BLAB News

Congrats to graduating seniors Taft Foley, Christina Wang, and Diana Liu! Goodbye and good luck to Dr. Rainy Dong and Dr. Victor Gomes in your new positions! And farewell Anna Kovaleva, who is returning to the UK! We'll miss you all!

Ph.D. Student Lily Zhu recently gave her 2nd year talk! Congrats on this milestone Lily!

The Blab is happy to welcome three new research assistants: Runa Matsushita, Rylea Pritchett, and Diana Liu! Read all about them on our people page!

Congratulations to the amazing Ph.D. candidate Lily Zhu for receiving a Mind Brain Behavior Interdisciplinary Mind Grant!

Congratulations to Dr. Rainy Dong, Dr. Charlotte Moore, Jen Ramadurai, and Dr. B on their paper recently being accepted to Developmental Psychology!

Congratulations to the amazing undergraduate RA Jordan Mitchell on your early graduation! We'll miss you in Cambridge!

The Blab is very sad to say goodbye to Dr. Jasenia Hartman and Dr. Marvin Lavechin. Good luck on your next adventures you two! We'll miss you!

A huge congrats to the stupendous postdoctoral researcher Dr. Amanda O'Brien who recently received a Simons Center for the Social Brain Postdoctoral Fellowship!

Three talks and three posters later! Congratulations again to Lily Zhu, Alex Emmert & Lilli Righter, Dr. Jasenia Hartman, Kristen Gilyard, Genia Lukin, and Dr. Rainy Dong on a tremendous BUCLD! 

New Blabber Alert! We are happy to welcome Dr. Amanda O'Brien as a new postdoc in the blab. And we are excited to welcome new Ph.D candidate Rachel Liu!

A long time coming paper "Experience shapes early noun comprehension from 8-18 months: The roles of word frequency and referent familiarity" was recently accepted at BRM! Congrats to the many Blabbers who worked hard on this project!

We're excited to welcome Kien Nguyen to the Blab as new lab technician! Kien is a recent graduate of Macalester College. Welcome to Cambridge Kien!

We're ecstatic to announce that the Blab will be presenting three talks and three posters at BUCLD 2025! Congratulations to Lily Zhu, Alex Emmert & Lilli Righter, Dr. Jasenia Hartman, Kristen Gilyard, Genia Lukin, and Dr. Rainy Dong! Catch us there!

We're very sad to say goodbye to longtime Lab Manager Lilli Righter and Lab Tech Zhenya Kalenkovich! Good luck, you two! The BLAB will miss you!

Research assistant Nicole Calderon '25 recently received a Fullbright scholarship to teach in Spain! Go Nicole!

We're excited to welcome Dr. Marvin Lavechin to Blab as a postdoctoral researcher! Welcome to Cambridge Marvin!

We're saying goodbye to three graduating blabbers this spring. Congratulations Nicole, Grace, and Will! We're also saying goodbye to our brilliant intern Olivia, who will be returning to the UK to finish her studies. We'll miss you all!

Senior RA Nicole Calderon presented a poster on her senior thesis done in the BLAB. She investigated word form recognition in bilingual and monolingual infants. Congratulations Nicole!

Blabbers Dr. Erin Campbell, Lilli Righter, Genia Lukin, and Dr. Bergelson had their paper “Comparing Language Input in Homes of Young Blind and Sighted Children: Insights from Daylong Recordings” accepted for publication in Language Development Research...

Joining the Blab with the new year is Dr. Rainy Dong, who will work with the Blab as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome to Cambridge Rainy!

Grad student Genia Lukin and lab manager, Lilli Righter presented research at the 49th annual Boston University Conference for Language Development. Former BLab member Erin Campbell also presented!

The BLAB welcomes two incoming lab managers: Sophie Schoenbohm, a recent graduate of Grinnell College, and Michika Ito, a recent graduate of Wellesley College.

PI Elika Bergelson, PhD will be giving a talk as part of the Society for Language Development Symposium on November 2. The topic of the symposium is “The effects of poverty on language, cognition, and brain development.”

Erin Campbell, PhD, lab manager Lilli Righter , and grad student Genia Lukin head to MPAL 2023 to share two posters and a talk on blind children’s early language. Also catch Genia and Erin at BUCLD 48 in November!

The Bergelson Lab has moved! We are now a part of the Laboratory for Developmental Studies in the Psychology Department at Harvard University. We’ll miss you, Durham! Hello Cambridge!

The newest BLAB PhD just defended! Dr. Erin Campbell presented a stunning dissertation on language acquisition and the senses, including language development in blind and deaf children. Erin is off to Boston University, where she will work as a postdoc...

Shannon Dailey, PhD and PI Elika Bergelson, PhD recently published a paper in Child Development which provides evidence that parents’ language input doesn’t differ between girls and boys, but that parents talk more to infants who have themselves begun...

PI Elika Bergelson, PhD received an NIH R01 grant to study how social, cognitive, and linguistic skills contribute to word learning in the second year of life. We are excited to start work on new projects! Congratulations, Dr. B!

BLAB alum Catherine Laing, PhD , current professor at the University of York, has been awarded a grant from the European Research Council to study infants’ tongue movements, vocal tract development, and speech sounds. Congratulations, Dr. Laing! Read more...

This fall, the BLAB welcomed new post-docs Charles Davis and Jasenia Hartman, new PhD student Genia Lukin, and new CNAP rotational PhD student Kristen Gilyard.

Shannon Dailey, PhD successfully defended her dissertation on the role of language input in children’s language development, after many years in the BLAB: first as lab manager and then as a PhD student. She will continue her work as a postdoc in the...

Jingxuan Liu ‘22 received the 2022 Jerome Bruner Thesis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research for her work focusing on adults’ perception of mispronunciation.

Charlotte Moore, PhD has become the first-ever PhD recipient from the BLAB, following the successful defense of her dissertation, “Variable wordforms, adaptable learners: Evidence from real-time word comprehension and naturalistic corpora.” She continues...

PhD student Shannon Dailey has received the competitive Summer Research Fellowship from the Duke Graduate School.

The BLAB welcomes incoming lab manager Lillianna Righter, recent graduate of the University of Maryland. Welcome Lilli!

BLAB graduate student Charlotte Moore will be giving a talk at this fall’s Boston University Conference on Language Development and BLAB postdoc Federica Bulgarelli will be presenting a poster. Charlotte also received a Paula Menyuk Award for her abstract...

In October, BLAB graduate student Erin Campbell will present at the Many Paths to Language Conference, organized by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.

BLAB postdoc Federica Bulgarelli was awarded a grant from the Charles Lafitte Foundation Program for Research in Psychology & Neuroscience to recruit bilingual babies from the Triangle area to participate in our lab’s studies.

Elika Bergelson was the recipient of this year’s Distinguished Early Career Contribution Award from the International Congress of Infant Studies. Congrats, Dr. B!

Three seniors are leaving the BLAB; Farewll Jessica , Sarah , and Junette ! We are all proud of you and we will all miss everything you brought to the lab!

Congratulations to research assistant Jessica Marlow ‘20 for winning a Fulbright! Jessica will pursue a full-time international Master’s of Science in Global Health at National Taiwan University, the most comprehensive university and the foremost research...

Congratulations to research assistant Natasha Derezinski-Choo ‘18 for winning a Fulbright! Natasha will work in Cameroon on the project “Many Medicines and Many Languages: The Sociolinguistic Underpinnings of Medical Pluralism.”

The BLAB is proud to announce that Ph.D. candiate Shannon Dailey has completed her MAP. Well done Shannon!

The BLAB is proud to announce that our research assistant Sarah Yang ‘20 has graduated with distinction! Congratulations Sarah!

Graduate student Charlotte Moore was awarded a travel award from the Charles Lafitte Foundation to attend an R workshop on “Building Tidy Tools” in Atlanta, GA on October 14–15, 2019. Congratulations, Charlotte!

Look out for the BLAB at BUCLD 2019! Dr. Federica Bulgarelli will be giving a talk, Erin Campbell and Charlotte Moore will be presenting posters, and Dr. Elika Bergelson will be presenting at a symposium. 11 BLAB members will be attending!

The BLAB is pleased to add five new members! Welcome Jing, Georgia, Jessica, Madeleine, and Lauren! We look forward to a fantastic year with you on our crew!

Congratulations to Dr. Federica Bulgarelli and research assistant Olivia Leggio for getting travel funding from the Charles Lafitte Foundation!

The BLAB happily welcomes Aahnix Bathurst as a new Project Coordinator! We’re looking forward to a great year!

Undergrad Junette Yu completed a summer research project through the Summer Neuroscience Program (SNP) , mentored by PI Dr. Elika Bergelson and graduate student Erin Campbell . She presented her EEG work at the poster session.

Undergrad Sarah Yang completed a summer research project through the Summer Neuroscience Program (VIP) , mentored by PI Dr. Elika Bergelson and graduate students Shannon Dailey and Charlotte Moore . She gave a talk and poster presentation about her...

Dr. Carla Fernandez will be jointly mentored by the BLAB and the Woldorff Lab at Duke as a post-doctoral researcher. The BLAB also welcomes Irene Tang, new lab manager, and Sarp Uner, new lab technician.

BLAB members will be presenting two talks and two posters at BUCLD 2019 this November.

PI Elika Bergelson received an NSF CAREER award to study language development in blind infants and deaf infants. Congratulations, Dr. Bergelson!

Graduate student Charlotte Moore and PI Elika Bergelson will be presenting a talk titled “18-month-olds’ representations of vowels in regular & irregular verbs: A mispronunciation study” in Potsdam, Germany in June.

Graduate student Erin Campbell is now a fellow in the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Go, Erin!

Former Bergelson Lab/Seedlings staff member Sharath (Munna) Koorathota is starting an Master’s degree in computer science at Columbia University, specializing in AI and Machine Learning. Congrats, Munna!

Dr. Federica Bulgarelli and Shannon Dailey received the Paula Menyuk Travel Award, Shannon received the Society for Language Development student award, and undergraduate RAs Sarah Yang and Katya Khlystova received departmental travel awards!

Look out for the BLAB at BUCLD 2018! 9 BLAB members will be in attendance, Dr. Federica Bulgarelli and Shannon Dailey will be giving talks, and Dr. Elika Bergelson will be presenting a poster.

Dr. Federica Bulgarelli and Dr. Stephan Meylan are joining the BLAB as post-doctoral researchers this fall. The BLAB also welcomes Gladys Baudet , who will work as our lab technician.

BLAB members will be presenting two talks and a poster at BUCLD 2018 this November.

Dr. Bergelson has been named the first Crandall Family Assistant Professor by Duke’s Arts and Sciences, in conjunction withthe Duke Bass Connections’ Education and Human Development Theme. Congratulations, Dr. Bergelson!

Dr. Bergelson , along with Dr. Dan King (Duke Audiology) and Dr. Sharon Freedman (Duke Ophthalmology & Pediatrics), has been awarded a pilot grant by Duke’s ABC-Thrive for their project “Early Language Acquisition with Sensory Impairment.”

The BLAB is excited to announce that Erin Campbell will be joining us as a PhD student in the fall of 2018. Welcome, Erin!

BLAB technician extraordinaire Andrei Amatuni will be leaving us to begin his PhD in Cognitive Science at Indiana University this fall. Congrats, Andrei! We’ll miss you!

The CANBLS research group, co-convened by PI Elika Bergelson and colleagues, brings together researchers with varying approaches to studying language and speech. Members of the BLAB attend monthly meetings to share and discuss research that further...

The BLAB has contributed to the First DIHARD Speech Diarization Challenge. Preliminary results will be presented in late 2018.

BLAB member Andrei Amatuni was featured on the Duke Psychology and Neuroscience website as Person of the Week! Check out the P&N News Feed to read about Andrei’s work and interests.

Members of the BLAB are engaging in collaborative meetings with our colleagues at UNC. Meetings provide faculty and graduate students a space to share ideas and discuss work relevant to the topic of language acquisition.

Graduate student Shannon Dailey recently had a paper on her undergraduate work on mindfulness meditation published in the journal Mindfulness.

Graduate students Shannon Dailey and Charlotte Moore both won a Paula Menyuk Travel Award for BUCLD 2017!

Today, the BLAB said “See you later” to our wonderful postdoc, Catherine Laing . We wish you all the best, and know you’ll do great things at Cardiff!

Congratulations to our VIP students this summer, Estelle He and Reena Jasani , for doing a great job on their talks and poster presentations!

BLAB members will be presenting two talks and three posters at BUCLD 2017 this November.

Look out for the BLAB at CDS 2017, with pre-conference and conference talks by Dr. Bergelson!

Congratulations to our postdoc, Catherine Laing , who recently had a paper accepted to the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology ! Coming soon: “A perceptual advantage for onomatopoeia in early word learning: Evidence from eye-tracking.”

Congratulations to our graduate student, Charlotte Moore , who was recently awarded an SSHRC Doctoral fellowship!

Congratulations to our graduate student, Charlotte Moore , who finished up a great first year at Duke with her successful presentation at the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience’s first year festival!

Dr. Bergelson just had a paper accepted to Language Learning and Development: Semantic Specificity in One-Year-Olds’ Word Comprehension, Bergelson & Aslin, 2017.

Lab manager Shannon Dailey will be staying in the BLAB next year as a graduate student! She will continue working with Dr. Bergelson as she begins her PhD here at Duke this Fall.

The BLAB has a 100% acceptance rate to CogSci! Lab technician Andrei Amatuni and postdoc Catherine Laing were both accepted to the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society in London this July.

Lab manager Shannon Dailey gave a talk titled “Semantic Relatedness Effects in Early Word Learning” at the Society of Research in Cognitive Development’s 2017 meeting in Austin, TX.

PI Dr. Elika Bergelson is a grant recipient of Trans-Atlantic Platform’s Digging Into Data Challenge Grant for the Analyzing Child Language Experiences around the World (ACLEW) project. ACLEW will be studying child language development across cultures.

The BLAB will be featured in two Special Sessions at Interspeech 2017 in Stockholm this August. The sessions focus on data collection and annotation issues in child language acquisition research, and on a Computational Paralinguistics ChallengE (ComParE).

Our postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Catherine Laing, has been appointed as a Lecturer in the Department of Language and Communication at Cardiff University in Wales. Beginning this summer, she will research and teach in the areas of child language...

PI Dr. Elika Bergelson is part of a consortium promoting best practices in infancy research, called ManyBabies. Their paper was recently published in Infancy! Check it out here.

Lab manager Shannon Dailey will give a talk titled “Semantic Relatedness Effects in Early Word Learning” at Society of Research in Cognitive Development’s 2017 meeting in Austin, TX.

Postdoc Dr. Catherine Laing wrote an article for the Conversation USA: “Here’s why ‘baby talk’ is good for your baby.”

Look out for lab alum Tessa Eagle‘s honors thesis (poster) and postdoc Dr. Catherine Laing‘s PhD research (talk) at BUCLD 2016!

Graduate student Charlotte Moore recently had a paper published based on research she did during her Master’s degree.

Dr. Elika Bergelson organized a workshop on naturalistic language acquisition data at CogSci 2016 in Philadelphia, PA.

The Bergelson Lab has officially moved to Duke. Debate about when to start trying to say ‘y’all’ ensues.

After nearly two years, SEEDLingS longitudinal data collection is complete. Not a single home or in-lab visit was missed!