Current Position

Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University

Previous Positions

Visiting Instructor, Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute, Boulder, CO, 2011.

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, 2005-2011.

Postdoctoral research trainee, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2003-2005.

Postdoctoral research associate, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1999-2003.

Education

Ph.D. in Cognition and Communication, University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, 1999.

M.A. in Cognitive Psychology, University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, 1994.

B.S. in Psychology, Duke University, summa cum laude, 1991 [Psychology/German]

Research Interests

Cognitive psychology; Psycholinguistics

Processing and representation of common ground in language production

Comprehension of innovative and metaphorical language

Age-related differences in discourse processing

Grants, Awards, & Honors

Principal Investigator: “Partner-Specific Memory Associations in Language Use.” NIH Grant #R03 MH073805-02; 2/01/06 – 01/31/08; $98,759 direct costs.

Co-PI with Justine Cassell & Darren Gergle: Northwestern Shared Facilities Grant for the establishment of a Mobile Eye-Tracking Shared Facility; $41,464.

Co-PI with Janet Pierrehumbert, Aggelos Katsaggelos, & Ying Wu: “AV Databases and Architectures for Improving Recognition of Reduced Waveforms.” Motorola Center for Seamless Communications Grant, 09/01/07-08/31/10; $180,000.

Co-PI with Justine Cassell & Darren Gergle: “HCC: Coordinating Communication: Visual Social, & Biological Factors in Grounding for Humans and Agents.” NSF Grant #IIS-0705901; 09/01/07 – 08/31/10; $583,325 direct costs.

Fellowships and Awards

NIA Summer Institute on Aging Research, July 2006

Jacob J. Javits Graduate Fellowship, 1993-1997

Century Fellowship, University of Chicago, 1991-1993

Phi Beta Kappa, 1990

Teaching Experience

Cognition and Figurative Language, University of Chicago (Dewey Lecturer), 1997

Psychology of Language, SUNY–Stony Brook, Spring 2000; Spring 2002

Cognitive Psychology, Northwestern University, taught annually Fall 2005-present

Research Methods, Northwestern University, taught annually Spring 2006-present

Discourse Processing, Northwestern University, Fall 2007, Spring 2010, Fall 2011

Experimental Pragmatics (with Gregory Ward), Spring 2009, Winter 2011, Winter 2013

Theory of Mind (undergraduate advanced research seminar), Fall 2012

Publications

Horton, W. S., & Keysar, B. (1996). When do speakers take into account common ground? Cognition, 59, 91-117.

Keysar, B., Barr, D. J., & Horton, W. S. (1998). The egocentric bias of language use: Insights from a processing approach. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 7, 46-50.

Keysar, B., & Horton, W. S. (1998). Speaking with common ground: From principles to processes in pragmatics. A reply to Polichak and Gerrig. Cognition, 66, 191-198.

Keysar, B., Shen, Y., Glucksberg, S., & Horton, W. S. (2000). Conventional language: How metaphorical is it? Journal of Memory and Language, 43, 576-593.

Gerrig, R. J., & Horton, W. S. (2001). Of texts and toggles: Categorical versus continuous views of communication. Discourse Processes, 32, 81-87.

Horton, W. S., & Gerrig, R. J. (2002). Speakers' experiences and audience design: Knowing when and knowing how to adjust utterances to addressees. Journal of Memory and Language, 47, 589-606.

Horton, W. S., & Rapp, D. N. (2003). Out of sight, out of mind: Occlusion and the accessibility of information in narrative comprehension. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 10, 104-110.

Gerrig, R.J., & Horton, W.S. (2005). Contextual expressions and common ground. In H. L. Colston & A. N. Katz (Eds.), Figurative language comprehension: Social and cultural influences (pp. 43-70). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Horton, W. S., & Gerrig, R. J. (2005). Conversational common ground and memory processes in language production. Discourse Processes, 40, 1-35.

Horton, W. S., & Gerrig, R. J. (2005). The impact of memory demands on audience design during language production. Cognition, 96, 127-142.

Horton, W. S. (2007). Metaphor and readers’ attributions of intimacy. Memory & Cognition, 35, 87-94.

Horton, W. S., & Spieler, D. H. (2007). Age-related effects in communication and audience design. Psychology and Aging, 22, 281-290.

Horton, W. S. (2007). The influence of partner-specific memory associations on language production: Evidence from picture naming. Language and Cognitive Processes, 22, 1114-1139.

Horton, W. S. (2008). A memory-based approach to common ground and audience design. In I. Kecskes (Ed.), Intention, common ground, and the egocentric speaker-hearer (pp. 189-222). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Horton, W. S., Spieler, D. H., & Shriberg, E. (2010). A corpus analysis of patterns of age-related change in conversational speech. Psychology and Aging, 25, 708-713.

Gerrig, R. J., Horton, W. S., & Stent, A. (2011). Production and comprehension of unheralded pronouns: A corpus analysis. Discourse Processes, 48, 161-182.

Kim, M., Horton, W. S., & Bradlow, A. R. (2011). Phonetic convergence in spontaneous conversations as a function of interlocutor language distance. Laboratory Phonology, 2, 125-156.

Horton, W.S., & Slaten, D. G. (2012). Anticipating who will say what: The influence of speaker-specific memory associations on reference resolution. Memory & Cognition, 40, 113-126.

Lysander, K., & Horton, W. S. (2012). Conversational grounding in younger and older adults: The effect of partner visibility and referent abstractness. Discourse Processes, 49, 29-60.

Horton, W. S. (2012). Shared knowledge, mutual understanding, and meaning negotiation. In H.-J. Schmid (Ed.), Cognitive Pragmatics [Handbook of pragmatics, Vol. 4] (pp. 375-404). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Bean, M., Slaten, D. G., Horton, W. S., Murphy, M., & Todd, A., & Richeson, J. (2012). Prejudice concerns and race-based attentional bias: Evidence from eyetracking. Social Psychological & Personality Science, 3, 723-730.

Powers, C., Bencic, R., Horton, W. S., & Beeman, M. (2012). Hemispheric inference priming during comprehension of conversations and narratives. Neuropsychologia, 50, 2577-2583.

Levine, S., & Horton, W. S. (2013). Using affective appraisal to help readers construct literary interpretations. Scientific Study of Literature, 3, 105-136.

Horton, W. S. (2013). Character intimacy influences the processing of metaphoric utterances during narrative comprehension. Metaphor and Symbol, 28, 148-166.

Spoken Presentations

Horton, W.S. (1993, October) The effect of privileged information on the description of simple objects. Presentation at the annual University of Chicago/Northwestern University psychology graduate student conference.

Horton, W. S., & Keysar, B. (1994, November). How do speakers use common ground? Paper presented at the 35^th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, St. Louis.

Horton, W. S. (1998, April). Perceptual priming in simile comprehension. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago.

Horton, W.S. (1998, February). Perceptual priming in simile comprehension. Presentation at the annual University of Chicago/Northwestern University psychology graduate student conference.

Gerrig, R. J., & Horton, W. S. (2001, November). Judgments about common ground in language production. Paper presented at the 42^nd annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Orlando, FL.

Horton, W. S. (2002, March). Assessing audience design: The role of experience and memory in speakers' adjustments to addressees. Invited talk. New School for Social Research, New York, NY.

Horton, W. S. (2003, April). Conversation and common ground. Invited talk. Max-Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Spieler, D. H., Horton, W. S., & Shriberg, E. (2004, April). Language use in the wild: Analyses of conversational speech across the lifespan. Paper presented at the Cognitive Aging Conference. Atlanta, GA.

Horton, W. S. (2005, April). Partner-specific priming in language production. Paper presented at the 18^th annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. Tucson, AZ.

Horton, W. S. (2006, September). Memory and conversational common ground. Invited talk. DePaul University, Chicago, IL.

Horton, W. S. (2007, January). Memory and mutual modeling. Paper presented at the Kaleidoscope Workshop, ‘Mutual models in collaborative tasks,’ CSCL Alpine Rendezvous, Villars, Switzerland.

Horton, W. S. (2006, September). Memory and conversational common ground. Invited talk. DePaul University, Chicago, IL.

Horton, W. S. (2007, January). Memory and mutual modeling. Paper presented at the Kaleidoscope Workshop, ‘Mutual models in collaborative tasks,’ CSCL Alpine Rendezvous, Villars, Switzerland.

Horton, W. S. (2007, January). Memory-based contributions to audience design. Invited talk. University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.

Horton, W. S. (2007, July). Memory-based contributions to common ground. Paper presented at the 10th International Pragmatics Conference. Gøteborg, Sweden.

Horton, W. S. (2007, December). Memory-based approaches to audience design. Invited talk. University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.

Horton, W. S., & Rapp, D. N. (2008, April). Updating trait-based models in narrative comprehension by younger and older readers. Paper presented at the 12th Biennial Cognitive Aging Conference. Atlanta, GA.

Horton, W. S. (2008, May). A memory-based approach to conversational common ground. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association. Chicago, IL.

Slaten, D. G., Horton, W. S., & Rapp, D. N. (2008, May). Learning facts from far-fetched sources. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association. Chicago, IL.

Otis, K., & Horton, W. S. (2008, July). Visual availability and referential communication in younger and older adults. Paper presented at the 18th annual meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse. Memphis, TN.

Horton, W. S. (2008, September). Conversational grounding in older adults. Paper presented at the workshop on “Multimodal grounding for virtual humans and robots,” Institute for Creative Technologies, Marina del Rey, CA.

Horton, W. S. (2009, February). Age-related differences in grounding and eye gaze during referential communication. Invited Talk. Department of Linguistics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

Horton, W. S. (2009, July). Memory and other limits to audience design in reference production. Invited keynote presentation at the workshop “Production of referring expressions: Bridging the gap between computational and empirical approaches to reference,” PRE-CogSci 2009, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Rohde, H., & Horton, W. S. (2010, March). Why or what next? Eye movements reveal expectations about discourse directions. Paper presented at the 23rd annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. New York, NY.

Slaten, D. G., & Horton, W. S. (2010, May). The effect of partner-specific memory associations on reference resolution. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association. Chicago, IL.

Horton, W. S. (2010, November). Partner-specific memory in language use. Invited talk. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Urbana, IL.

Horton, W. S., & Slaten, D. G. (2010, November). Examining the influence of communicative context on memory based processing in reference resolution. Paper presented at the 51st annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society. St. Louis, MO.

Horton, W. S. (2011, April). Partner-specific memory in language use. Invited talk. Language Research & Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.

Lysander, K., & Horton, W. S. (2011, May). Coordination across domains: The influence of motor coordination on spatial perspective-taking. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association. Chicago, IL.

Lysander, K., & Horton, W. S. (2011, July). What drives alignment across domains? Motor and social influences on the language of perspective-taking. Paper presented at the 21st annual meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse. Poitiers, France.

Hinze, S.R., Slaten, D.G., Horton, W.S., & Rapp, D.N. (2012, May). Plausible limits on the learning of inaccurate information. Paper presented at the symposium “The psychology of misinformation,” at the 24th annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago, IL.

Poster Presentations

Horton, W. S. (1998, November). Using perceptual information in simile comprehension. Poster presented at the 39^th annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Dallas.

Horton, W. S., & Gerrig, R. J. (2000, November). Can speakers track addressee-specific information in conversation? Poster presented at the 41^st annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, New Orleans.

Horton, W. S., & Rapp, D. N. (2001, November). Representing perceptual availability during narrative comprehension. Poster presented at the 42^nd annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Orlando, FL.

Horton, W. S., Metzing, C. A., & Gerrig, R. J. (2002, November). Tracking speakers' use of internal and external information in referential communication. Poster presented at the 43^rd annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Kansas City, MO.

Horton, W. S., Metzing, C. A., & Gerrig, R. J. (2003, March). Coordinating looking with speaking during the production of referring expressions. Poster presented at the 16^th annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. Boston, MA.

Horton, W. S. & Gerrig, R. J. (2003, November). The effect of memory demands on audience design. Poster presented at the 44^th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society. Vancouver, BC.

Horton, W. S., & Spieler, D. H. (2004, March). Age-related effects in communication and audience design. Poster presented at the 17^th annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. College Park, MD.

Horton, W. S., & Spieler, D. H. (2004, April). Age-related effects in communication and audience design. Poster presented at the Cognitive Aging Conference. Atlanta, GA.

Horton, W. S. (2004, August). Metaphor and the attribution of intimacy. Poster presented at the 14^th annual conference for the Society for Text and Discourse. Chicago, IL.

Horton, W. S., Spieler, D. H., & Hanlin, A. (2004, November). Speech planning in freely-generated picture descriptions in younger and older adults. Poster presented at the 45^th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society. Minneapolis, MN.

Horton, W. S. (2005, November). The influence of partner-specific memory associations on picture naming. Poster presented at the 46^th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society. Toronto, ON.

Horton, W. S. (2006, November). Investigating individual differences in syntactic priming. Poster presented at the 47th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society. Houston, TX.

Otis, K. A., & Horton, W. S. (2007, October) Older adults’ use of eye gaze during referential communication. Poster presented at the 2nd International and Interdisciplinary Research Conference on Aging and Speech Communication, Bloomington, IN.

Kim, M., Bradlow, A., & Horton, W. S. (2007, October). Phonetic convergence and divergence during discourse between native and nonnative speakers. Poster presented at the 13th annual Mid-Continental Workshop on Phonology, Columbus, OH.

Slaten, D., Rapp, D. N., & Horton, W. S. (2007, November). Amazing stories: Does fictionality matter in learning from text? Poster presented at the 48th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Long Beach, CA.

Otis, K. A. & Horton, W. S. (2007, November). The impact of visual availability on referential communication in younger and older adults. Poster presented at the 48th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Long Beach, CA.

Horton, W. S., & Otis, K. A. (2008, April). Visual availability and referential communication in younger and older adults. Poster presented at the 12th Biennial Cognitive Aging Conference. Atlanta, GA.

Slaten, D., & Horton, W. S. (2009, November). The effect of partner-specific memory associations on reference resolution. Poster presented at the 50th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Boston, MA.

Rohde, H., & Horton, W. S. (2009, November). Anticipating upcoming discourse relations: Using eye movements to measure verb-driven pragmatic expectations. Poster presented at the 50th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Boston, MA.

Otis, K. A., & Horton, W. S. (2010, August). Coordination across domains: The influence of motor coordination on spatial perspective-taking. Poster presented at the 20th annual meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, Chicago, IL.

Schmader, C., Horton, W. S., & Van der Wege, M. (2010, August). Lexical differentiation and lexical entrainment in cohort competition. Poster presented at the 20th annual meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, Chicago, IL.

Slaten, D. G., Hinze, S. R., Horton, W. S., & Rapp, D. N. (2011, November). Pilgrims sailing the Titanic: Plausibility effects on memory for misinformation. Poster presented at the 52nd annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Seattle, WA.

Schmader, C., & Horton, W. S. (2011, November). The influence of social similarity and group membership on definite reference. Poster presented at the 52nd annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Seattle, WA.

Horton, W. S. (2012, July). Words between strangers: The influence of character relationship and conventionality on the processing of metaphor during narrative comprehension. Poster presented at the 22nd annual meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, Montreal, CA.

Andrews, J. J., & Horton, W. S. (2012, November). The influence of knowledge overlap on learning from collaborative discussions. Poster presented at the 53rd annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Minneapolis, MN.

Professional Activities and Service

Member of the Governing Board, Society for Text and Discourse, 2011-

Editorial Board member, Discourse Processes

Consulting Editor, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review

Peer reviewer, journals:

Applied Cognitive Psychology; Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive; Cognition; Cognitive Science; Cognitive Systems Research; Discourse Processes; International Journal of Speech Technology; Journal of the Acoustical Society of America; Journal of Experimental Child Psychology; Journal of Experimental Psychology: General; Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition; Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences; Journal of the Learning Sciences; Journal of Memory and Language; Memory & Cognition; Psychology and Aging; Psychological Bulletin; Psychological Science; Psychonomic Bulletin and Review; Social and Personality Psychology Compass; Topics in Cognitive Science.

Reviewer on conference submissions:

Conference on Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP); ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW); Conference of the Cognitive Science Society; CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing; HLT/NAACL Figurative Language Workshop; Society for Text and Discourse.

Program Committee, annual meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, 2010.

Ad-hoc grant reviewer:

National Science Foundation: Linguistics Program; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; European Science Foundation; L'Agence Nationale de la Recherche.

Professional Affiliations:

Association for Psychological Science, Cognitive Science Society, International Pragmatics Association, Linguistic Society of America, Psychonomic Society, Society for Text and Discourse, Midwestern Psychological Association

Faculty Affiliate:

Northwestern Department of Linguistics; Northwestern Center for Technology and Social Behavior; Spatial Learning Network; Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (Language & Music affiliate)

Last updated online: 16 April 2013