prof. PhDr. Filip Smolík, Ph.D., DSc.

Institute of Psychology
The Czech Academy of Sciences
Pod Vodárenskou věží 1143/4
182 00 Prague 8
Phone: +420 266 053 849
Email: smolik@praha.psu.cas.cz

I am a developmental psycholinguist working on a range of topics but with a special interest in the development of grammatical knowledge and early use of grammar in comprehension. I work using experimental methods (preferential looking, eyetracking) as well as language sample analyses. I am starting to work with EEG/ERP and fNIRS as well.

My main areas include:

early knowledge and comprehension of grammatical case, gender and number, their morphological marking and their interaction with word order
effects of word imageability and other word-level variables at the acquisition of lexicon, morphological marking and the use of words in syntactic structures; including the effects of these factors in adults
relations between social understanding, false belief, and person reference in language (pronouns, person inflections)
grammatical markers of language impairment (esp. in Czech), relations between language knowledge and working memory (esp. in the sentence imitation task)
development of assessment tools (CDI, original tests)

Director of the Laboratory of the Institute of Psychology, and the Laboratory of behavioral and linguistic studies, a joint research unit of the Institute of Psychology CAS and the Faculty of Arts, Charles University.

Education and academic qualifications

2024: Professor of Psychology. Promoted and appointed by Faculty of Arts of the Charles University, May 2024.
2020: DSc. (Research Professor) in the field of Psychological Sciences. The Czech Academy of Sciences.
2001-2006: Child Language Program, University of Kansas v Lawrence, KS, USA. PhD. awarded 2006. Dissertation Grammar sensitivity in children: syntactic priming and error detection. Advisor: Mabel Rice. Committee: Susan Kemper, Vicky Peyton, Holly Storkel, Mike Vitevitch. Alumnus profile.
2000: PhDr. ("small doctorate"), rigorous exam in General Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague.
1994-1999: Studies in Psychology program, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, concentration in theory and research. Thesis Psychologické aspekty osvojování jazyka (Psychological aspects of language acquistion).
1993-1994: Studies in Psychology program, Faculty of Arts, Palacky University, Olomouc.

Teaching

from 2023: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague (associate professor, professor). Continuation of teaching the same subjects.
2017-2023: Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague (associate professor, professor). Introduction to the biology of language, Introduction to Psycholinguistics, Language acquisition, seminars in areas of interest.
2007-2017: University of New York in Prague. Psychology of Infancy and Childhood, Cognition, Introductory and Advanced Statistics.

Research and professional activities (international)

from 2024: Secretary, International Association for the Study of Child Language.
from 2022: Associate Editor, Applied Psycholinguistics.
2022-2024: Executive committee member, International Association for the Study of Child Language.
2019-2021: Editor (Language), Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research.
from 2017: Editorial Board member, First Language.
2016-2017: Associate Editor (Language), Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research.
2011-2016: Management Committee Member, International Scientific Cooperation Action COST-IS1406 Enhancing children's oral language skills across Europe and beyond: A collaboration focusing on interventions for children with difficulties learning their first language.

Research and professional activities (domestic)

from 2023: The Czech Science Foundation (GACR), member of panel 407.
from 2022: Deputy chairman, The Czech-Moravian Psychological Society.
2018-2022: Chairman, The Czech-Moravian Psychological Society.
from 2011: Member (from 2023 Chairperson) of the Board of the Institute of Psychology.

Selected publications

(see also the complete publications list)

Articles

Matiasovitsová, K., Čechová, P., Sláma, J., Homolková, K., & Smolík, F. (2024). Mean Length of Utterance in Czech Toddlers: Validity Estimates and Comparison of Words, Morphemes, and Syllables. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 1-16. DOI:10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00251
Jarůšková, L., Smolík, F., Chládková, K., Oceláková, Z., & Paillereau, N. (2023). How to Build a Communicative Development Inventory: Insights From 43 Adaptations. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66(6), 2095-2117. DOI: 10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00591
Smolík, F., Chromá, A. (2022). About me, you and her: Personal pronouns are developmentally preceded by mental state language. Journal of Child Language, 1-18. DOI:10.1017/S030500092100091X
Smolík, F., Bláhová, V. (2022). Here come the nouns: Czech two-year-olds use verb number endings to predict sentence subjects. Cognition 219, 104964. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104964
Smolík, F., & Bláhová, V. (2019). Czech 23-month-olds use gender agreement to anticipate upcoming nouns. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 178, 251-265. DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.10.004
Marková, G., Smolík, F. (2014). What do you think? The relationship between person reference and communication about the mind in toddlers. Social Development, 23, 61-79. DOI: 10.1111/sode.12044
Rice, M. L., Smolik, F., Perpich, D., Thompson, T., Rytting, N., & Blossom, M. (2010). Mean Length of Utterance Levels in 6-Month Intervals for Children 3 to 9 Years with and without Language Impairments. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53(2), 333-349. DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2009/08-0183)

Diagnostic methods

Paillereau, N., Smolík, F., Sloupová, T., Chládková, K., Jarůšková, L., Fialová, T., Dvořáková, T., Oceláková, Z., Ungrová, V., Kynčlová, K., Pešek, J., Kadavá, Š. (2023). Dovyko I a Dovyko II: Dotazníky pro screening jazykového vývoje u dětí od 8 do 30 měsíců [Communicative development inventory Dovyko I and II. The Czech adaptation of MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories: WG and WS – revised edition for Dovyko II]. Available online https://www.dovyko.cz/manual-a-normy-k-dotaznikum-dovyko-i-a-ii/
Smolík, F., Bláhová, V., Bartoš, F. (2019). Receptivní slovník & Opakování vět [Receptive vocabulary & Sentence repetition]. Praha: Národní ústav pro vzdělávání.

Photo: Jan Jirkovský