SS26: LLMs as Models of Human Sentence Processing

Seminar Description

Modern large language models (LLMs) have achieved unprecedented success in predicting and generating human language – without being explicitly designed as cognitive models. This raises a fundamental question: to what extent can LLMs serve as computational models of human sentence processing? This seminar dives into this rapidly emerging field at the intersection of NLP, language, and cognition.

We will read papers that compare processing in LLMs against human language processing signatures like eye-movements during reading and data from neurophysiological methods. Furthermore, we will compare types of mistakes that humans vs. LLMs make and read literature on language learning in LLMs vs. human children.

At the end of the seminar, participants will do a final project in which they conduct a project in the topic area of the seminar and write a report about it.

Requirements for the seminar attendence: Familiarity with language models and transformers; interest in human cognition.