Cognitive Science Program

• Esther L. Kinsley Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award,1986
• NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, 1985-1988
• NIH FIRST Independent Research Support and Transition Award, 1988-1993
• NIH Research Career Development Award, 1992-1997
• EditorsU Award, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 1997
• Finkelstein Fellow of the College of Arts and Sciences, 1997-2001

FacilitiesMy research examines children's acquisition of the phonological system of the native language, with special emphasis on preschoolers who exhibit functional speech sound delays. The work is grounded in linguistic and psycholinguistic theories, and serves as a test case of these models. The children who participate require clinical intervention, which is delivered as an experimental manipulation, to advance their phonological systems. The outcome of this research has applied consequences that bear directly on issues of the efficacy of clinical treatments. Current funding is from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders DC01694 "Development of Phonological Categories."

The Learnability Project is located in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences. The lab is equipped for digital audio and video recording and speech analysis, and relies on a network of Macintosh workstations in data collection and analysis. The experimental treatment of children with phonological delays takes place in the clinical facility of the Department. The clinical treatment rooms are equipped with conventional diagnostic and treatment materials, in addition to computers which are used in presentation of digital picture stimuli. Treatment rooms permit one-way observation of the clinical sessions.

Zapf, Jennifer, Comprehension production, and meaning: What the regular English plural can tell us about language (July 2007), Smith, L. (Co-Chair), Jones, S., Gierut, J (Co-Chair)., Gasser, M.