Research

We study bilingual language comprehension – particularly syntactically process, called a switching and ambiguity resolution – with the goal of understanding the role of experience in adult language processing.

The Bilingualism and Language Development Lab studies the cognitive and neurocognitive processes related to language development, second language learning, and bilinguals’ use of of two languages.

Research in the Child Language Development Laboratory focuses on how typical and atypical language development interacts with other cognitive systems. Our studies spend many age groups, language/cognitive domains and levels of analysis, from auditory perceptual processing to social-cognitive skills.

Does code-switching inherently promote grammatical convergence? We compare variation patterns, in a community-based corpus of bilingual speech.

Our lab conducts research on the cognitive processes that support the acquisition and use of two languages. We use behavioral and neuroscience methods to investigate the way that second language learners and bilinguals juggle the presence of two languages in one mind and brain.

We use behavioral and brain imaging methods to examine how fundamental cognitive systems contribute to peoples’ ability to generate new ideas and solve problems. We also study figurative language production, with a focus on novel metaphor.

We work with children who are learning different varieties of English and Spanish as a first language. We are especially interested in the acquisition of linguistic and extra linguistic variation and how variation in the input affects acquisition of the target grammar.

The language and aging lab uses behavioral, electrophysiological, and fMRI methods to investigate how the brain supports language, and how language changes across the lifespan.

We are interested in how users of more than one language, or varieties of languages, navigate the multiple linguistic systems in their experience, taking the view that their resulting knowledge, processing, and use of language is best described as a single, integrated linguistic system.

Our research group investigates the nature of lexical and morphological representations using a variety of techniques

Our semantic research is devoted to answering such questions as “What sorts of meanings do natural languages yield?,” “By what rules are those meanings derived?,” and “What is the relationship of syntax to semantics?”

We use both behavioral (e.g., reaction times, eye-tracking, comprehension and production tasks) and neurophysiological (EEG/ERP) research methods to investigate how second language speakers process words and sentences is in both their first and second languages.

The primary focus is to characterize neuroplasticity related to successful treatment in persons with acquired language disorders. Also working to explore different ways of promoting neuroplasticity in the rehabilitation of adult language disorders.

Our research is to develop evidence-based interventions to improve speech intelligibility in people with dysarthria, a type of motor speech disorder. To reach this goal, we examine movements of the tongue, jaw, and lips and how they form understandable or less understandable speech signals.

We use behavioral experiments and functional neuroimaging techniques (like fMRI) to understand the broad spectrum of patterns language learners extract from their surroundings.