Research

Research interests

Speech perception, psycholinguistics and aphasia; the neural bases of language; acoustic variation and lexical access in normal and language-impaired populations.

Research roles and projects

I am co-director (with Dr Fred Dick) of the Auditory Language Processing, Hearing, and Attention Laboratory (ALPHAlab), which is part of Birkbeck’s Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development.

My research focuses on the relationship between perceptual and attentional processes and language comprehension in adults and children. I am interested the role of hearing sensitivity and attentional control in the acquisition and processing of lexical-semantic and grammatical information, and the ways in which disruptions of these processes may contribute to developmental and acquired language disorders.

I am currently investigating:

• the effects of perceptual degradation and increased attentional demand on language processing in children and adults
• the relationship between the development of auditory perceptual skills, attentional control and language comprehension in school-aged children
• the co-occurrence of linguistic and non-linguistic processing deficits in populations with language disorders

With my colleagues in the ALPHAlab, I am continuing to develop a series of experimental paradigms to explore these issues using behavioural and neuroimaging techniques.