People

Principal investigator

Janet van Hell (jgv3@psu.edu)

Janet van Hell is full professor of Psychology and Linguistics at the Pennsylvania State University. She is also a co-director of the Center for Language Science at Penn State. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1998. Her research focuses on second language learning and bilingualism as well as later language development in children with typical or atypical language development. She combines behavioral, neuropsychological, and linguistic techniques to study language development and language processing. Her work is supported by grants from, amongst others, the National Science Foundation and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.

Postdocs

Danielle Dickson (dkd5405@psu.edu)

My research uses behavioral and electrophysiological (ERPs/oscillations) measures to clarify long-standing debates about domain specificity in cognitive neuroscience. This includes addressing questions about mathematical cognition’s relationship to the language and memory systems, and the effects of task goals on information processing. I utilize neurobiological factors like brain development (comparing brain responses in children and adults) and cerebral hemisphere (comparing right and left hemisphere processing using a visual hemifield approach) to expose commonalities and divergences across domains of cognition.

Li-Fang Lai (lkl5302@psu.edu)

My research lies broadly in sociophonetic variation, intonation and prosody, language contact and language variation, and bilingual intonation patterns. I am currently extending my research to bidialectal language processing using behavioral and ERP methods and am interested in developing experimental research paradigms in auditory processing that can be employed in field settings.

Eric Pelzl (ezp218@psu.edu)

Eric uses behavioral and neurophysiological (ERP) methods to understand how people learn the phonology (sounds) and lexicon (words) of a new language, and also how accented speech impacts listeners. As a former Chinese teacher, his research is often conducted in the context of Mandarin, and focuses on one of the common challenges learners of Mandarin discuss among themselves: lexical tones. Learn more at his website http://ericpelzl.com.

Research interests: Chinese, second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, ERPs, lexical learning, phonology, lexical learning, accent, second language teaching

Graduate students

Daisy Lei (dul261@psu.edu)

Daisy is a forth year Cognitive Psychology graduate student. She is also pursuing a dual title in Language Science. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a double major in Cognitive Science and Computer Science. Her research interests are in bilingualism, second language learning, and language processing.

Yushuang Liu (yzl67@psu.edu)

Yushuang comes from Taiwan and she is a sixth-year graduate student in developmental psychology. She received her BA degree in psychology from Wuhan University in China and MA degree at San Diego State University. She is generally interested in child second language learning. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, video-chatting with her 12-year-old little sister, and playing with her roommate’s kitties!

Holly Zaharchuk (hzaharchuk@psu.edu)

I am a fourth year graduate student in Cognitive Psychology and Language Science with a Specialization in Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. I use neuropsychological (EEG) and behavioral methods to understand how cognitive, linguistic, and social factors interact during language processing. You can learn more at my website: hzaharchuk.com

Cristal Giorio (cgg5141@psu.edu)

Cristal is a first year graduate student in Cognitive Psychology, pursuing a dual degree title in Language Science with a Specialization in Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. Her research interests revolve around language processing and cognitive function in bilinguals.

Adriana Miller (avm6943@psu.edu)

Adriana is a first year graduate student in Cognitive Psychology and plans to pursue a dual title in Language Science with a Specialization in Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. She is from Lincoln, Nebraska, and earned her BA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her general research interests include bilingualism, language processing, and creative thinking.

Breadth project students

Valérie Keppenne (vxk57@psu.edu)

Valérie is a fourth-year dual title grad student in German Applied Linguistics and Language Science. She received her BA degree in English and MA degree in English Linguistics at Trier University in Germany. Her research interests include second language acquisition, foreign language pedagogy, and morphosyntactic processing.

Anya Yu (auy17@psu.edu)

Cognitive track PhD student in the Psychology Department at Penn State.

Research interests include bilingualism, language comprehension, and individual differences in learning. Other interests include bias formation, and neuro-aesthetics. Main tools of investigation so far include psycho-behavioral experiments and fMRI, with hopes of expanding into EEG and eye-tracking.

Personal website: link

Research assistants

Sarah Paterno (sup223@psu.edu)

Year: Senior
Major: Psychology, Neuroscience option
Interests: Bilingualism and code-switching, specifically during child language development

Quishbel Pichardo (qjp5014@psu.edu)

Year: Senior
Major: Psychology, Neuroscience option
Interests: Language development

Jay Mular (they/them; jgm5404@psu.edu)

Year: Senior

Elisa Fricke (emf5508@psu.edu)

Panyang Li (ppl5124@psu.edu)

Year: Senior
Major: Psychology with Life Science Option
Interests: Bilingualism and cognitive psychology in children

Katelyn Lee (krl5364@psu.edu)

Greg Costanzo (gpc5164@psu.edu)

Zepeng Zhu (zvz5326@psu.edu)

Alumni

Postdoc alumni

• Cindy Choe
• Rafał Jończyk
• Katharine Donnelly Adams
• Sarah Grey
• Darren Tanner
• Megan Zirnstein

Graduate student alumni

• Fatemeh Abdollahi
• Carla Fernandez
• Kaitlyn Litcofsky
• Caitlyn Ting

Visiting scholar alumni

• Iske Bakker
• Felicity Frinsel
• Victoria Kishchak
• Mahsa Morid
• Pia Reimann
• Antje Stöhr
• Nan Zhang

Lab affiliate alumni

• Angela Grant

Research assistant alumni

• Allis Choi
• Moises Hernandez
• Mayra Pollo
• Karla Pulgarin
• Erli Tang
• Lodovica Bicego
• Kathleen Ammerman
• Abigail Cosgrove
• Carly Danielson
• Mallory Evans
• Erika Exton
• Sarah Fairchild
• Amanda Gluzberg
• Carmen Gonzalez-Recober
• Sydney Harfenist
• Karen Ip
• Katie Kelsch
• Jenny Kline
• Bryan Koflanovich
• Asvi Nurul Hanifah
• Emily Pifer
• Claire Quinones
• Adrianna Shevlin
• Dylan Solano
• Brendan Tomoschuk
• Delaney Wilson
• Julian Yee
• Jaclyn Yuro
• Yiqiu Zhou
• Jessica Zurlo