MARCS Afternoon Colloquium (MAC) (Room 3.G.55 - Building 3) Professor Janet Werker - The University of British Columbia 1pm-2.30pm Topic: Multisensory Foundations of Infant Speech Perception and Early Word Learning
Speaker: Professor Janet Werker
Abstract: Language acquisition begins in perceptual development long before infants produce or even understand their first words. While we typically focus on studying auditory perception of spoken language, infants also experience and perceive speech through other modalities. In this talk, I will explore the thesis that speech perception is multisensory from early in life, and will examine the question of whether the different perceptual systems that support speech processing develop independently and then come together, or whether they are linked and mutually informative from early in life.
Biography: Professor Janet F. Werker is Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. Professor Werker is the founder and a member of the Early Development Research Group, a consortium of six research centers interested in the development of language, learning, and social understanding in infants and children. Professor Werker is internationally recognized for her research investigating the perceptual foundations of language acquisition in both monolingual and bilingual learning infants. 2.30pm-4pm – Student Presentations - Ruth Brookman - Mother-infant interactions and infants' early language development
- Irena Lovcevic - Acoustic features of infant-directed speech to infants with hearing loss
- Gloria Pino Escobar - The relationship between executive functions and word learning by monolingual and bilingual children: Bridging the gap between domain-general cognitive processes and vocabulary acquisition
- Jessica Tan - Neural Entrainment to Auditory-Visual Speech in Infants and Children
- Nicole Traynor - What makes infant-directed speech so special? Examining the specific properties proposed to aid early word learning
- Jenny Zeng - Infants' Cue-weighting in Speech and Music Rhythm Perception
- Tina Whyte-Ball - The impact of regional accent variation on monolingual and bilingual infants’ lexical processing
Thank you for your continued attendance at MARCS Monday Afternoon Colloquiums. Let's keep the momentum going. MARCS staff and students are reminded that all meetings and workshops have an important role in building and maintaining the sense of community which is central to the success of MARCS as a cooperative and energetic research institute. Your attendance is both welcomed and expected. The zoom ID is: 627 146 998. Link to zoom https://uws.zoom.us/j/627146998 |
