Willem van Boxtel

WILLEM VAN BOXTEL

Assistant Professor

Address:
81 Hatcher Hall

Email Address:
wvboxtel@lsu.edu

Website:
 https://faculty.lsu.edu/pelicanlab

College:
Humanities & Social Sciences

Department:
Communication Sciences & Disorders
 

Courses Taught

COMD 2050 Introduction to Language

COMD 3150 Phonetics

COMD 4250 Anatomy and Physiology for Speech--Language Pathology

COMD 7750 Special Topics in Linguistics

COMD 7782 Independent Research In Communication Disorders

 

Research Interests

Willem van Boxtel is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Louisiana State University. He leads the PELICAN (Psycholinguistics and ELectrophysiology In Cognitive Aging and Neural damage) lab [Pelican Lab Website], which conducts research into language processing across the adult lifespan, how cognitive changes associated with aging affect language, and how stroke and neurodegeneration change the way language is processed. Dr Van Boxtel takes an advanced quantitative approach to research, and uses electrophysiology and event-related potentials in combination with multilevel statistical modelling (including Bayesian models) to address his research questions. He also takes a keen interest in applying experimental methods online (including self-paced reading and eye-tracking) and conducts research into the applicability of web-based methods to communication disorders and psycholinguistics. Dr Van Boxtel's research has included younger and older adults as well as persons with aphasia, and has highlighted the need for a nuanced, considered view of the aging process, and the need for higher experimental standards and greater validity in research on persons with aphasia.

Funding

  • PI, LSU College of Humanities and Social Sciences Manship Fund (summer 2025). $7,000
  • Co-I, LSU Provost's Fund (2025). Multidisciplinary Clinical Grant Writing for NIH. $10,000.
  • PI, American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation New Investigators Research Grant (2024-2025). Predictive Processing in Aphasia: Assessment Implications from Online Eyetracking and Memory Interference. $10,000.
  • Co-I: University of Essex Faculty of Social Sciences Executive Dean's Fund (2019-2020). A quantitative study into the psychological reality of noun classes in Kinyarwanda. GBP 5,071.
  • PI: University of Essex Social Sciences Doctoral Scholarship (2019-2022). Approx. GBP 40,000.

Professional Training, Service, and Memberships

  • LSU Office of Research and Economic Development Summer Grant Writing School, June 2025.
  • Postdoctoral Fellowship, Purdue University Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. PI: Dr. Jiyeon Lee. Description: Implicit structural priming as a treatment component in aphasia. August 2022 - July 2024.
  • Introduction to Python for Social Scientists, University of Essex. July 2021.
  • Virtual EEGLAB Workshop, UC San Diego. June 2021
  • Cognitive and Affective Neurophysiology Summer School, University of Porto. September 2020.
  • Member, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). 2022 - present.
  • Member, Society for the Neurobiology of Language (SNL). 2019 - present.
  • Member, Academy of Aphasia (AoA). 2022 - present.

Representative Publications:

  • Van Boxtel, W.S., and Weirick, J.D. (under review). Reading Comprehension in Aphasia: A Review of Research, Assessment, and Treatment. Language and Linguistics Compass.
  •  Lee, J., Van Boxtel, W.S., Weirick, J.D., Martin, N., Ferreira, V., Bauman, E., Haven, L.N., Sayers, M. and Manning, R.C.G. (2025).  Implicit structural priming as a treatment component for sentence production in aphasia: specifying essential treatment components. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643294.2025.2479485.
  • Van Boxtel, W.S., and Lawyer, L.A. (2024) A Matter of Memory? Age-Invariant Relative Clause Disambiguation and Memory Interference in Older Adults. Topics in Cognitive Science, https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12753.
  • Van Boxtel, W. S., Linge, M., Manning, R., Haven, L. N., & Lee, J. (2024). Online Eye Tracking for Aphasia: A Feasibility Study Comparing Web and Lab Tracking and Implications for Clinical Use. Brain and Behavior, 14(11), e70112, https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.70112.
  • Van Boxtel, W.S., Cox, B.N., Keen, A., and Lee, J. (2023). Planning sentence production in aphasia: evidence from structural priming and eye-tracking. Frontiers in Language Sciences, 2, 1175579. DOI:10.3389/flang.2023.1175579.
  • Van Boxtel, W.S. & Lawyer, L.A. (2023). In the Prime of Life: ERP Evidence for Syntacic Comprehension Priming in Older Adults. Journal of Language and Aging Research, vol.1(1). osf.io/3yrnv.
  • Van Boxtel, W.S. & Lawyer, L.A. (2022). Syntactic Comprehension Priming and Lexical Boost Effects in Older Adults. Language, Cognition, Neuroscience. DOI:10.1080/23273798.2022.2091151.
  • Van Boxtel, W.S. & Lawyer, L.A. (2021). Sentence Comprehension in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease. Language and Linguistics Compass, vol.15(6). DOI:10.1111/lnc3.12430.

Academic Degrees

  1. PhD, Psycholinguistics, University of Essex (UK), 2022
  2. MA, Psycholinguistics, University of Essex (UK), 2019
  3. BA (Hons) English, Birmingham City University (UK), 2018

 

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