How do we relate form and meaning, the two sides of language that have remarkably different properties? How do they converge almost seamlessly at an interface, allowing us to produce and understand language rapidly and effortlessly? How is this possible, especially when the interface can involve two completely different sensori-motor systems, as used in spoken or signed languages? Understanding how this works will provide important insight into the architecture of the human mind.

I believe that understanding the temporal properties of neural patterns and the performance systems (perceptual and articulatory) that interface with phonology and syntax may illuminate the temporal dynamics behind higher order operations in language processing - the idea behind temporal resolution matching.

My areas of focus are speech perception, sign language processing, and cognitive neuroscience. To test the degree to which theories of speech perception are generalizable to language processing independent of modality, I am conducting dissertation research using American Sign Language in collaboration with researchers at Gallaudet University. I have also conducted behavioral and MEG studies to investigate the real-time processing of a sequence of sounds, in particular the role of phonological knowledge as the basis of making predictions in speech perception.

Background

I am a fifth year Ph.D. student in the Department of Linguistics and a member of the Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park. I am also a member of UMD's Language Science IGERT Program: Biological and Computational Foundations of Language Diversity and at Gallaudet University's Science of Learning Center: Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2).