Dr. Gerken, the director of the Tweety Lab, is a professor of psychology and linguistics. She is also the Cognitive Science program director and associate editor of Language Learning and Development. Her main interest is language acquisition and, more specifically, infants' and children's sensitivity to linguistic structure. She is also interested in how language is represented in the mind and the relation between linguistic grammars and language behaviors like comprehension and production.
Juliet hails from the east coast, where she got her B.S. and M.S. in Neuroscience (from the College of William and Mary and Georgetown University, respectively). She is currently enjoying time off from school to work at a school, while her husband completes his Ph.D. in Planetary Science at the University of Arizona. She reads voraciously and loves all animals--especially babies--human and non-human.
Colin received a B.A. in Cognitive Science from Yale University in 2005 and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Arizona. His main research interests involve the relationship between structures in the input infants receive and the way learning takes place. His current language experiments involve pattern learning and category formation. He is also conducting experiments on how infants perceive music. Read more about Colin's infant studies here!
Brittany is currently a 6th year Ph.D student in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching. Her primary interest is bilingual child language development, specifically the interface between developing grammatical knowledge and developing processing systems (comprehension and production). She is especially interested in the mechanism for production and how this system is influenced by the structure of the languages to which the child is exposed. Brittany is currently working on experiments to investigate the role of lexicalized grammatical gender in sentence production for Spanish-English bilingual children between 2-4 years of age. Read more about this bilingual study here!
Evelyn graduated May 2008 from the University of Arizona with a B.A. in psychology. She is currently working on the 3.5 year toddler study. She enjoys working with children, and is excited to be a member of the Tweety Lab. Outside of school, she enjoys ballroom dancing and teaches first graders about their faith.
Brianna is a senior majoring in psychology who is currently working on the 4 year toddler study. She is excited to be working in the Tweety Lab and hopes it will be a great opportunity for her to gain experience for graduate school. In her spare time Brianna loves to cook, and is an avid reader and moviegoer.
Julie Shah is a senior currently assisting doctoral student Colin Dawson with his research on 4- and 7.5-month-old infants. Born and raised in Arizona, Julie moved around to Wisconsin and Illinois before finally coming back to her home state of Arizona to pursue an education. She is completing her Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in Cognitive Science, and has a special interest in cognitive neuroscience and development. Her interests include baking, camping, skiing, and watching soccer. Julie enjoys spending time with her family and friends as well as enjoying her time on the beautiful UA campus.
Peter completed his dissertation August 2008 under the guidance of Drs. LouAnn Gerken and Diana Ohala at the University of Arizona, and has accepted a post-doctoral postion at the University of Kansas in the Spoken Language Laboratory, directed by Dr. Michael Vitevitch. Peter's current research agenda is focused on phonotactic probabilities: how they are learned by children, how they can be investigated empirically, and how they are represented. Click here to view Peter's current CV and recent work.
Claire graduated May 2008 from the University of Arizona with a B.S. in Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences.
Frances is a post-doc, with a Ph.D in Psychology and a M.S. in Speech and Hearing Sciences from the University of Arizona. Her primary interest is in how infants and young children are able to be such great learners, specifically how young children actively behave to maximize their learning efficiently, including using various strategies like selective attention. She is currently engaged in research at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Nikki graduated May 2007 from the University of Arizona with a B.A. in Linguistics and minor in Cognitive Science.
Dr. Rebecca Gomez, Director of the Tigger Lab at the University of Arizona
Dr. Mary Peterson, Director of the Visual Perception Lab at the University of Arizona
Chewie Mon, Undergraduate member of the Visual Perception Lab
Dr. Tania Zamuner, Infant researcher at the University of British Columbia and the Netherlands
Dr. Jessica Maye, Assistant Professor at Northwestern University
Dr. Allyson Carter, Acquiring Editor at the UA Press
Web design & maintenance by Juliet L. Minton | Last updated October 2, 2008