Author: Crystal Mills

COGS Colloquium on 10/3: Dr. Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda from New York University

Cognitive Science Program Colloquium Series: Dr. Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda from New York University

Date/Time: Friday, 10/3/25 from 4:00pm – 5:30pm EST

Location: McHugh Hall 206

Meetings: If you are interested in meeting with Dr. Tamis-LeMonda during the day or attending dinner in the evening on Friday, please email crystal.mills@uconn.edu. 

Bio: See attached

Talk Title: Word learning in context: Disambiguating the ambiguous

Abstract: The pace and breadth of early vocabulary development is impressive to say the least. Infants grow from producing their first words around 12 months to using over 500 words by 2 ½ years. How do infants crack the code to acquire so many words in a relatively short period of time? Our theoretical framework emphasizes the embodied and embedded nature of learning: Infants actively engage with their environments in the presence of socially responsive partners who provide semantically relevant input within a tight time window during highly specific activity contexts. The tight temporal connection between infant action, caregiver speech, and activity context cuts across word classes—nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions—thereby functioning to ‘disambiguate the ambiguous’.

To illustrate the embodied and embedded nature of infant learning, I present several studies from our lab on infants’ exposure to different word classes in the ecologically-valid home environment. We videorecorded infants (12-24 months) and mothers during natural home activities (1 to 2 hours per visit, Ns=30-100). We transcribed interactions and identified all concrete nouns in mothers’ speech. We also marked mothers’ use of verbs and ‘math words’— adjectives and prepositions that refer to numbers, quantities (more, less), spatial relations (under, on top of), shapes, and magnitudes (big, long).
Annotations of the timing, behaviors, and contexts of infants’ speech exposure revealed several impactful characteristics: (1) Words in mothers’ speech contained high regularity in temporal structure. For example, mothers used the same word in a bout of repetition (e.g., dog, dog, dog; up, up, up) and they referenced objects from the same taxonomic category (e.g., animals) within a tight time window (e.g., dog, cat, horse); (2) Mothers provided multimodal input (speech with gesture/touch) that functioned to highlight word meaning; (3) Infants’ own actions were a reliable impetus for word exposure (e.g., verbs and spatial terms like walk, jump, down referred to infants’ movements through space), and (4) High regularity characterized the activity and location contexts of infants’ exposure to particular words (e.g., food nouns and words for magnitudes were frequent during snack time). Notably, characteristics of infants’ home experiences and language interactions predicted individual differences in skills across domains—including sustained attention, vocabulary growth, the production of words during interactions, school readiness and academic achievement years later. We discuss implications for theories of word learning and language interventions.

Asst Professor position at Vassar

The Department of Cognitive Science at Vassar College is hiring an Assistant Professor to begin in Fall 2026. They are seeking someone with expertise in either (1) qualitative approaches focusing on the experience of agents in context, or (2) computational modeling and AI. This is not my department, but is my building — I would be delighted if another cognitive developmentalist joined Vassar’s faculty! See the job ad here.

COGS Director Dimitris Xygalatas Featured in UConn Publications!

Our very own COGS Program Director, Dimitris Xygalatas, has been featured not once, but twice recently in major UConn publications!
Check out these fascinating pieces that spotlight his latest research on the powerful social bonds formed through rituals—especially in the world of sports fandom:
“It’s Not the Game, It’s the Group: Sports Fans Connect the Most Over Rituals”
The study, by a UConn team of scientists, shows that levels of emotional connection and euphoria are on average higher during intense pre-game rituals than they are during the game itself.
“All Together Now”
That connection you feel with fellow fans at the game? It’s even more powerful than you think.

COGS Colloquia on 3/7: Dr. Brian Boyd

COGS Colloquia Talk on 3/7: Dr. Brian Boyd

Date/Time: Friday, 3/7/25 from 4:00pm – 5:30pm EST

Location: McHugh Hall 201

Bio: Brian Boyd, Ph.D., is the William C. Friday Distinguished Professor in the UNC School of Education and interim director of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was previously the director of the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project at the University of Kansas. Boyd is quite engaged in research that involves the most vulnerable, and often marginalized, populations. As a special educator by training, much of his research has involved the development and evaluation of evidence-based practices that could be implemented within school and home contexts. His more recent work has focused on how issues of implicit bias and race affect the outcomes of children with and without disabilities. Boyd’s research has been continuously funded by federal agencies such as the Institute of Education Sciences and National Institutes of Health. He is past vice president of the International Society for Autism Research. He also serves on multiple national boards that are dedicated to improving the outcomes of autistic persons and those from historically underserved communities.

Talk Title: Community-Engaged Research in Autism: Centering Marginalized Communities

Abstract: Community-engaged research (CER) is essential for addressing disparities in autism research by prioritizing the voices and experiences of marginalized communities. This presentation examines CER principles, challenges, and ethical considerations in working with diverse populations. It concludes with a discussion of how my research applies CER to foster meaningful partnerships, amplify community perspectives, and promote equity in autism services and outcomes.

Meetings: If you are interested in meeting with Dr. Boyd or attending dinner on Friday, please email crystal.mills@uconn.edu

Flyer is attached for posting. Please email Crystal if you have questions. 

Cognitive Science Travel Award Application Open!

The Cognitive Science Program is excited to announce that it will be continuing the Cognitive Science Travel Award Program for another year! 

The Cognitive Science Program’s mission is to prepare students to tackle global and multicultural challenges. Experiences abroad are vital to this preparation. Yet students majoring in Cognitive Science and related-STEM fields are generally less likely to participate in study abroad programs than other students.

These awards are available to UConn undergraduate students majoring or minoring in Cognitive Science or, students strongly considering the major/minor in the future. Priority will be given to students attending the Interdisciplinary Ethnography Field Summer School in Mauritius,  the Neuroscience Study Abroad Summer Program in Salamanca, Spain, and UConn Brain & Behavior in Tel Aviv, Israel. All program details can be found on the Experiential Global Learning webpage. Courses taken through these summer programs can be counted as elective credits towards the Cognitive Science degree. This program will also support students traveling domestically or internationally to conferences, workshops, and meetings. Students planning to travel internationally will be eligible to apply for up to $2,000 and $1,000 for domestic travel. Any travel costs in excess of the allotment would be the responsibility of the recipient. The Cognitive Science Program is willing to review other international and domestic travel scenarios on a case-by-case basis. 

Deadline: This award program operates with a rolling deadline. Once funds are exhausted, the application will close. While students can apply at any time, travel awards will be contingent on (a) applying and being accepted into a study abroad program and (b) sharing an official acceptance notification with us.  

Priority consideration will be given to students who (1) are members of a group that is underrepresented at the University of Connecticut; or (2) have overcome obstacles such as socioeconomic, educational, or other societal disadvantages (arising, for example, through prejudice and/or discrimination); or (3) have worked with such groups to help overcome these or other obstacles. 

Questions regarding the Cognitive Science Study Abroad Travel Award Program may be sent to cogsci@uconn.edu. 

Please visit the Study Abroad Travel webpage for more information, including eligibility requirements and how to apply.  

Duolingo is hiring a language researcher!

Duolingo is hiring a language researcher to join Duolingo’s Efficacy Research Lab, which focuses on measuring the effectiveness of Duolingo’s courses and informing improvements to the learning experience.

Requirements:
– Skilled in statistics, data analysis and visualization, Python/R/SQL or other tools for handling large datasets
– PhD in linguistics, applied linguistics, cognitive science, or a related field
– Ability to work from or relocate to Pittsburgh, PA, USA (no remote option)

To learn more and apply: https://careers.duolingo.com/jobs/7690922002

COGS, ECOM & SLHS Talk on 11/8: Dr. Viorica Marian

COGS, ECOM & SLHS Talk on 11/8: Dr. Viorica Marian

Date/Time: Friday, 11/8/24 from 4:00pm – 5:30pm EST

Location: McHugh Hall 202

Bio: Viorica Marian is a cognitive scientist at Northwestern University, where she is the Sundin Endowed Professor and Director of the Bilingualism LabShe studies the relationship between language and mind, with a focus on the psycholinguistics of bilingualism and multilingualism. Dr. Marian received her PhD in Psychology from Cornell University and previously served as Chair of the National Institutes of Health Study Section on Language and Communication and as Chair of the Northwestern Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She is the recipient of the American Association for the Advancement of Science John McGovern Award, The Psychonomic Society Mid-Career Award, the Clarence Simon Award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring, and the Editor’s Award for best paper from JSLHR. Marian’s new popular science book “The Power of Language” is being translated into 12 languages and counting.

Talk Title: The Power of Language: How the Codes We Use to Think, Speak, and Live Transform Our Minds

Abstract: Bilingualism and multilingualism have profound consequences for individuals and societies. Learning multiple languages changes not only how we use language, but also how we perceive the world, what we remember, how we learn, our creativity, decision making, and identity. I will present eye-tracking, mouse-tracking, and neuroimaging evidence showing that multiple languages continuously interact in the mind. I will conclude with a call for placing the study of language-mind interaction and multilingualism among the core areas of scientific investigation if we are to gain an accurate understanding of humanity’s potential.

Meetings: If you are interested in meeting with Dr. Marian during the day or attending dinner in the evening on Friday, please email crystal.mills@uconn.edu. 

Flyer is attached for posting. Please email Crystal if you have questions. 

COGS & ECOM Talk on 4/19: Dr. Psyche Loui

Industry Job Opening – Cognitive Data Scientist

11/10 COGS & SLHS Colloquium: Dr. Samuel Mathias

The Cognitive Science Program and the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Department are co-hosting a talk on 11/10!   

Speaker: Dr. Samuel Mathias, Professor of Psychology from the Department of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School

Time & Location: 4PM, Friday November 10, 2023, in McHugh Hall Room 206

Talk Title: “Genetic and environmental influences on hearing, cocktail-party listening, and cognition

AbstractEveryday hearing requires solving the cocktail-party problem, or segregating and attending to the relevant parts of complex auditory scenes. There are huge individual differences in cocktail-party listening abilities. People with clinical hearing loss generally struggle with cocktail-party listening due to impaired basic auditory sensitivity; however, others experience similar difficulties despite having “normal” sensitivity. Conventional wisdom says that such individual differences are due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors, although the specific factors and their relative weights are poorly understood. This talk will describe preliminary work and future plans to identify specific genetic and environmental factors influencing hearing abilities, including basic auditory sensitivity and cocktail-party listening. We will also discuss how these abilities relate to cognition, with a view towards leveraging these relationships to better understand the distinct and shared etiologies of presbycusis, cognitive decline, and dementia.

Meetings: If you are interested in meeting with Dr. Mathias during the day before his talk or in dinner on Friday evening, please email Crystal: crystal.mills@uconn.edu. Thank you!