Research in this domain falls into two primary areas: sentence comprehension and language acquisition and processing across the lifespan. The research on comprehension (Jon Brennan, Julie Boland, Richard Lewis) focuses primarily on syntactic parsing and its relationship to lexical and semantic processes. These cognitive processes are studied using multiple experimental techniques (e.g., eye-tracking, reaction time paradigms, electroencephalography/EEG, magnetoencephalography/MEG and functional magnetic resonance imaging/fMRI) and computational modeling. Research in the psychology of language across the lifespan investigates first and second language acquisition and bilingualism in children and adults (Sam Epstein, Carmel O'Shannessy, Acrisio Pires) and the relationships among language, social and cognitive factors in aging (Deborah Keller-Cohen). Faculty from other departments with related interests include Nick Ellis, Susan Gelman, Ioulia Kovelman, Frederick Morrison, Thad Polk, and Twila Tardif (all from Psychology), and Diane Larsen-Freeman (the English Language Institute and School of Education).
Faculty
Natasha Abner
Acquisition, Semantics, Syntax, Psycholinguistics, Morphosyntax, Sign Language
Patrice Speeter Beddor
Speech Perception, Coarticulation, Production-Perception Relation
Jonathan Brennan
Neurolinguistics, syntax-semantics interface, syntactic and semantic parsing, incremental semantic representations
Andries Coetzee
Phonology, Speech Perception, Coarticulation, Production-Perception Relation, Afrikaans
Lisa Levinson
Semantics, psycholinguistics, morphosyntax, verbs, events, argument structure
Acrisio Pires
Bilingualism/language Acquisition, Minimalist Syntax, Comparative Syntax, Language Change.
Other Affiliated Faculty
Nick Ellis (Psychology and Linguistics)
Richard Lewis (Psychology and Linguistics)
Julie Boland (Psychology and Linguistics)
Nicholas Henriksen (Romance Languages and Linguistics)
Lorenzo Garcia-Amaya (Romance Languages and Linguistics)
Susan Gelman (Psychology and Linguistics)
Ioulia Kovelman (Psychology)
Frederick Morrison (Psychology)
Thad Polk (Psychology)
Teresa Satterfield (Romance Languages and Literatures)
Twila Tardif (Psychology)
Diane Larsen-Freeman (English Language Institute and School of Education)
