The research from the MAD Research Lab (Multiple Aspects of Discourse) serves to test, model and evaluate linguistic and paralinguistic modalities of discourse, including text, speech, eye gaze, intonation and gestures.

The lab has two high-end eye tracking systems as well as a multimedia recording studio to monitor various modalities.

The research conductin the lab is focused on discourse processing (including interclausal relationships and other types of cohesion and coherence), symbolic and embodied approaches to language comprehension, processing deictic expressions and gestures, as well as the interaction and alignment of facial movements, eye gaze, intonation, discourse structure and theme/rheme.

The lab was created in August 2004, and is directed by Dr. Max Louwerse. It is located in the FedEx Institute of Technology, and is part of the Institute for Intelligent Systems, a multidisplinary research center involved with researchers from the Department of Psychology, the Department of English, the Department of Computer Engineering and the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Memphis.

View of the collaborative work area at the Institute for Intelligent Systems, in the FedEx Institute of Technology.