Dr. Julie Boland

I investigate the basic cognitive processes that underly word recognition and sentence comprehension. My research interests include the psychology of language; sentence comprehension, word recognition & discourse processing. How is syntactic knowledge stored and accessed? What is the relationship between syntactic and semantic processing? How are linguistic ambiguities resolved? Under what circumstances is unambiguous linguistic input difficult to comprehend?

You can view some of my work on the Publications Page.

Download Julie Boland's CV

Guadalupe de los Santos

Joseph Sindone

Joseph received his degrees from Wayne State University in Psychology and Linguistics, minoring in Anthropology.

Joseph Tyler

Visit Joseph's Personal Site.

Derek Kusa

Class of 2012.
Academics: I'm interested, on a broad level, in how humans encode, retrieve, and share information, linguistic or otherwise. Believing, however, that linguistic information is a strong factor in each of these steps, I study narrow syntax, psycholinguistics, and myriad aspects of psychology. As an underpinning to these pursuits, I study to some small formal extent developments in neuroscience and the architecture of the linguistic centers in the brain.

Future: As it stands, I plan to pursue an advanced degree in cognitive sciences. With this experience, I see myself following one of two career paths: remaining in academia as an instructor, preferably at the collegiate level; pursuing marketing research with an emphasis on how gender conceptions and the language of self-identification inform the tailored advertisement so prevalent on social networking websites.

Odds n' Ends: I enjoy reading, exploring a broad musical taste, and cooking.

Aaron Wolf

I'm an Ann Arbor townie, have a music performance degree, and teach private music lessons. I almost started on a PhD in musicology in California, but decided to stay here while my wife completes her MS in conservation ecology at the UM SNRE.

I believe the meaningful object of inquiry in music is I-music rather than the E-music focus of much of music academia and music education (per Chomsky's comparable argument for language, I=internal, E=external). Music and language share many features and the study of each can greatly inform the other. I also have independent interest in linguistics and psychology. I am working to get more involved in psychology and empirical research and possibly pursue psychology more directly in the future. I have a website and blog about music teaching, music cognition, and related topics at wolftune.com.

Chelsea Prush

Chellie Carr

I am currently an undergrad studying Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Science with a minor in Music. I participate in the Michigan Marching Band and Tau Beta Sigma (National Honorary Music Society). My work in the lab involves designing, updating, and maintaining the lab website. Next year I plan on attending graduate school for Learning Sciences, or something similar.

Shana'e Clark

I am currently an undergrad planning on graduating in 2013 with a B.S. in Brain, Behavior & Cognitive Science and a double minor in Gender & Health and Linguistics. My broad academic interests include the ways in which disease, behavioral disorders, and gender affect language perception. In my down time I volunteer with an organization on campus called Circle K. After undergrad, I plan on attending graduate school for Speech Language Pathology.

Alex Schmidt

I'm a senior undergraduate student majoring in Romance Languages and Literatures. I have a passion for learning—and learning about—different languages. My specific areas of interest include: bilingualism, languages in contact, code-switching, pidgin and creole development, and sociolinguistics. I am currently assisting in a study on syntactic priming in English and Spanish. In addition to language contact, I am intrigued by the role of Universal Grammar (Chomsky) and its role in shaping adult second-language acquisition, a topic very relevant for an age where large adult populations are trying to learn growing languages like Spanish.
In my free time I enjoy taking naps, watching Jimmy Stewart movies, cooking, and having long conversations about anything interesting.