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Back to Research
Language is a major focus of research in the Department of Psychology at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. The group's interests address every facet
of language performance, including language acquisition, written and spoken
comprehension, language production, and impairments to all these processes.
Work in the area addresses the entire lifespan, from the beginnings of language
acquisition in infants to changes in language abilities in old age.
Research topics also range from the earliest stages of speech perception to
the elaboration of models of discourse. Many faculty members and collaborate with one another,
and graduate students have the opportunity to work in more than one lab.
Beginning in Fall, 2005 (pending final NIH funding approval), language research and training in the Department
of Psychology will be supported in part by an interdisciplinary program for Training in Language: Integrating Acquisition and
Adult Performance, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. This program aims to train
predoctoral and postdoctoral students broadly in psycholinguistic research and theory, so that they are able to integrate
research in areas of both child language acquisition and adult performance. The eight faculty listed below are the training
faculty for this program. Predoctoral students admitted into the program will be supported by a combination of program
training funds, University Fellowships, faculty research grant funds, and in a small number of semesters, teaching assistantships
so as to allow students to gain teaching experience. Postdoctoral fellowships are typically for one year and renewable for an
additional year contingent on satisfactory performance. Questions about faculty research should be directed to the individual
faculty listed below, and general questions about the training program can be directed to
Maryellen MacDonald.
Our colleagues in Linguistics and Communicative Disorders Departments significantly
enhance our strength in the study of linguistic structure, development, and
disorders. In addition, resources at the Waisman Center support researchers interested
in both typical and atypical language development, as well as fMRI and PET research
facilities including the new Waisman
Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior
.
Language Faculty and Laboratories
Martha Alibali
Cognitive Development and Communication Lab
Interests: Language and gesture, language production
Morton Ann Gernsbacher
Language Comprehension Laboratory
University of Wisconsin Research on Autism
Interests: adult language comprehension, speech and language challenges
among children and adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder
Art Glenberg
Laboratory for Embodied Cognition
Interests: Embodied principles of language, memory and meaning
Keith Kluender
Wisconsin Speech Perception Laboratory
Interests: Speech perception in humans and animals, the role of experience in auditory perception
Maryellen C. MacDonald
Language and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory
Interests: sentence comprehension, language production, working memory and
individual differences in language, language and aging
Tim Rogers
Knowledge Laboratory
Interests: Conceptual knowledge, categorization, and language in healthy adults, children,
and neuropathological populations.
Jenny Saffran
Learning Languages Lab &
Infant Learning Laboratory
Interests: Infant and child language acquisition
Mark S. Seidenberg
Language and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory
Interests: Reading, dyslexia, morphological processing, computational
modeling of acquisition and skilled performance
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