The Balkans are a melting pot of grammars, where several features of different languages blend and resemble one another due to centuries-long extensive language contact. MindContact examines the cognitive aspects modulating how languages change due to areal contact with an interdisciplinary approach by connecting contact linguistics and psycholinguistics –two fields of linguistics that have barely interacted. Blending perspectives from psycholinguistics and contact linguistics, this project takes the concept of ‘areal contact’ phenomena in the Balkans under scrutiny, focusing on four understudied minority language varieties: Romani, Ladino, Istanbul Greek, and Rumelian Turkish. We will critically investigate on-going language change patterns including future/perfect forms, evidentiality, indefinite articles, adjective-noun order in those particular languages. MindContact aims to (1) advance knowledge regarding how areal convergence occurs and which cognitive factors contribute to it, (2) validate theories and lab-based protocols with experimental fieldwork data from minority languages, and (3) generate tools and resources for studying language change and loss under minority language conditions. The novel character of this proposal is the involvement of an ‘experimental fieldwork’ approach to language contact by using powerful psycholinguistic techniques such as eye-movement monitoring and electrophysiology. These time-sensitive tools provide a unique window into understanding the cognitive underpinnings of language contact outcomes. By synthesising several experimental data from its subprojects, MindContact seeks to arrive at a unified hypothesis of explaining how cognitive factors are involved in areal contact, setting the foundations of a new stream of research.