Digital Support for Writing: Cognitively Motivated Authoring Aid, Supported by LLMs

Beschreibung

The SNF scientific exchange invites Dr. Zock to the Institute of Language Competence at ZHAW. During 3 months we will work on the project "Digital support for writing: cognitively motivated authoring aid, supported by LLMs". This project addresses the cognitive and technical challenges of writing by integrating psycholinguistic insights and computational linguistics to enhance AI-assisted authoring tools to support writers beyond surface-level tasks like grammar correction. The rise of Generative AI (GenAI) offers new opportunities to support ideation, content organization, and coherence, but its integration into writing tools requires careful study.

The project has three main objectives:

to define an ecosystem that assists writers at different stages of the writing process while fostering skill development;
to evaluate the benefits and limitations of GenAI tools in aiding ideation, drafting, and revision; and
to operationalize the concept of "topicality" to enhance content coherence and communication.

These aims will be pursued through a combination of literature reviews, collaborative research with ZHAW’s ACTIVE-AI project, and a web-based experiment where users analyze and articulate the topics of text paragraphs.

Expected results include a theoretical framework for AI-driven writing support, a prototype tool for investigating topicality, and pilot experiments contributing to ongoing research at ZHAW. The findings will be disseminated through a joint research paper, contributions to the SIG Writing Conference 2026, and further workshops.

By bridging psycholinguistics and computational linguistics, the project will advance interdisciplinary research and practical tool development, addressing critical gaps in writing support technology and its applications in education and professional communication.