Cognition and Language Learning Research Group

Cognition and Language Learning Research Group The GCLL is a research group at Dalhousie University. We research the mechanisms that support language acquisition. Please email us at [email protected]!

We are always looking for new participants (aged 0 - 8) and would love to have your family participate.

Did you know that the GCLL has a newsletter?At the end of each semester, we send along a newsletter that outlines our re...
08/19/2026

Did you know that the GCLL has a newsletter?

At the end of each semester, we send along a newsletter that outlines our research team, shares what we’ve been up to, and highlights our ongoing studies.

We just sent out our most recent edition. However, if you are interested in receiving future versions of the newsletter, you can sign up using the contact form (link in our bio) or by emailing us at [email protected].

Additionally, you can view past editions of the newsletter on our website, found under the “connect with us” tab.

As always, thank you to everyone for your support. We love to share our work with you all 🩵🦉

Last week, the GCLL had their first Master’s student thesis defence!Maura Whitman successfully defended her project “Do ...
08/05/2026

Last week, the GCLL had their first Master’s student thesis defence!

Maura Whitman successfully defended her project “Do children form sociolinguistic associations between the social characteristics of speakers and phonological patterns?” to committee members Dr. Drew Weatherhead, Dr. Sean MacKinnon, and Dr. Aaron Newman (…and to the lab members who showed up to watch)!

Although we will miss her, we are excited to share she will be moving to the Speech Language Pathology program here at Dalhousie in the fall.

Way to go Maura - keep up the great work. You made a big impact here at the GCLL🦉🩵

Yesterday, members of the GCLL lab were happy to welcome Shad Dalhousie to Dalhousie’s Psych & Neuro department for a la...
07/21/2026

Yesterday, members of the GCLL lab were happy to welcome Shad Dalhousie to Dalhousie’s Psych & Neuro department for a lab tour!

In partnership with Mentorship & Academic Program, SHAD students got to try out human-to-human interface, look at some real brains and tissues, and tried out our fNIRS neuroimaging device!

Thank you to all who made this happen, and thank you to the wonderful students with SHAD who came along. 🦉🩵

Conference season was in full swing for the lab this April and May!First, our master’s student Maura presented a poster ...
06/03/2026

Conference season was in full swing for the lab this April and May!

First, our master’s student Maura presented a poster in April at the Cognitive Development Society (CDS) 2026 conference in Montréal.

Then, at Dalhousie’s own Psychology and Neuroscience Graham Goddard in-house conference, we had a couple of poster presentations: master’s student Gabrielle, independent project student Sophie, volunteer Heather (with Dal’s canine olfaction lab), and master’s student Maura.

Finally, two of our independent project students, Amelia and Sophie, travelled to St. John’s, Newfoundland for Science Atlantic 2026 to share their posters!

Thank you to all of our wonderful participants for supporting our research endeavours that allow us to share our work within the scientific community. Without our wonderful community, none of this would be possible! 🦉🩵🩵🩵

Our booth at the in Halifax last Sunday! 🦉🩵Special thank you to everybody who made this happen, especially all of our a...
04/24/2026

Our booth at the in Halifax last Sunday! 🦉🩵

Special thank you to everybody who made this happen, especially all of our amazing lab members (including those we didn’t get a photo of) and the wonderful team who put this event together!

We had such a blast! Thank you to all who stopped by our booth to learn about the wonderful work we are so lucky to do 🩵🥰

03/02/2026

Calling all parents! Participate in a fun activity with your baby and contribute to science from the comfort of your home!

We are currently looking for toddlers between the ages of 15 and 20 months (1 year 3 months and 2 years) to participate in an online study on how many languages babies expect people to speak.

Children learning only English (monolingual) and children
learning English and another language (bilingual) can participate in this study.

After participating in the study, families will be entered in a draw to win a $150 prepaid VISA
gift card.

If you are interested in helping us with our research, please follow this link to sign up for a timeslot:

https://languagedev.wixsite.com/gcll/language-expectations

Participation involves completing a one-time virtual activity where you and your child will watch a series of videos on your computer and listen to speakers tell a story.

This study does not require a researcher to be present, so you can participate whenever it is convenient for you. If you know any families who might be interested, please share this post!

If you have any questions, please contact our team at [email protected]. Follow us on Instagram and like our page .language.learning .language.learning for more chances to win fun prizes!

Additionally, we have a new referral program in place. If you participate and encourage others to participate, please let us know and we will place both names in our draw to win a $100 CAD gift card to Chapters/Barnes & Noble!

01/23/2026

🆓 Haligonia is FREE! posts keep us online.

Are you interested in how your child learns language? We are the Cognition and Language Learning Research Group (GCLL) at Dalhousie University. We look at how children learn language and the sociocultural factors that play into their development.

We are looking for new participants aged 0-8. We would love to have your family participate! We offer a few studies that your child can participate in – both virtual and in-person options. All are designed to be as fun as they can be for your little one! Plus, each study offers a unique prize for participating.

If you are interested in helping us with our research, please see our website to view the studies applicable to your child: https://languagedev.wixsite.com/gcll/current-studies.

If you have any questions, please contact our team at [email protected].

Follow us on Instagram and like our page for more chances to participate and win fun prizes!

Additionally, we have a new referral program in place. If you participate and encourage others to participate, please let us know and we will place both names in our draw to win a $100 gift card to Chapters/Barnes & Noble!

We are looking for children in Halifax between the ages of 4- to 6-years old for our research looking at how cultural co...
01/22/2026

We are looking for children in Halifax between the ages of 4- to 6-years old for our research looking at how cultural context plays a role in children's word learning.

A $10 CAD Amazon gift card will be provided to participating families.

To get involved, email us at [email protected], or scan the QR code and fill out the contact form on our website.

We are looking for Canadian families with English-speaking children between the ages of 5 and 8 years old to participate...
01/22/2026

We are looking for Canadian families with English-speaking children between the ages of 5 and 8 years old to participate in an online study looking at children’s reasoning about social groups. Participating families receive a $10 CAD Amazon egift card.

To book a virtual appointment through Calendly, scan the QR code or reach out to [email protected].

We are looking for families residing in Canada or the United States with children between the ages of 5 and 7 years old ...
01/22/2026

We are looking for families residing in Canada or the United States with children between the ages of 5 and 7 years old who are fluent in English to participate in an online study exploring how speaker diversity affects children’s language learning!

To participate, email us today at [email protected]!

Address

1355 Oxford Street
Halifax, NS
B3H4R2

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