Home Departments: Psychology, Linguistics, and Cognitive Science
Director of the Language Development Laboratory
SLAT Area of Specialization: Cognitive Dimensions of L2 Learning
Dr. Gerken's main interest is language development and its relation to learning more generally. Recent work in her lab focuses on similarities of music and language learning, experience-related changes in what can be learned, learning and retention of single-feature vs. multi-feature rules, and the relation between learning and emotion. Dr. Gerken is primarily interested in how infants and young children learn, with an emphasis on language. This primary interest entails questions about how new knowledge comes about, what motivates learning, and how the normal language learning mechanism goes awry in childhood language disorders.
Research Interests:
- Weighing contributions of human biology and environment in how infants learn language
- Exploring the role of emotion in guiding learning
- Applying knowledge of typical language development to childhood language disorders