COGNITIVE SCIENCE PROGRAM

This hands-on workshop will describe the logic of computer-based text analytic methods, with special emphasis on word counting approaches.  Participants will be encouraged to bring their own computer (either PC or Mac) and will be given a trial version of the LIWC text analysis program. Over the two half-day sessions, the following topics will be covered:

• Overview of various text analytic approaches commonly used in the social sciences
• The psychometrics of words and word aggregation methods
• Popular text analysis strategies: Google Books, Google Trends. Thinking about "corpus psychology." Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, Reddit, CNN, IMDb, Project Gutenberg, and other places where words exist.
• LIWC -- how it works, its development, input and out
• Analyzing and interpreting LIWC output: personality, cognition, emotion
• Approaches to tracking social processes and dynamics in dyads, groups, and communities
• Topic modeling, with particular attention to the meaning extraction method (MEM)
• Playing with data: machine learning, author profile matching (unmasking), identifying narrative
• Applications in medicine, business, accounting, history, marketing, professional sports, and much more