University of Michigan Language and Literacy Lab

Researcher of the Week: Rebecca Marks!

Rebecca graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2013 and is currently a Ph.D. student in the Combined Program in Education and Psychology (CPEP) at the University of Michigan.
Rebecca: "My research centers around bilingual children's language and literacy development. I'm interested in how a bilingual child's two languages interact in the brain, and how knowing another language influences children English literacy development."

This weeks researcher of the week is Megan Ennis!

Megan is a freshman UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunities) student at the University of Michigan Language and Literacy Lab. She intends to major in Aerospace Engineering but always loved language because of her Spanish Immersion experience. She applied to be a research assistant under Dr. Kovelman because she thinks it is interesting to look at how the brain works and to see how it affects our behavior, especially with bilingualism. She is excited about her next couple of years at the University of Michigan!

Researcher of the Week: Rennie Pasquinelli

Rennie is a senior studying Cognitive Science and Linguistics, with a focus on language development in special populations. She started as a research assistant in the lab, and is now in charge of the Cochlear Implant Language Study. The study looks to find language perception differences in children with cochlear implants in comparison to children without them. She is currently applying to graduate schools to study language acquisition further!

Want $10? Have an hour?

We are looking for one more male participant in our adult study! Must be right-handed, monolingual, native English speaker, and have no history of hearing problems.

Message us or email [email protected] to scheudle a time to participate!

Do you want $10?

Are you a right-handed, native/monolingual English speakers without a history of hearing, learning, or neurological impairments?

We need 10 adults to participate in a study where they will play games, intended for our children study, while we monitor brain activity. It will take about one hour and you will receive $10 for participating! Message us or email [email protected]
to sign up!

Would you like to see how your child hears language? So would we!

We observe how children's brains work while doing language and reading tasks, using a safe system that uses light to measure brain activity. We are looking for children with and without cochlear implants ages 7-9. The study pays $40 for children without cochlear implants and $100 for children with cochlear implants!

Congrats to our amazing UROP students for presenting their research today! And I'd like to give a special thanks to our mentors Jennie Bullen and Alexa Ellis for a great semester here at the LLAMA Lab!

Are you interested in getting hands-on research experience at the Llama Lab this summer? (20 hours a week, unpaid) Send an email to [email protected] if you are interested or would like to know more about the awesome work we are doing!

Check out the amazing poster our UROP students put together! If you are interested in the work we are doing feel free to stop by the Union on 4/19 at 9:00 AM to see them present! See you there!

Started from the bottom and she's still here..introducing this week's research assistant of the week!

Jennie joined the FLAME study in September 2013 as part of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. She is now finishing up her Master's degree and has plans to begin a PhD program in Human Development at the University of California, Davis. In Davis, she will continue to study early math education, specifically working with children with autism.

We're all going to miss her as she moves on to the next chapter of her studies!

Recruitment season is in full swing! Email us at [email protected] to sign your child up! There's no better time to get free parking in Ann Arbor for the day now that it's warm out!