Specialist Research Laboratory

Language and Cognition Lab

The goal of the research undertaken in this laboratory is to shed light on the mental processes that underlie language and other cognitive skills, especially numerical processing. We are interested in strategies involved in reading and spelling, as well as in mechanisms underlying processing of spoken words and sentences. While in some projects we seek to uncover general mechanisms underpinning linguistic and cognitive processing ability, we also investigate individual differences in component skills. Our target language is typically English, but we also explore linguistic processing strategies among speakers/readers of languages other than English.

Current Areas of Research

• Reading and spelling proficiency in adults
• The development of word recognition skills in children
• The role of linguistic and non-linguistic processes in numerical thinking
• Assigning grammatical gender in French
• Cross-linguistic comparisons

Research Collaborators

Australia:


• Professor Anne Castles , Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science (MACCS ), Macquarie University , NSW
• Associate Professor Chris Davis , MARCS Auditory Laboratories , University of Western Sydney , NSW
• Professor Marcus Taft , Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of New South Wales , NSW

• 
  International:
  

• Professor Brian Butterworth, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and University College London , England , UK
• Professor Ken Forster, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona , USA
• Dr Wayne Murray, Department of Psychology, University of Dundee, Scotland, UK
Professor Juan Segui , Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurosciences Cognitives, Université René Descartes - Paris 5

Collaborating Institutions:

• MACCS, Macquarie University , NSW, Australia
• Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurosciences Cognitives, Université René Descartes - Paris 5, France

Current Research Students:

• Brett Furlonger (PhD): Phonological Awareness and Reading Proficiency in Deaf Adults