COGNITION AND LANGUAGE LEARNING RESEARCH GROUP
@ DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
Before they start talking, babies have learned a surprising amount of knowledge about the sounds, words, and grammar of their language. Within the first year of life, infants start to learn and recognize words in the spoken language around them. In our centre at Dalhousie University, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, we want to understand the mechanisms that support language acquisition. Some of our research questions include:​
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When do infants start to learn about what words sound like and what they mean? How do these two processes interact?
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How do toddlers interpret new or unusual pronunciations of words?
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How does social information about the speaker (such as cultural background or who they previously interacted with), influence infants' and toddlers' word processing?
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What do young children understand about the role of languages in culture?
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We are always looking for new participants (aged 0 - 6) and would love to have your family participate.
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RESEARCH INTERESTS
Developmental Sociolinguistics
How do infants deal with the variability in their linguistic and social environment?
Audiovisual Speech Perception
Can babies use information from the mouth to help them recognize and learn new words?
Word Learning and Retention
Does speaker identity influence how new words are interpreted, and how well they are retained?
Cognitive Neuroscience
How is language acquisition reflected in the brain?
Social Cognition
How does language influence what children think about the people in their world?
