PhD Openings: Psychology Dept., University of Connecticut

[tabor@uconnvm.uconn.edu]

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          GRADUATE TRAINING IN LANGUAGE AND COGNITION
              AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT

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The Language and Cognition Program in the Department of Psychology at the
University of Connecticut has openings for at least 4 PhD studentships to
start in Fall, 2001. 

The program is centered around the experimental study of language
processing, and has done excellent work on speech perception and
production, word identification, sentence processing, skilled reading, and
the process of learning to read.  It has close ties with the Center for the
Ecological Study of Perception and Action (CESPA), which is in the same
division of the University of Connecticut Department of Psychology.  Over
the past several years, a unique synthesis has been occurring between the
ecological work, which has focused on the development of dynamical systems
models of human physical movement (e.g. limb coordination, postural
control, gait, etc.), and the language work, which has been emphasizing the
use of dynamical connectionist models to study language as action.  An
important element in the mix is Haskins laboratories, an independent
research lab located nearby in New Haven.  For over 60 years, Haskins has
done pathbreaking research on speech and reading and maintained an
environment where people from many places and backgrounds meet regularly to
explore ideas creatively and work on joint projects.

Important deadline:

January 15:  Graduate Applications due.

The brochure is available on line at:

http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~wwwpsyc/Experimental.html/

For admission guidelines and to download application forms, see:

http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~wwwpsyc/GradAd.html/

To obtain a printed brochure and a set of application
materials, write, telephone, fax, or email:

Ms. Nicole Dolat, Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, 406
Babbidge Road, Unit 1030, Storrs, CT 06269-1030

Phone: (860) 486-3528
FAX: (860) 486-2760
E-Mail:  futuregr at psych.psy.uconn.edu

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Description of the Program in Language and Cognition:

The Program in Language and Cognition focuses on those aspects of language
that make it a uniquely versatile vehicle for communication and thought.
There is thus a strong focus on the dynamical aspects of language,
including experimental studies of language processing, learning, and change
at the phoneme, word, and sentence level, modeling of language processes
using artificial neural (connectionist) networks and symbolic computational
models, and mathematical analysis using dynamical systems theory and
statistics.  There is particular interest in an ecological approach, which
emphasizes continual interaction between speaker/hearers and their
environments.  There is much interest in the biological basis of language,
both in pursuit of innate endowment questions and in studies of neural
mechanisms using state-of-the-art neuroimaging tools.  The group has long
conducted basic research on the reading process; some members of the group
are also engaged in the translation of research findings to the classroom.

The Program has close ties to the Center for the Study of Perception and
Action (CESPA---http://ione.psy.uconn.edu/~cespaweb/), the Developmental
and Behavioral Neuroscience Divisions in the Dept. of Psychology
(http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~wwwpsyc/), the Linguistics Department
(http://vm.uconn.edu/~wwwling/), and the Cognitive Science Focus
(http://cogsci.uconn.edu/) at the University of Connecticut.  In addition,
Haskins Laboratories (http://www.haskins.yale.edu), located nearby in New
Haven, provides a stimulating environment for research and training.

The program prepares students for careers in research and teaching. A
student's research activity begins immediately on entry to the program. In
addition, three courses are typically taken each semester. A student's
schedule also includes attendance at colloquia and informal weekly group
meetings for discussion of problems in theory and research. Course work for
the Ph.D. degree can often be completed in two-and-a-half to three years.
Another year or two is needed to complete the dissertation. Applicants
should have an excellent academic record. Research experience is helpful
but not necessary. Applicants may have an undergraduate major in
psychology, linguistics, computer science, mathematics, cognitive science,
or other related fields of study. 

*****

CAROL FOWLER, Professor of Psychology. Dr. Fowler works on speech
perception and production within the developing direct-realist framework.
In addition, she has begun collaborative research on cross-person
coordination and cooperation in language use. This is part of an effort to
develop an ecological theory of language-that is, an understanding of how
language is used in ordinary contexts in which speech occurs. Dr. Fowler is
the Director of Haskins Laboratories.

LEONARD KATZ, Professor of Psychology. Dr. Katz studies reading, focusing
on the process of printed word recognition. Cross-language experiments are
often used to reveal in which ways word recognition is shaped by a
language's particular characteristics and in which ways it is more general.
 Languages studied include English, Hebrew, Russian, Serbo-Croatian and
Turkish. In addition, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging studies
(carried out in conjunction with Haskins Laboratories and Yale Medical
School) explore the brain mechanisms that support the word recognition
process. Finally, behavioral experiments in English are used to study the
effects on word recognition of the reader's lexicon (i.e., neighborhood
factors) and reader strategies.

JAY RUECKL, Associate Professor of Psychology. A primary goal of Dr.
Rueckl's research is to use connectionist networks to forge a link between
theories of implicit memory and models of word identification. His research
focuses on the interaction of phonological, morphological, and semantic
factors in the influence of implicit memory on work identification in
reading, the role of perceptual detail (e.g. the characteristics of a
speaker's voice) in visual and spoken word identification. In addition,
together with his colleagues at Haskins Laboratories, Dr. Rueckl has
recently begun to apply artificial neural network models to the
investigation of the cognitive neuropsychology of reading.

DONALD SHANKWEILER, Professor of Psychology. The broad aim of Dr.
Shankweiler's research is to understand how the language apparatus, which
is biologically specialized for speech, becomes adapted to reading and
writing. In studies carried out in the 1970's, he and Dr. I. Y. Liberman
discovered that there is an important association between children's
abilities to analyze speech into its components (phonemes, syllables, and
morphemes) and their progress in reading. Recent research has pursued the
implications of this association for the operation of short-term verbal
memory; for children who lack phonologically analytic skills, short-term
memory function is also impaired. Dr. Shankweiler, with Stephen Crain and
their students, have developed a model of the role of short-term memory in
language comprehension.  

WHITNEY TABOR, Assistant Professor of Psychology. Dr. Tabor's research
focuses on the coexistence of structure and flexibility in complex systems.
   He uses artificial neural networks and dynamical systems theory to
develop models of human language processing, learning, and change.    He
has worked on the role of semantic information in sentence processing,
evidence for ungrammatical influences in sentence processing, attractor
models of syntactic category structure, the learning of complex phrase
structure grammars, and the evolution of grammatical categories over
historical time.

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AFFILIATED FACULTY

CLAUDIA CARELLO, Professor of Psychology, Director of CESPA: Ecological
study of human movement, printed word recognition in English, Korean,
Serbo-Croatian.

ROGER CHAFFIN, Professor of Psychology (Hartford): Semantic memory, memory
for skilled performance.

ELENA LEVY, Associate Professor of Psychology (Stamford): Language and
gesture, language development.

DIANE LILLO-MARTIN, Professor of Linguistics and Psychology: The structure
of American Sign Language, its acquisition and processing, and the
processes deaf people use to read. 

GEORGIJE LUKATELA, Visiting Professor: The phonological basis of printed
word recognition. 

LETITIA NAIGLES, Associate Professor of Psychology: Language acquisition,
word learning.

KENNETH PUGH, Associate Professor, Yale University and Haskins
Laboratories: Brain imaging studies of reading.

WILLIAM SNYDER, Assistant Professor of Linguistics: Cross-linguistic
studies of language acquisition; sentence processing.

MICHAEL TURVEY, Professor of Psychology: Ecological study of human
movement, the phonological basis of printed word recognition.




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Whitney Tabor                                  (860) 486-4910 (office)
Department of Psychology                       (860) 486-2760 (fax)
University of Connecticut                      (860) 486-6080 (lab)
Storrs, CT  06269-1020                         tabor at uconnvm.uconn.edu
USA                                            WAB Room 124 (office)

http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~wwwpsyc/Faculty/Tabor/Tabor.html

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