Position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Institute of Education Office: Institute of Education Bloomsbury Phone: - Fax: - Email: penrose.knowland@gmail.com

My research focus is on the development and benefit of multimodal cues to language. In particular I am interested in how children develop audiovisual speech perception, and how that process differs for children with developmental disorders. More broadly this extends to a consideration of the challenges and opportunities that multimodal cues present to the atypically developing system. In a separate line of enquiry I am interested in sensitive periods in learning, what they tell us about interactions between the developing brain and its environment, and how they might inform educational policy.

I completed my PhD in the Developmental Neurocogntion Lab in 2011, under the supervision of Michael Thomas, Annette Karmiloff-Smith, and Fred Dick.

Publications

Thomas, M. S. C. & Knowland, V. C. P. (submitted). Modelling mechanisms of persisting and resolving delay in language development. Manuscript submitted for publication. Click here for PDF version (1.2mb), and here for supplementary material.

Thomas, M. S. C., Knowland, V. C. P., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2012). Modelling regression in autism. Poster presented at The 3rd UK Paediatric Neuropsychology Symposium: Early Brain-Behaviour Relationships and Prognostic Indicators, Institute of Child Health, L\ ondon on 23-27 April 2012. Click here for PDF version (532k)

Thomas, M. S. C., Knowland, V. C. P., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2011). Mechanisms of developmental regression in autism and the broader phenotype: A neural network modeling approach. Psychological Review, 118(4), 637-654. Click here for pdf version (894k), and here (1.3mb) for supporting technical information on the population simulation method.

Knowland, V. C. P. & Thomas, M. S. C. (2011). Developmental trajectories in genetic disorders. In: D. J. Fidler (Ed.), Early development in neurogenetic disorders Volume 40, (p. 43-74). San Diego: Elsevier Inc. ISBN:978-0-12-374478-4 Click here for pdf version (714k).

Knowland, V. C. P. & Thomas, M. S. C. (2011). Developmental trajectories in genetic disorders. In: D. J. Fidler (Ed.), Early development in neurogenetic disorders Volume 40, (p. 43-74). San Diego: Elsevier Inc. ISBN:978-0-12-374478-4 Click here for pdf version (714k).

Thomas, M. S. C., Knowland, V. C. P., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2011). Variability in the severity of developmental disorders: A neurocomputational account of developmental regression in autism. In: E. Davelaar (Ed.), Proceedings of the 12th Neurocomputational and Psychology Workshop, (p. 309-325). World Scientific. Click here for PDF version (5mb)

Thomas, M. S. C., Karminis, T. N., & Knowland, V. P. (2010). What is typical language development? Language Learning & Development, 6, 162-169. Click here for PDF version (142k). This article is a commentary accompanying this study (final draft).

Thomas, M. S. C. & Knowland, V. (2009). Sensitive periods in brain development: Implications for education policy. European Psychiatric Review, 2(1), 17-20. Click here for PDF of uncorrected proof (99K) or here for on-line version.

Nardini, M., Thomas, R. L., Knowland, V. C. P., Braddick, O. J., & Atkinson, J. (2009) A viewpoint-independent process for spatial reorientation. Cognition, 112, 241-248. Click here for PDF version (219K)

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