Janet F. Werker
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Archives: Team Members
Hélène Deacon
Hélène Deacon is interested in understanding how children learn to read, specifically how they use their oral language skills to support the transition to skilled reading. Her research is conducted both here in Canada, and with collaborators around the world. As a part of the Partnership Grant team, she is expanding her research to the...
Alona Fyshe
Alona Fyshe uses machine learning to analyze brain images collected while people read, which allows her to study how humans represent the meaning they encounter in text, and how they combine words to understand higher-order meaning. Alona also studies how computers learn to represent meaning when trained on text or images. Alona has fused these...
Aaron Newman
Aaron J. Newman is a scientist, educator, and author. His research examines relationships between brain activity and thought using a variety of neuroimaging tools. He directs the NeuroCognitive Imaging Lab (NCIL), where he trains students in applied cognitive neuroscience research and studies how experience affects the brain in contexts such as learning, reading, and stroke...
Muhammad Abdul-Mageed
Muhammad Abdul-Mageed’s research focuses on deep representation learning and natural language socio-pragmatics, with two main goals: (1) development of `social’ machines for improved human health, safer social networking, and reduced information overload; and (2) use of machine learning as a vehicle for making discoveries with and about human language. Examples of Muhammad’s recent work include...
Becky Xi Chen
Becky Xi Chen’s research focuses on bilingual and ELL (English Language Learner) children’s language and literacy development. She is interested in how children develop literacy skills simultaneously in their first language and second language, and whether these skills transfer between the two languages. She has a well-established research program examining children in French immersion programs....
Suzanne Curtin
Suzanne Curtin studies the interface between early speech perception and social communication in typically and atypically developing populations. She has previously worked on how spelling reflects different types of reading profiles in children with reading disorders. The SSHRC partnership brings together her interest in how early language impacts other aspects of cognition – specifically reading.
Marc Joanisse
Marc Joanisse’s work examines the neurobiological bases of human language, focusing on the role of individual differences in biology and environment in language and reading ability and disabilities. His research follows two principal themes: uncovering the cognitive precursors of reading and language disorders in children; and examining the role of experience in bilingualism and second-language learning....
Susan Rvachew
Susan Rvachew’s research is concerned with the development and integration of speech perception, speech production, phonological and emergent literacy skills during the period infancy through early school age. She also studies the nature of speech delay and the efficacy of speech interventions. She developed several digital apps to assess and treat speech, language and literacy...
Jenny Thomson
Jenny Thomson has a background in both speech-language pathology and developmental psychology, Jenny’s research explores the intersection between language and literacy, literacy difficulties, and the impact of digital technology on reading processes and reading instruction. Through the SSHRC PG group, Jenny is keen to explore the complex interactions between children as learners and the text...
