Rosie Maier, Laboratory Manager
B.S., 2008, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Linguistics)
babies@waisman.wisc.edu

I am a recent UW graduate, and I have been working in developmental psychology research for about a year. I have been working at another UW lab, the Wisconsin Twin Project, since graduating, but I  am delighted now to be joining the work at the Infant Learning Lab! I hope to continue in research for a couple years before moving on to grad school.

Bruna Pelucchi, PhD
B.S., 1988, University of Ferrara, Italy (Pharmaceutical Chemistry)
PhD, 1994, University of Ferrara, Italy (Neurobiology and Neurophysiology)
pelucchi@wisc.edu

I am an honorary fellow from the University of Ferrara, Italy and I am interested in understanding how infants find word boundaries in natural languages.

Jill Lany, Postdoctoral Fellow
B.A., 1998, New college of Florida (Psychology)
lany@wisc.edu

Languages are rich with probabilistic cues highlighting language structure (i.e., distributional, phonological, and semantic regularities). I’m interested in how infants acquire and integrate multiple information sources to learn various aspects of language structure, including word meanings, syntactic categories, and sentence structure.

Jessica Hay, Postdoctoral Fellow
B.Sc., 1998, McGill University (Psychology)
PhD, 2005, University of Texas at Austin (Psychology & Center for Perceptual Systems)
hay@waisman.wisc.edu

I am a postdoc interested in domain-general learning mechanisms underlying early language acquisition. Specifically, my research addresses how perceptual systems constrain statistical learning during phoneme acquisition, word segmentation, and word learning. I am currently studying some of the following questions. Are sound distinctions that are easier to hear also easier to learn? How do the acoustic characteristics of sounds affect rhythmic grouping? How do perceptual considerations (like rhythmic grouping) impact statistical learning during word segmentation? During learning do adults, infants, and chinchillas predominantly track probability density (i.e., distributional information), correlations, or both? Does the nature of the auditory input (i.e., speech vs. non-speech) affect learning? I am collaborating with Jenny Saffran, Keith Kluender, and Jan Edwards to address some of these questions.

Melissa Brandon, Graduate Student
B.S., 2002, University of Pittsburgh (Neuroscience and Psychology)
mbrandon@wisc.edu

I am interested in how rhythm is represented and processed across different domains and modalities, and if the representations change over development.  Is the rhythm of speech processed the same way as musical rhythm is processed?  Are the same rhythms in both visual stimuli and auditory stimuli represented as equivalent rhythms?

Alexa Romberg, Graduate Student
B.S., 2000, Yale University (Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry)
M.S., 2007, University of Wisconsin - Madison (Cognitive Psychology)
alexaromberg@gmail.com

I am interested in how learners acquire, represent and use the
regularities in their environment. What types of statistics are
infants able to track? How does distributional information shape
infants' syntactic knowledge? How are infants similar or different
from adults in their ability to represent and access statistical
regularities?

Christian Stilp, Graduate Student
B.S., 2003, University of Wisconsin - Madison (Perceptual Psychology)
M.S., 2006, University of Wisconsin - Madison (Psychology)
cestilp@wisc.edu

I am a 4th year graduate student interested in studying infant speech perception and perceptual development. My research investigates how and when infants learn to distinguish speech sounds in their native language using frequency cues. By examining sensitivity to these cues, we hope to better understand how speech perception (and hearing in general) changes and grows over the first year of life.

Jon Willits, Graduate Student
willits@wisc.edu

Beth Roos, Graduate Student
B.S., 1994, Northwestern University
(Communication Sciences & Disorders)
M.A., 1996, The University of Texas at Austin
(Communication Sciences & Disorders)
eroos@wisc.edu

I am a licensed speech-language pathologist and doctoral candidate in the Department of Communicative Disorders, working with Susan Ellis Weismer and Jenny Saffran. My primary interest is vocabulary
development in typical and late talking toddlers. By closely examining toddlers' vocabulary comprehension and word learning abilities we may ultimately be able to identify which late talkers are most likely to "catch up" in their language development versus those who are at greater risk for later language impairments.

Tianlin Wang, Graduate Student
B.S., 2005, Nankai University (Physics & Psychology)
twang23@wisc.edu

I am a 1st year Ph.D. student working with Jenny Saffran and Mark Seidenberg. I am interested in how people use phonological cues in language learning. I currently work with Jessica Hay in the lab.

Erica Wojcik, Graduate Student
B.A., 2009, Princeton University (Psychology)
ehwojcik@wisc.edu

I am a first year Ph.D. student working with Jenny Saffran and Mark Seidenberg. I am interested in first language acquisition, specifically how children learn the meanings of words. Currently, I am studying how children learn words that have multiple related meanings.

I am a junior majoring in Psychology with plans to continue on in Clinical Psychology. This is my second year with the Infant Learning Lab, and I am  interested in learning more about how children react to new language stimuli.

I am a sophomore planning to double major in Communicative Disorders and Linguistics. I started working in the lab because I love children and I am extremely interested in discovering how they learn language! After grad school, I hope to continue working with children as a speech pathologist.

I am a sophomore majoring in Psychology and Spanish.  I started at the lab this summer, and it is very interesting! I hope to continue working with children in the future as a counseling psychologist.

I am a sophomore majoring in Psychology.  This is my first year working in the lab.  I think language is so important and I am really interested in how we acquire and maintain it.  I love working with kids, they are so fun!  After grad school I hope to continue working with children and language.

I am a junior majoring in Psychology and Hebrew Studies.  I am especially interested in developmental psychology and the brain.  I love working with children and am so excited to be a part of this lab!  I hope to continue my studies in the field of neuroscience upon graduating.

I am a sophomore majoring in psychology.  This summer is my first time working in the lab.  I'm excited to learn more about research and get some hands on experience, not to mention getting to work with kids!  After I graduate I'm planning on attending grad school concentrating on developmental psychology.

I am a junior majoring in psychology and music performance. This is my first semester working in the lab, and I can't wait to learn more about how infants acquire language. I'm also very interested in music cognition and I'd like to continue learning about how infants perceive pitch and rhythm

I am a sophomore majoring in Communicative Disorders and/or Psychology. This is my first year working in the Infant Learning Lab. I am so excited to be apart of the lab because I will gain research experience while working with children! After earning my undergrad degree, I plan on attending grad school and continuing to work with children.

Recent Infant Learning Lab Alumni

2009

Sarah Sahni

Jessica Hay, Professor at University of Tennessee - Knoxville

Jessica Rich, Master's student, Parenting Education, University of Minnesota

Hannah Wendel, Master's student, Social Work, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Sarah Eckstein

Laurie Donnell

Chelsea Pierce, Master's student, Social Work, University of Illinois

Natalie Fondell, Teach For America

Brette Carpenter

2008

Dr. Tina Grieco-Calub, Assistant Professor, Northern Illinois Univeristy

Scott Miller, Doctoral Student, Department of Psychology

Doug Scriver

Lauren Jessessky

Ali Greuel, Doctoral Student, Department of Psychology, UBC - Vancouver

Chanell Abing

James Boxer

Autumn Huber

Jenna Louwagie

Lindsey Lawler

Erin McMullen Jonaitis

Diana Dovorany, Medical School Student, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Joshua Moon

2007

Alex Clark

Isabelle London

Erika Mikulec

Jessica Hersh

Kristie Henslin

Dr. Katie Graf-Estes, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of California - Davis

Anna Shkolnik, Master's student, Social Work, University of Minnesota

Kelli Minor, Master's Student, Communicative Disorders, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Catherine Moore

2006

Rebecca Seibel

2005

Ellen Breedien

Allison Dahlke

Jillian DeGroot, Doctoral Student, Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut

Berit Lewison, Merchandising Business Analyst, Target Corporation

Rebecca Porwoll

2004

Dana Emerson, Doctoral Student, Chicago School of Professional Psychology

Joshua Kapfhamer, Medical Student, Medical College of Wisconsin

Julie Rhein, Teach For America

Dr. Erik Thiessen: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~thiessen/

2003

Joanna Miller

Brianne Karabetsos

Michelle Nowakowski

2002

Amy Finn, Doctoral Student, Department of Psychology, University of California - Berkeley

Kari Reeck, Doctoral Student, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Florida

2001

Florencia Anggoro, Doctoral Student, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University

2000

Michelle Loman, Doctoral Student, Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

1999

Dr. Greg Griepentrog, Medical Resident, Mayo Clinic

Lana Nenide, Doctoral Student, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin - Madison