Laboratory of Phonetics & Psycholinguistics
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Research Interests

My area of expertise is psycholinguistics. My particular approach is to seek converging evidence from language comprehension and language production, with the ultimate goal of relating these data to specific brain processes. My current research focuses on language learning, specifically the training and learning of non-native language contrasts. I teach a variety of courses in language and mind, psychology of language, second language acquisition, and research methods.

  • Psycholinguistic investigations of language structure
  • Ssecond language learning
  • Language perception and production processes
  • Auditory and visual word recognition
  • Neurological bases of language
  • Cognitive science

Research Funding

2009-2012 National Science Foundation: Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences, Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, P.I. Sereno, $284,641
The contribution of speaking rate, talker, and coarticulation to lexical tone processing: Effects of language background and training
2009-2010 University of Kansas General Research Fund, $9,731
The contribution of speaking rate and talker to lexical tone processing
2006-2007 University of Kansas General Research Fund, $1603
Native language influence on native and non-native perception
2005-2008 National Science Foundation, Faculty Associate, P.I. Jongman, $230,000
Acoustic and perceptual correlates of emphasis in Arabic
2002-2003 University of Kansas General Research Fund, $8,669
Training with Linguistic Contrasts
2002, 2001, 2000, 1999 Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship, $24,500
Processing of German Inflectional Morphology
2000 KU New Faculty General Research Fund Program, $9,994
Acquiring a Second Language: Perception of Mandarin Tone
1999-2000 Research Development Fund, $61,548.25
Cognitive Robotics Project
(co-PI: Agah, Brown, Gauch, Jongman, Schreiber, Sereno, and Speer)
1999-2000 KU Research Development Fund, (co-PI: Rice, Sereno, Jongman, and Atchley), $47,400
Evaluation of the perceptual and neurological processing abilities of children with grammatical limitations
1998-1999 National Science Foundation NSF POWRE Award, P.I. Sereno, $49,981
Behavioral Investigations of Nouns and Verbs
1998-1999 Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Dutch NSF), $15,000
Phonetic Priming
1995 PEW Fellowship Program in Undergraduate Science Education, $7,000
Lexical Organization of Inflectional Structure
1993-1994 President's Council of Cornell Women Research Grant, $5,000
The Processing of Inflectional Structure: Nouns and Verbs in English
1990 German Science Foundation Fellowship (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)
1985-1987 John D. and Catherine T.MacArthur Foundation Fellowship
1985-1987 Brown University Scholarship
1982-1985 National Science Foundation NSF Graduate Fellowship
1977-1978 Northern Illinois University Alumni Association Scholarship (full tuition)
1977-1981 Academic Achievement Award, Northern Illinois University