Abertay Language Lab

We study how people learn and transmit language.

Current Projects:

• PARTICIPANTS NEEDED! The Whacking Moles Game

  

  Please help us study the psychology of games by playing our game for just 20 minutes.

  See Experiment

• CulTra: Creation and Transmission of Novel Signalling Systems in Children and Adults

  

  See Experiment

• Levenik: Effects of Dialect Exposure on Literacy Acquisition

  

Learning Resources

• Linking Language Development and Language Transmission (Summer School of Linguistics 2018)

People

Dr Glenn Williams

Prof Vera Kempe

Nikolay Panayotov

Recent Publications

• Brooks, P. J. & Kempe, V. (in press) More Is More in language learning: Reconsidering the Less-Is-More-hypothesis. Language Learning.
• Benítez-Burraco, A., & Kempe, V. (2018). The Emergence of modern languages: Has human self-domestication optimized language transmission? Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 551. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00551/full
• Kempe, V., & Brooks, P. J. (2018). Linking adult second language learning and diachronic change: A cautionary note. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 480. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00480/full
• Kirk, N. W.; Kempe, V.; Scott-Brown, K.; Philipp, A. & Declerck, M. (2018). Can monolinguals be like bilinguals? Evidence from dialect switching. Cognition, 170.164-178
• Brooks, P. J.; Kwoka, N. & Kempe, V. (2016) Distributional effects and individual differences in L2-morphology learning. Language Learning, 67(1), 171-207. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12204
• Kempe, V.; Kirk, N. W. & Brooks, P. J. (2015) Revisiting theoretical and causal explanations for the bilingual advantage in executive functioning. Cortex, 73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.021
• Kempe, V., Bublitz, D. & Brooks, P. J. (2015). Musical ability and non-native speech sound processing are linked through sensitivity to pitch and spectral information. British Journal of Psychology, 106(2), 349-366. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12092
• Kempe, V., Gauvrit, N., & Forsyth, D. (2015). Structure emerges faster during cultural transmission in children than in adults. Cognition, 136, 247-254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.11.038
• Kirk, N. W., Fiala, L., Scott-Brown, K. C. & Kempe, V. (2014). No evidence for reduced Simon cost in elderly bilinguals and bidialectals. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 26(6), 640-648. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2014.929580

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