My research interests include prosody, especially intonation, and conversational behaviour, such as backchannels, filled pauses and turn-timing. I have focussed in the bulk of my recent work on investigating these dimensions of communication in the context of autism, but I also have an active and long-standing research interest in second (and first) language acquisition and non-native speech. More broadly, I am particularly interested in individual- and dyad-specific variability and enthusiastic about open science, data visualisation and Bayesian statistics.

My most recent work explores the interplay of visual and spoken signals in conversation, with a special focus on eye gaze, while also delving deeper into the role of response tokens and the production and perception of global intonation patterns (incl. the metrics of wiggliness and spaciousness). An overarching aim in my current and planned research is the alignment of insights from cross-cultural and cross-neurotype interactions.

Postdoc in Project A02 of the SFB 1252 Prominence in Language

PhD project completed in January 2022 (summa cum laude); funded by Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation)

Revised and expanded monograph newly published as:

Conversation and intonation in autism: A multi-dimensional analysis
(Studies in Laboratory Phonology 14). Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10069004 
 

Publications

2024

• Juliane T. Zimmermann, T. Mark Ellison, Francesco Cangemi, Simon Wehrle, Kai Vogeley & Martine Grice (2024). Lookers and listeners on the autism spectrum: The roles of gaze duration and pitch height in inferring mental states. Frontiers in Communication, 9, 1483135.
• Billian K. Otundo & Simon Wehrle (accepted). Intonation style, multilingualism and code-switching in classroom discourse: Evidence from Kenyan English and Swahili. Proceedings of PundP 2024, Halle/Saale, Germany.
• Simona Sbranna, Simon Wehrle & Martine Grice (2024). A multi-dimensional analysis of backchannels in L1 German, L1 Italian and L2 German. Language, Interaction, and Acquisition.
• Valeria Lucarini, Martine Grice, Simon Wehrle, Francesco Cangemi, Francesca Giustozzi, Stefano Amorosi, Francesco Rasmi, Nikolas Fascendini, Francesca Magnani, Carlo Marchesi, Linda Scoriels, Kai Vogeley, Marie-Odile Krebs & Matteo Tonna (2024). Language in the interaction: turn-taking patterns in conversations involving individuals with schizophrenia. Psychiatry Research, doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2024.116102.
• Malin Spaniol, Simon Wehrle, Alicia Janz, Kai Vogeley & Martine Grice (2024). The influence of conversational context on lexical and prosodic aspects of backchannels and gaze behaviour. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2024, Leiden, The Netherlands.
• Elina Savino, Simon Wehrle & Martine Grice (2024). The prosody of Italian newsreading: a diachronic analysis. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2024, Leiden, The Netherlands.

2023

• Simon Wehrle (2023). Conversation and intonation in autism. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10069004
• Martine Grice, Simon Wehrle, Martina Krüger, Malin Spaniol, Francesco Cangemi & Kai Vogeley (2023). Linguistic prosody in autism spectrum disorder—An overview. Language & Linguistics Compass, e12498. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12498
• Simon Wehrle, Kai Vogeley & Martine Grice (2023). Backchannels in conversations between autistic adults are less frequent and less diverse prosodically and lexically. Language and Cognition, doi:10.1017/langcog.2023.21.
• Simon Wehrle, Franceso Cangemi, Alicia Janz, Kai Vogeley & Martine Grice (2023). Turn-timing in conversations between autistic adults: typical short-gap transitions are preferred, but not achieved instantly. PLoS ONE 18(4): e0284029.
• Simon Wehrle, Martine Grice & Kai Vogeley (2023). Filled Pauses Produced by Autistic Adults Differ in Prosodic Realisation, but not Rate or Lexical Type. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-023-06000-y
• Simon Wehrle, Kai Vogeley & Martine Grice (2023). Characteristics and distribution of silent pauses in conversations between autistic and non-autistic dyads. Proceedings of ICPhS 2023, Prague, Czech Republic.
• Simon Wehrle & Christopher Sappok (2023). Evaluating prosodic aspects of oral reading proficiency in schoolchildren: effects of gender, genre and grade. Proceedings of ICPhS 2023, Prague, Czech Republic.
• Malin Spaniol, Alicia Janz, Simon Wehrle, Kai Vogeley & Martine Grice (2023). Multimodal signalling: the interplay of oral and visual feedback in conversation. Proceedings of ICPhS 2023, Prague, Czech Republic.
• Simona Sbranna, Simon Wehrle & Martine Grice (2023). The use of Backchannels and other Very Short Utterances by Italian Learners of German. Proceedings of XVIII AISV Conference “The position of the speaker in interaction: attitudes, intentions, and emotions in verbal communication”, Naples (Italy).
  (Franco Ferrero Award for best article)
• Stefano Coretta, Joseph V. Casillas (...), Simon Wehrle et al. (2023). Multidimensional signals and analytic flexibility: Estimating degrees of freedom in human speech analyses. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science.

2022

• Simon Wehrle (2022). A brief tutorial for using Wiggliness and Spaciousness to measure intonation styles. OSF; retrievable at osf.io/5e7fd.
• Simon Wehrle, Francesco Cangemi, Kai Vogeley & Martine Grice (2022). New evidence for melodic speech in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Speech Prosody, Lisbon, Portugal, 37-41.
• Simona Sbranna, Eduardo Möking, Simon Wehrle & Martine Grice (2022). Backchannelling across Languages: Rate, Lexical Choice and Intonation in L1 Italian, L1 German and L2 German. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Speech Prosody, Lisbon, Portugal, 734-738.

2021

• Simon Wehrle (2021). A Multi-Dimensional Analysis of Conversation and Intonation in Autism Spectrum Disorder. PhD Thesis, University of Cologne (Germany).

2020

• Simon Wehrle, Francesco Cangemi, Harriet Hanekamp, Kai Vogeley & Martine Grice (2020). Assessing the intonation style of speakers with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Speech Prosody, Tokyo, Japan, 809-813.
• Juliane T. Zimmermann, Simon Wehrle, Francesco Cangemi, Martine Grice & Kai Vogeley (2020).  Listeners and Lookers: Using pitch height and gaze duration for inferring mental states. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Speech Prosody, Tokyo, Japan, 290-294.

2018

• Rie Asano, Pia Bornus (...), Simon Wehrle et al. (2018). Spring School on Language, Music and Cognition: Organizing Events in Time. Music & Science, 1, 1-17.
• Simon Wehrle, Francesco Cangemi, Martina Krüger & Martine Grice (2018). Somewhere over the spectrum: between singsongy and robotic intonation. In: Alessandro Vietti, Lorenzo Spreafico, Daniela Mereu, Vincenzo Galatà (Eds.): "Il parlato nel contesto naturale" - Proceedings of 14th Associazione Italiana Scienze della Voce Conference 2018, 179-194, Bolzano, Italy.

2017

• Anna Bruggeman, Simon Wehrle, Francesco Cangemi, Dina El Zarka & Martine Grice (2017). Unifying Speaker Variability with the Tonal Center of Gravity. Proceedings of Phonetik und Phonologie im deutschsprachigen Raum (P&P) 13, Berlin, 21-24.

2016

• Francesco Cangemi, Dina El Zarka, Simon Wehrle, Stefan Baumann & Martine Grice (2016). Speaker-specific Intonational Marking of Narrow Focus in Egyptian Arabic. Proceedings of the 8th Speech Prosody Conference, Boston, 335-339.

2015

• Kieu-Phuong Ha & Simon Wehrle (2015). Bericht über den Nachwuchsworkshop „Vietnamesische Sprache und Kultur“. a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne Jahrbuch 2014-2015.

Talks

2025

• Simon Wehrle & Malin Spaniol (2025). Effects of Conversational Context on Turn-Timing in (Non-)Autistic Dyads. Conference on Rational Approaches in Language Science (RAILS), Saarbrücken, Germany, February 2025.
• Simon Wehrle (2025). Good (enough) open data and code sharing practices: Personal reflections and recommendations. ReproducibiliTea in the HumaniTeas lecture series, University of Cologne, January 2025.

2024

• Simon Wehrle (2024). Gaze, intonation, and turn-taking across neurotypes and conversational contexts. Keynote lecture, Multimodality in Social Interactions 2.0, workshop, Aix-Marseille University, France, December 2024.
• Nadia Pelagheina, Doğa Ancin & Simon Wehrle (2024). Transfer effects in the global intonation patterns of German–Turkish bilingual heritage speakers. PundP 2024, Halle/Saale, October 2024.
• Simon Wehrle & Simona Sbranna (2024). Longer silence duration in L2 conversations is modulated by proficiency: Evidence from turn-timing in German and Italian. Workshop on prosodic features of language learners' fluency (satellite of Speech Prosody 2024), Leiden, NL, July 2024.
• Simon Wehrle (2024). Prosody, conversation and gaze in interactions between autistic adults. Invited talk, Psychology of Language Lab (Adele Goldberg), Princeton University, NJ, April 2024.
• Simon Wehrle (2024). Speech melody in autism – overview, assessment and validation. Invited talk, Prosody Lab (Jason Bishop; CSI-CUNY Speech Laboratory), CUNY, New York, April 2024.
• Simon Wehrle (2024). Prosody, conversation and gaze in interactions between autistic adults. Invited talk, Program of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences Colloquium Series, CUNY, New York, April 2024.
• Simon Wehrle (2024). Prosody, conversation and gaze in interactions between autistic adults. DHR Kolloquium (Martina Penke), University of Cologne, June 2024.

2023

• Simon Wehrle (2023). Speech melody in autism – overview, assessment and validation. Invited talk, Bilingualism and Developmental Linguistics research group, The University of Edinburgh, November 2023.
• Simon Wehrle, Kai Vogeley & Martine Grice (2023). Conversational and intonational characteristics of dialogue between autistic adults. IPC 18 (18th International Pragmatics Conference), July 2023, Brussels (Belgium).
• Christopher Sappok & Simon Wehrle (2023). Perceptual and acoustic correlates of oral reading proficiency in German schoolchildren—a longitudinal study on fluency and intonation style. Research Colloquium IfL-Phonetik, University of Cologne, July 2023.
• Alicia Janz, Simona Sbranna, Simon Wehrle & Martine Grice (2023). The effect of conversational setting on backchannel feedback. 45. Jahrestagung der DGfS, March 2023, Cologne (Germany).
• Francesco Cangemi, Martine Grice, Valeria Lucarini, Malin Spaniol, Kai Vogeley & Simon Wehrle (2023). Very Short Utterances in clinical interviews with patients with schizophrenia. 19th AISV conference, February 2023, Lecce (Italy).

2022

• Martine Grice & Simon Wehrle (2022). Prosody and Interaction in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Invited lecture, CCLS Lecture Series, November 2022, Cologne (Germany).
• Alicia Janz, Simon Wehrle, Simona Sbranna & Martine Grice (2022). The lexical and intonational realisation of backchannels is less constrained in spontaneous than task-based conversation. 4th ISAPh, September 2022, Lund (Sweden).
• Simon Wehrle, Kai Vogeley & Martine Grice (2022). Characterising conversations between autistic adults – a multi-dimensional approach. LabPhon 18, June 2022 (virtual).
• Martine Grice & Simon Wehrle (2022). Prosody and Conversational Behaviour in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Keynote speech, 11th International Conference on Speech Prosody, May 2022, Lisbon (Portugal).

2021

• Simon Wehrle, Martine Grice & Kai Vogeley (2021). Backchannels and Filled Pauses in Autism Spectrum Disorder. 1st International Conference on Tone and Intonation (TAI), December 2021, Sønderborg (Denmark).
• Simona Sbranna, Simon Wehrle & Martine Grice (2021). Developing L2 Interactional Competence: Turn-taking across proficiency levels. Phonetik und Phonologie im deutschsprachigen Raum (P&P) 17, September 2021, online (/Frankfurt).
• Simon Wehrle (2021). Turn-taking and backchannelling in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Invited talk, Research Colloquium IfL-Phonetik, University of Cologne, January 2021.

2020

• Simon Wehrle (2020). Turn-Taking in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Promovierenden-Forum Gesellschaft und Kultur, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, November 2020.

2019

• Simon Wehrle & Martine Grice (2019). Distribution and prosodic realisation of backchannels in L1 and L2 German. Phonetik und Phonologie im deutschsprachigen Raum (P&P) 15, September 2019, Düsseldorf.

2018

• Simon Wehrle, Timo B. Roettger & Martine Grice (2018). Exploring the dynamics of backchannel interpretation: The meandering mouse paradigm. ProsLang: Workshop on the Processing of Prosody across Languages and Varieties. November 2018, Wellington, New Zealand.
  (Award for Best Student Paper)
• Simon Wehrle (2018). Dialogue management and intonation in autism and second-language speech. Invited lecture, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, November 2018.
• Francesco Cangemi, Simon Wehrle & Martine Grice (2018). Same intonational categories, different phonetic indices. RFP 2018 - 16th Annual Conference of the French Phonology Network. June 2018, Paris.
• Simon Wehrle (2018). Prosody and Communication in High-Functioning Autism and Second Language Speech. Talk, Doktorandenforum Kultur der Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, March 2018, Wittenberg.

2017

• Simon Wehrle (2017). Speaking across the Spectrum: Prosody and Communication in Asperger Syndrome and Second Language Speech. P&P 13 / Junge Phonologie in Deutschland (JuPiD) 2017, September 2017, Berlin.
• Simon Wehrle, Timo B. Roettger & Martine Grice (2017). Tracking the Perceptual Effects of Backchannel Behaviour in Asperger Syndrome and Second Language Speech. ProPro 2017: Processing Prosody Across Languages, Varieties and Nativeness, August-September 2017, Tübingen.

2016

• Simon Wehrle (2016). Non-Natives, Non-Neurotypicals and Other Individuals: Prosody in Second Language Speech and Asperger Syndrome. Talk, Paris-Cologne Collaborative Meetings at Atelier de Recherche sur la Parole, Université Paris Diderot, November 2016, Paris.
• Dina El Zarka, Francesco Cangemi & Simon Wehrle (2016). Prosodic Correlates of Narrow Information Focus in Egyptian Arabic. Talk, Workshop Prosody and Information Structure in Stuttgart, März 2016, Stuttgart.

Poster Presentations

2024

• Billian K. Otundo & Simon Wehrle (2024). Intonation style, multilingualism and code-switching in classroom discourse: Evidence from Kenyan English and Swahili. PundP 2024, Halle/Saale, October 2024.
• Solveigh Janzen, Sophie Püchel & Simon Wehrle (2024). More monotonous, not more melodic, intonation in younger autistic speakers. PundP 2024, Halle/Saale, October 2024.
• Eduardo Möking & Simon Wehrle (2024). Speakership Incipiency and Positive Replies in Autistic Speakers: An Exploration of Prosodic and Lexical Realization. PundP 2024, Halle/Saale, October 2024.
• Malin Spaniol, Simon Wehrle, Kai Vogeley & Martine Grice (2024). Interactions between autistic adults offer a new perspective on social gaze. CogSci 2024, July 2024, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

2023

• Simona Sbranna, Simon Wehrle, Tobias-Alexander Herrmann, Anastasia Bauer, Jana Hosemann & Sonja Gipper (2023). Predictability of head movements as feedback signals in signed and spoken languages. LingCologne 2023.
• Alicia Janz, Simon Wehrle & Martine Grice (2023). Response tokens in the lab and in the wild: evidence from task-based and spontaneous conversations. 5th PaPE (Phonetics and Phonology in Europe) conference, June 2023, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
• Malin Spaniol, Alicia Janz, Simon Wehrle, Kai Vogeley & Martine Grice (2023). Investigating the relation between backchannels and gaze in dyadic conversations: A multimodal approach. MMSYM 2023 (1st International Multimodal Communication Symposium), April 2023, Barcelona (Catalonia/Spain).
• Malin Spaniol, Simon Wehrle, Martine Grice & Kai Vogeley (2023). Multimodale Kommunikation zwischen Menschen mit Autismus. WTAS 2023 (14. Wissenschaftlichen Tagung Autismus-Spektrum), March 2023, Freiburg (Germany).

2021

• Simon Wehrle, Francesco Cangemi, Kai Vogeley & Martine Grice (2021). Dialogue Management in Autism Spectrum Disorder. 4th PaPE (Phonetics and Phonology in Europe) conference, June 2021, online (/Barcelona).

2020

• Alicia Janz, Simon Wehrle & Martine Grice (2020). Effects of unexpectedness on turn-transitions in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. International Seminar on Speech Production (ISSP) 2020, 12-18 December 2020.

2018

• Simon Wehrle, Francesco Cangemi & Martine Grice (2018). Why so quiet? The nature and significance of silent gaps in second language communication. Workshop on Prosody and Meaning: Information Structure and Beyond, November 2018, Aix-en-Provence.
• Simon Wehrle, Francesco Cangemi, Kai Vogeley & Martine Grice (2018). The timing of turn-taking in high-functioning autism. Phonetik und Phonologie im deutschsprachigen Raum (P&P) 14, September 2018, Vienna.
• Simon Wehrle & Francesco Cangemi (2018). Transfer the floor: the timing of turn-taking in high-functioning autism. Spring School on Language, Music and Cognition, February-March 2018, Cologne.

2017

• Juliane Zimmermann, Martina Krüger, Simon Wehrle, Kai Vogeley & Martine Grice (2017). Communication in Asperger Syndrome focusing on pragmatic prosody. Poster presentation, Sychronization in Communication Systems, June 2017, East Lansing, Michigan.

2016

• Simon Wehrle, Francesco Cangemi, Martine Grice & Kai Vogeley (2016). Individual Behaviour in Encoding and Decoding Prosodic Prominence. Poster presentation, LingUnite 2016 RWTH Aachen, Oktober 2016, Aachen.

2015

• Simon Wehrle & Martine Grice (2015). Backchannels in Map Tasks in L1 German, L1 Vietnamese & L2 German. Poster presentation, Workshop on Vietnamese Prosody, August 2015, Cologne.

Outreach

• Presentations at “FORAUS—Forum Autismus” (discussion forum for autistic adults), September & December 2022 (further planned for 2023), University Hospital Cologne (Germany).
• KölnerKinderUni 2018/2019: introducing children to linguistics and phonetics; in the 2019 instalment, joint project with Ensemble Musikfabrik and public performance

Teaching

• WS24/25 MA Seminar Conversation and Intonation in Autism
• WS23/24 MA Seminar Laboratory Phonology
• WS 19/20 Guest Lecture Seminar Laboratory Phonology
• SoSe 19 Hauptseminar Communication in Autism (with Martine Grice and Juliane Zimmermann)
• WS 18/19 Guest Lecture Hauptseminar Continuity in Phonology 
• WS 17/18 Seminar Phonetic Aspects of Second Language Speech (with Martine Grice)
• WS 16/17 Seminar Phonetic Aspects of Second Language Speech (with Martine Grice)
• Co-supervision of ten BA theses and one MA thesis on the topics of phonetics, intonation, conversation, second language speech and autism

Other Academic Activities

• Member of the Sustainability Working Group, SFB 1252, University of Cologne
• Co-organization of several international conferences and workshops
• Programme committee member and reviewer for various conferences
• Ad-hoc reviewer for various linguistic journals
• English language editor for various academic journals and for PhD theses
• Translation of scientific articles, university materials/administrative documents, grant applications, etc.