Dr. Dato Abashidze is a researcher in the Research Area 2 'Language Development and Multilingualism'. He is also the laboratory manager responsible for the psycholinguistic laboratory at ZAS.

His research focuses on language learning and language processing using visual context in different populations of speakers; monolinguals, bilinguals and second language learners. In order to examine specific learning/comprehension processes, he employs eye tracking technology to measure eye movements during the acquisition of new grammatical features or the comprehension of spoken sentences. The goal of his current work in this area is to determine the benefits and shortcomings of language speakers’ use of visual information, for example, in the processing and learning of morphosyntax.