Infant Language Center at the University of Pennsylvania

>> Infant Language Center Alumni


		Carolyn Quam, Ph.D. Carolyn conducted her Ph.D. research in the Infant Language Center, graduating in 2010. Her dissertation research addressed how and when children figure out how their native language uses pitch and intonation. She investigated questions like, how does parents' speech indicate whether children are hearing a tone language like Mandarin Chinese or an intonation language like English? When do children figure out whether they're learning a tone language or not? When do they learn the other functions of pitch in language, like pitch cues to the emotions happy and sad? Carolyn is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Research in Language at the University of California, San Diego. With Prof. Sarah Creel (also an Infant Language Center alum!), she is investigating how adult bilingual speakers of English and Mandarin interpret pitch information when learning words in each of their languages.


		Gary Lupyan, Ph.D. Gary obtained his PhD in from Carnegie Mellon under the advisorship of Jay McClelland and subsequently spent a year at Cornell working with Michael Spivey. His interests focus on the effects of language on categorization, memory, and perception.



		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.



		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.


		Adrienne Scutellaro, Ph.D. student Adrienne is a third year graduate student in the Psychology Dept at Penn. She received an EdM in Human Development from the Harvard Graduate School of Ed and spent two years as the Research Coordinator of an infant language lab in the Linguistics Dept. at UCLA. Her current research focuses on examining the phonetic detail that infants pay attention to in early words and how representations of sounds and words might differ in infants learning a second language.


		Katie Motyka Katie joined the Infant Language as lab manager in May 2009. She graduated magna cum laude from Penn with a B.A. in Psychology and Fine Art. Katie is a West Philly native who has been working and volunteering with kids since she was a teenager. In her free time she enjoys playing ultimate frisbee and photography.


		Jane Park Jane was the lab manager of the Infant Language Center from 2006 to 2009. 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 for medical school.


		Jennifer Yoo Jennifer Yoo is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in Psychology and minoring in Classical Studies. She is interested in the development of cognition in early childhood and the impact of education during these formative years. When not in the lab, she enjoys building sets and living the life of a theater techie.


		Michael Arrigo Michael is a fifth-year student at Penn majoring in Linguistics and Cognitive Science and working toward his master’s degree in Linguistics. His interests include Romance languages and computational linguistics. He is a Philly native who loves wandering around the city, listening to music, and obsessing over fonts.


		Ashley Baldwin Ashley is a senior at Penn majoring in both Biological Basis of Behavior and Computer Science. She is from the Jersey Shore and loves the beach, but since coming to Penn, has discovered a newfound passion for Philadelphia. She hopes to one day pursue a career in child neurology because of her interest in the developing brain.


		Lauren Hendrix Lauren is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences majoring in Cognitive Science and ambitiously hopes to minor in Urban Education and Computer Science. She is from Baltimore, MD and loves that Philadelphia is similar to home but has many more opportunities. She is interested in cognition and early education and hopes to continue research towards improving early education. When not in the lab she mentors elementary school kids in West Philadelphia and stays hype through Community School Student Partnerships (CSSP).


		Brian Garcia Brian is a senior at Penn majoring in both Cognitive Science and Computer Science. He hails from Deer Park, Texas, which, contrary to popular belief, or at least his friend's, is not where Deer Park water comes from. After coming to Penn, he has discovered that he loves actually experiencing seasons as opposed to summer and fall all year round. When not in the lab or in class, he is usually either exploring Philadelphia or hanging out with his APO brothers.

		Rachel Romeo Rachel Romeo was a research assistant at the Infant Language Center from 2009 to 2011, where she studied language acquisition in children with chronic ear infections. After receiving her B.A. with honors in Psychology and Linguistics from Penn, she won a Fulbright Fellowship and the Thouron Award to do a masters in Development Language Sciences at University College London, researching language neuroimaging in pediatric epilepsy. She plans to do a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience on childhood language impairments, while continuing to travel (and eat!) her way around the world.


		Scott Sepkowicz Scott is majoring in Psychology and will graduate from Penn in 2012. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Scott is an ardent Philadelphia sports fan. He is fascinated by children's innate ability to learn language at a fast rate, and aspires to one day be able to draw as good as the babies who come into the lab so he can have a picture on the wall, too. When not working at the Babylab, Scott enjoys writing songs on the guitar, ukulele, and drums, singing, photography, dry humor, and doing the Moonwalk.


		Gabriella García Gabriella worked in the lab as a Research Assistant from May 2007 to 2010. After graduating from Penn in 2010 with a B.A. in Cognitive Science along with a minor in Linguistics, she began working as the lab manager for Delphine Dahan's language lab at Penn and continues to take classes at Penn. Gabriella hopes to attend medical school in the near future, and in the meantime enjoys being a Philly foodie.


		Allison Britt Allison Britt was a Research Assistant in the Infant Language Center from October 2007 to 2010. She received her B.A. from Penn with honors in Psychology in 2010. She is now a research assistant at Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute in the Language and Cognitive Dynamics Lab studying language processing and impairments in stroke patients. Ultimately she plans to go back to school to receive her PhD in speech pathology.

		Rachel Weinblatt Rachel Weinblatt was a research assistant at the Infant Language Center from 2009 to 2010. She received her B.A. from Penn with honors in Psychology in 2010. She is now working as a research assistant at the Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC. She plans to pursue a PhD in psychology in the future.

		Alba Tuninetti Alba Tuninetti worked in the infant lab from 2006-07 and from 2008-09, with some study abroad time in between. She graduated from Penn in 2009 and went directly to graduate school in Pittsburgh, for a doctorate in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and neuroscience from Carnegie-Mellon University. She is studying bilingualism and second language learning and hopes to continue traveling the world and learning languages!

		Leila Glass Leila is from Seattle, WA and was 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.


		Mike Tzeng Mike joined the Infant Language Center as a Research Assistant during the summer of 2010, and is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in Psychology and minoring in Economics. He is from Potomac, Maryland, and has had a lot of fun working with children as a tutor and summer camp assistant director. Outside of the office, he sings and dances in the Penn Glee Club and loves to play drums and guitar.


		Maria Tellez Maria Tellez was part of the Infant Language Center from 2003 - 2004. She worked on a toddler eye-tracking study and experiments on infant phonetic categorization. Maria remains interested in language and in addition to her native Spanish, Maria has dabbled in Russian and Arabic. Currently, she works in digital advertising.


		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.