Welcome Sophie and Michika!
The BLAB welcomes two incoming lab managers: Sophie, a recent graduate of Grinnell College, and Michika, a recent graduate of Wellesley College.
Blabbers at MPAL and BUCLD
Erin Campbell, PhD, lab manager Lilli Righter , and grad student Genia Lukin head to MPAL 2023 to share two posters and a talk on blind children’s early language. Also catch Genia and Erin at BUCLD 48 in November!
Dr. B speaking at SLD
PI Elika Bergelson, PhD will be giving a talk as part of the Society for Language Development Symposium on November 2. The topic of the symposium is “The effects of poverty on language, cognition, and brain development.”
BLAB moves to Harvard
The Bergelson Lab has moved! We are now a part of the Laboratory for Developmental Studies in the Psychology Department at Harvard University. We’ll miss you, Durham! Hello Cambridge!
Congratulations, Dr. Campbell!
The newest BLAB PhD just defended! Dr. Erin Campbell presented a stunning dissertation on language acquisition and the senses, including language development in blind and deaf children. Erin is off to Boston University, where she will work as a postdoc with Dr. Naomi Caselli and Dr. Amy Lieberman.
New Paper out on Gender and Vocabulary
Shannon Dailey, PhD and PI Elika Bergelson, PhD recently published a paper in Child Development which provides evidence that parents’ language input doesn’t differ between girls and boys, but that parents talk more to infants who have themselves begun talking.
Grant to Dr. Bergelson
PI Elika Bergelson, PhD received an NIH R01 grant to study how social, cognitive, and linguistic skills contribute to word learning in the second year of life. We are excited to start work on new projects! Congratulations, Dr. B!
BLAB alum awarded a grant
BLAB alum Catherine Laing, PhD , current professor at the University of York, has been awarded a grant from the European Research Council to study infants’ tongue movements, vocal tract development, and speech sounds. Congratulations, Dr. Laing! Read more about the project here .
New Lab Members
This fall, the BLAB welcomed new post-docs Charles Davis and Jasenia Hartman , new PhD student Genia Lukin , and new CNAP rotational PhD student Kristen Gilyard .
Congrats, Dr. Dailey!
Shannon Dailey, PhD successfully defended her dissertation on the role of language input in children’s language development, after many years in the BLAB: first as lab manager and then as a PhD student. She will continue her work as a postdoc in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke!
Jing wins thesis award
Jingxuan Liu ‘22 received the 2022 Jerome Bruner Thesis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research for her work focusing on adults’ perception of mispronunciation.
Newly-minted Dr. Charlotte Moore
Charlotte Moore, PhD has become the first-ever PhD recipient from the BLAB, following the successful defense of her dissertation, “Variable wordforms, adaptable learners: Evidence from real-time word comprehension and naturalistic corpora.” She continues to Concordia University for a postdoctoral research position with Dr. Krista Byers-Heinlein.
Summer Research Fellowship
PhD student Shannon Dailey has received the competitive Summer Research Fellowship from the Duke Graduate School.
Welcome, Lilli!
The BLAB welcomes incoming lab manager Lillianna Righter , recent graduate of the University of Maryland.
BLAB to participate in BUCLD Remote Conference
BLAB graduate student Charlotte Moore will be giving a talk at this fall’s Boston University Conference on Language Development and BLAB postdoc Federica Bulgarelli will be presenting a poster. Charlotte also received a Paula Menyuk Award for her abstract titled “Testing the roles of regularity and lexical class on toddlers’ spoken word recognition.”
Erin to present at Many Paths to Language Conference
In October, BLAB graduate student Erin Campbell will present at the Many Paths to Language Conference, organized by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.
Federica receives Lafitte grant
BLAB postdoc Federica Bulgarelli was awarded a grant from the Charles Lafitte Foundation Program for Research in Psychology & Neuroscience to recruit bilingual babies from the Triangle area to participate in our lab’s studies.
Dr. Bergelson wins ICIS award
Elika Bergelson was the recipient of this year’s Distinguished Early Career Contribution Award from the International Congress of Infant Studies. Congrats, Dr. B!
Farewell to our graduates!
Three seniors are leaving the BLAB; Farewll Jessica , Sarah , and Junette ! We are all proud of you and we will all miss everything you brought to the lab!
Natasha wins a fulbright
Congratulations to research assistant Natasha Derezinski-Choo ‘18 for winning a Fulbright! Natasha will work in Cameroon on the project “Many Medicines and Many Languages: The Sociolinguistic Underpinnings of Medical Pluralism.”
Jessica wins a fulbright
Congratulations to research assistant Jessica Marlow ‘20 for winning a Fulbright! Jessica will pursue a full-time international Master’s of Science in Global Health at National Taiwan University, the most comprehensive university and the foremost research institution in Taiwan.
Shannon Completes her MAP
The BLAB is proud to announce that Ph.D. candiate Shannon Dailey has completed her MAP. Well done Shannon!
Sarah recieves a GwD
The BLAB is proud to announce that our research assistant Sarah Yang ‘20 has graduated with distinction! Congratulations Sarah!
Charlotte to R workshop
Graduate student Charlotte Moore was awarded a travel award from the Charles Lafitte Foundation to attend an R workshop on “Building Tidy Tools” in Atlanta, GA on October 14–15, 2019. Congratulations, Charlotte!
BLAB Presentations at BUCLD
Look out for the BLAB at BUCLD 2019! Dr. Federica Bulgarelli will be giving a talk, Erin Campbell and Charlotte Moore will be presenting posters, and Dr. Elika Bergelson will be presenting at a symposium. 11 BLAB members will be attending!
Bergelson lab welcomes 5 new research assistants
The BLAB is pleased to add five new members! Welcome Jing , Georgia , Jessica , Madeleine , and Lauren ! We look forward to a fantastic year with you on our crew!
2 blab Members received travel awards for BUCLD
Congratulations to Dr. Federica Bulgarelli and research assistant Olivia Leggio for getting travel funding from the Charles Lafitte Foundation!
Bergelson Lab welcomes new Project Coordinator
The BLAB happily welcomes Aahnix Bathurst as a new Project Coordinator! We’re looking forward to a great year!
SNP Summer 2019
Undergrad Junette Yu completed a summer research project through the Summer Neuroscience Program (SNP) , mentored by PI Dr. Elika Bergelson and graduate student Erin Campbell . She presented her EEG work at the poster session.
VIP Summer 2019
Undergrad Sarah Yang completed a summer research project through the Summer Neuroscience Program (VIP) , mentored by PI Dr. Elika Bergelson and graduate students Shannon Dailey and Charlotte Moore . She gave a talk and poster presentation about her eyetracking work.
BLAB Welcomes New Members
Dr. Carla Fernandez will be jointly mentored by the BLAB and the Woldorff Lab at Duke as a post-doctoral researcher. The BLAB also welcomes Irene Tang , new lab manager, and Sarp Uner , new lab technician.
BLAB at BUCLD 2019
BLAB members will be presenting two talks and two posters at BUCLD 2019 this November.
CAREER Award
PI Elika Bergelson received an NSF CAREER award to study language development in blind infants and deaf infants. Congratulations, Dr. Bergelson!
Workshop on Infant Language Development
Graduate student Charlotte Moore and PI Elika Bergelson will be presenting a talk titled “18-month-olds’ representations of vowels in regular & irregular verbs: A mispronunciation study” in Potsdam, Germany in June.
GRFP Award
Graduate student Erin Campbell is now a fellow in the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Go, Erin!
Congratulations, Munna!
Former Bergelson Lab/Seedlings staff member Sharath (Munna) Koorathota is starting an Master’s degree in computer science at Columbia University, specializing in AI and Machine Learning. Congrats, Munna!
4 BLAB members received travel awards for BUCLD
Dr. Federica Bulgarelli and Shannon Dailey received the Paula Menyuk Travel Award, Shannon received the Society for Language Development student award, and undergraduate RAs Sarah Yang and Katya Khlystova received departmental travel awards!
BLAB presentations at BUCLD
Look out for the BLAB at BUCLD 2018! 9 BLAB members will be in attendance, Dr. Federica Bulgarelli and Shannon Dailey will be giving talks, and Dr. Elika Bergelson will be presenting a poster.
BLAB welcomes two post-docs and a new lab tech
Dr. Federica Bulgarelli and Dr. Stephan Meylan are joining the BLAB as post-doctoral researchers this fall. The BLAB also welcomes Gladys Baudet , who will work as our lab technician.
BLAB at BUCLD 2018
BLAB members will be presenting two talks and a poster at BUCLD 2018 this November.
Dr. Bergelson Named Crandall Family Assistant Professor
Dr. Bergelson has been named the first Crandall Family Assistant Professor by Duke’s Arts and Sciences, in conjunction withthe Duke Bass Connections’ Education and Human Development Theme. Congratulations, Dr. Bergelson!
Grant to study early language acquisition with sensory impairment
Dr. Bergelson , along with Dr. Dan King (Duke Audiology) and Dr. Sharon Freedman (Duke Ophthalmology & Pediatrics), has been awarded a pilot grant by Duke’s ABC-Thrive for their project “Early Language Acquisition with Sensory Impairment.”
New graduate student Erin Campbell
The BLAB is excited to announce that Erin Campbell will be joining us as a PhD student in the fall of 2018. Welcome, Erin!
Lab Technician Andrei Amatuni starting PhD at IU
BLAB technician extraordinaire Andrei Amatuni will be leaving us to begin his PhD in Cognitive Science at Indiana University this fall. Congrats, Andrei! We’ll miss you!
Cognitive, Auditory, and Neural Bases of Language & Speech Research Group
The CANBLS research group, co-convened by PI Elika Bergelson and colleagues, brings together researchers with varying approaches to studying language and speech. Members of the BLAB attend monthly meetings to share and discuss research that further explores the cognitive, auditory, and neural bases of language and speech.
Speech Diarization Challenge
The BLAB has contributed to the First DIHARD Speech Diarization Challenge. Preliminary results will be presented in late 2018.
P&N Person of the Week
BLAB member Andrei Amatuni was featured on the Duke Psychology and Neuroscience website as Person of the Week! Check out the P&N News Feed to read about Andrei’s work and interests.
Language Acquisition Group
Members of the BLAB are engaging in collaborative meetings with our colleagues at UNC. Meetings provide faculty and graduate students a space to share ideas and discuss work relevant to the topic of language acquisition. Sign up here to receive emails about future meetings.
Paper published
Graduate student Shannon Dailey recently had a paper on her undergraduate work on mindfulness meditation published in the journal Mindfulness .
BUCLD Travel Awards
Graduate students Shannon Dailey and Charlotte Moore both won a Paula Menyuk Travel Award for BUCLD 2017!
See you later, Catherine!
Today, the BLAB said “See you later” to our wonderful postdoc, Catherine Laing . We wish you all the best, and know you’ll do great things at Cardiff!
Congrats, VIPs!
Congratulations to our VIP students this summer, Estelle He and Reena Jasani , for doing a great job on their talks and poster presentations!
BLAB at BUCLD
BLAB members will be presenting two talks and three posters at BUCLD 2017 this November.
BLAB at CDS
Look out for the BLAB at CDS 2017, with pre-conference and conference talks by Dr. Bergelson !
Paper Accepted
Congratulations to our postdoc, Catherine Laing , who recently had a paper accepted to the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology ! Coming soon: “A perceptual advantage for onomatopoeia in early word learning: Evidence from eye-tracking.”
Grant award
Congratulations to our graduate student, Charlotte Moore , who was recently awarded an SSHRC Doctoral fellowship!
First Year Festival
Congratulations to our graduate student, Charlotte Moore , who finished up a great first year at Duke with her successful presentation at the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience’s first year festival!
Paper accepted
Dr. Bergelson just had a paper accepted to Language Learning and Development : Semantic Specificity in One-Year-Olds’ Word Comprehension, Bergelson & Aslin, 2017.
Lab manager staying at Duke
Lab manager Shannon Dailey will be staying in the BLAB next year as a graduate student! She will continue working with Dr. Bergelson as she begins her PhD here at Duke this Fall.
BLAB at CogSci
The BLAB has a 100% acceptance rate to CogSci! Lab technician Andrei Amatuni and postdoc Catherine Laing were both accepted to the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society in London this July.
BLAB at SRCD
Lab manager Shannon Dailey gave a talk titled “Semantic Relatedness Effects in Early Word Learning” at the Society of Research in Cognitive Development’s 2017 meeting in Austin, TX.
Digging Into Data Grant
PI Dr. Elika Bergelson is a grant pient of Trans-Atlantic Platform’s Digging Into Data Challenge Grant for the Analyzing Child Language Experiences around the World (ACLEW) project. ACLEW will be studying child language development across cultures.
BLAB at Interspeech
The BLAB will be featured in two Special Sessions at Interspeech 2017 in Stockholm this August. The sessions focus on data collection and annotation issues in child language acquisition research, and on a Computational Paralinguistics ChallengE (ComParE).
Postdoc going to Cardiff Univ
Our postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Catherine Laing , has been appointed as a Lecturer in the Department of Language and Communication at Cardiff University in Wales. Beginning this summer, she will research and teach in the areas of child language acquisition and phonetics and phonology. Congratulations, Dr. Laing!
ManyBabies project
PI Dr. Elika Bergelson is part of a consortium promoting best practices in infancy research, called ManyBabies. Their paper “A Collaborative Approach to Infant Research: Promoting Reproducibility, Best Practices, and Theory-Building” was recently published in Infancy .
BLAB at SRCD
Lab manager Shannon Dailey will give a talk titled “Semantic Relatedness Effects in Early Word Learning” at Society of Research in Cognitive Development’s 2017 meeting in Austin, TX.
Why "Baby Talk" is good for your baby
Postdoc Dr. Catherine Laing wrote an article for the Conversation USA: “Here’s why ‘baby talk’ is good for your baby.”
Lab members at BUCLD
Look out for lab alum Tessa Eagle ‘s honors thesis (poster) and postdoc Dr. Catherine Laing ‘s PhD research (talk) at BUCLD 2016 !
Charlotte's paper published
Graduate student Charlotte Moore recently had a paper published based on research she did during her Master’s degree.
CogSci workshop
PI Dr. Elika Bergelson organized a workshop on naturalistic language acquisition data at CogSci 2016 in Philadelphia, PA.
Bergelson Lab moves to Duke
The Bergelson Lab has officially moved to Duke. Debate about when to start trying to say ‘y’all’ ensues.
[SEEDLingS data collection complete!](https://bergelsonlab.com/seedlings)
After nearly two years, SEEDLingS longitudinal data collection is complete. Not a single home or in-lab visit was missed!