S., E. Hallsteinsdóttir, N. Bubenhofer (eds.) Corpora, web and databases: Computer-based methods in modern phraseology and lexicography, p. 67–76. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren.
Niemi, J., Nikolaev, A., Hugdahl, K. (2009). Impaired performance in attention to phonological input, dysfunctional lexical "frequency counter/s" and abnormal grammatical morphology: A possible causal chain? In Zlatev, J, Johansson Falck, M., Lundmark C. & Andrén M. (eds.). Studies in Language and Cognition, p. 257–271 Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Nikolaev, A., Niemi, J. (2008). Suomen nominien taivutusjärjestelmän produktiivisuuden indekseistä. Virittäjä, 112, 518–544. [Indices of productivity in Finnish inflection]
Nikolaev, A., Niemi, J. (2006). Nominien paradigmaattistuminen suomessa: millä rakenteellisilla ehdoilla kielenkäyttäjät sitovat potentiaaliset nominit taivutusluokkiin. Virittäjä, 110, 46–69. [Paradigmatization of nouns in Finnish: How do speakers structurally associate potential nouns with particular inflectional categories?]
Nikolaev, A., Niemi, J. (2005). Suomen nominien taivutuksesta: rytmi-, sivupaino- ja agglutinaatiohypoteesien testausta. Virittäjä, 109, 530–553. [Inflection of Finnish nominals: Testing of rhythm, secondary stress and agglutination hypotheses]
Edited Volumes:
Nikolaev, A., Niemi, J. (2008). Two or more languages: Proceedings from the 9th Nordic Conference on Bilingualism, Studies in languages. University of Joensuu, Faculty of Humanities, ISSN 1456-5528