Infant Language Center at the University of Pennsylvania

>> Infant Language Center Alumni

		Sarah Creel, Ph.D. Sarah received her Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. She studies how children (and adults) understand spoken words, which unfold over time (in the word "cat", you hear the c before the a before the t). Many pieces of evidence indicate that information early in a word (ca_) is more important than information later in a word (_at). However, children are known to confuse words that differ initially (e.g. "bin" and "din"). Sarah is interested in finding out how these intial-information processing tendencies develop as a child both matures and also acquires more information about her native language. Sarah is now an Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of California in San Diego.


		Chandan Narayan, Ph.D. Chandan received his Ph.D. in linguistics in 2006 from the University of Michigan, where he wrote a dissertation on infants' perception of consonants. A phonetician by training, Chandan has also done studies of infant speech perception at Janet Werker's Infant Studies Centre in Vancouver, Canada. At Penn, Chandan worked on how infants learn to perceive acoustically similar speech sounds in their native language, such as the "n"-"ng" distinction in the languages of the Phillipines. Chandan is now an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Toronto.


		Suzanne van der Feest, Ph.D. Suzanne is a postdoctoral researcher from the Netherlands. She received her Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Nijmegen, where she worked in the Nijmegen Baby Research Center. Her research is focused on the acquisition of phonology. At the Infant Language Center, she investigates the acquisition of vowels by English-learning children, who are later compared with children learning Dutch.


		Jane Park Jane has been the lab manager of the Infant Language Center since 2006. She received her B.A. from Penn with departmental honors in Cognitive Science. Jane wrote her senior thesis on the semantic representations of spoken word recognition in adults under the supervision of Dr. Delphine Dahan. She is currently attending Dartmouth medical school.


		Leila Glass Leila is from Seattle, WA and a double major in Cognitive Neuroscience and Science Technology and Society. Pediatric Neuroscience is a special interest of her. She hopes to continue to follow her passions for science and helping children in the future. Her favorite foods are cheese and chocolate.


		Alba Tuninetti Alba is a student in the College of Arts and Sciences at Penn. She is studying Cognitive Science and French Studies. She is interested in neurolinguistics and bilingualism and plans to pursue her education to her doctorate degree. Alba is originally from Argentina, and hopes to do some research there in the near future, as well as in France.


		Rebecca Mead Rebecca received her B.A. in Linguistics at Penn. At the Infant Language Center, she helped out on infant-directed speech annotation and phonetics projects. She now teaches GED preparation to young parents.


		Annie Yang Annie Yang (now Dickerson) was a research assistant in the lab from 2005 to 2006. She is now a teacher in Washington, DC working with Teach for America.


		Sara Clopton Sara was the lab's manager from 2005 to 2006. As part of her double degree in Cognitive Science and Linguistics she did independent research with Bill Labov on socially conditioned variation in speakers' use of the /s/ or /th/ sounds in Catalunya. Sara is now in the Speech-Language-Pathology training program at Case.


		Kristin Vindler Kristin Vindler (now Michaelson) was the lab's manager from 2004 to 2005. After leaving Penn she went on to earn a Master's in Education from Harvard, and she is now working as a teacher in Manhattan.