Anna Papafragou

                     Language and Cognition Lab  

                                           401 Wolf Hall, ph (302) 831 8827  

    Research:  

Research in the Language and Cognition lab addresses two main questions:

(a) How do children acquire language?

What is the nature of the underlying representations and mechanisms which allow very young children to acquire the words and structures of their native language? Our research looks especially at children between the ages of 3-5 when language acquisition still proceeds rapidly and uses multiple methodologies, including act-out tasks, truth value judgment tasks, and elicited imitation and production tasks. 

(b) What is the relationship between linguistic and nonlinguistic categories?

How is human language connected to human thought? Do people who speak different languages think differently? Do children (who are only beginning to produce and understand language) think differently from adults? Our research addresses these questions through a range of cross-linguistic comparative projects. We are especially interested in the cognitive domains of space and motion, mental states (or 'theory of mind') and number, and their relation to language.

Large part of our work with children is carried out at the Early Learning Center (ELC), a model educational and research facility at UD. The interdisciplinary nature of this work invites collaboration with students and faculty in linguistics, cognitive science, education and neuroscience.

     Location: 

The Language and Cognition lab is located in a suite of rooms in 401 Wolf Hall (Department of Psychology) at the University of Delaware campus. This completely renovated facility includes testing areas for children and adults and separate spaces for stimulus preparation and analysis. The lab also has office space for students and its own meeting room. The lab is equipped with state-of-the-art digital audio-visual hardware and software for stimulus preparation, presentation and analysis. Access to additional experimental capabilities, such as ERP measurements, eye-tracking, and preferential-looking techniques for infants can be arranged through cooperation with other Cognitive labs at UD.
 

        Lab members: 

•  Taraneh Mojaverian, lab co-ordinator (taraneh.mojaverian@gmail.com)

•  Ozge Isik Ozturk  (graduate, Linguistics; personal website; ozge@udel.edu)

•  Megan Johanson (graduate, Psychology; majohanson@psych.udel.edu)

•  Carlyn Friedberg (undergraduate, Psychology, Science Scholar)

•  Kendra Goodwin (undergraduate, Psychology)

•  U'nek Brown (undergraduate, Psychology)

         Former lab members: 

•  Jill Carmen (undergraduate, Psychology)

•  Emily Tynan (graduate, Linguistics)

•  Mia White (undergraduate, Psychology)

•  Matt Cohen (now a graduate student at the University of Florida)

•  Sarah Lorch (now a graduate student at New York University)

•  Amy Ritter (now a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

•  Brooke Leiman (now a graduate student at the University of Maryland)

•  Stacey Davey (now a graduate student at Adelphi University)

•  Liz Abramson (undergraduate, Psychology)

•  Margaret Cahill (undergraduate, Psychology)

•  Kristin Vorce (undergraduate, Psychology)     

•  Sarah Niles (undergraduate, Psychology)

•  Melissa Prousi (undergraduate, Psychology)

•  Kaitlin Woyden (undergraduate, Psychology)