This week's SRL meeting will feature a talk by lab alumnus Christopher Conway, currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at St. Louis University. The title and abstract of his talk are given below -- all are invited and welcome to attend.

Friday, July 16
1:30 - 3:00
Psy 128 (conference room)

Experience-Dependent Effects on Sequential Learning and Language
Christopher M. Conway
Dept. of Psychology, Saint Louis University

For most higher organisms, the order in which events occur is of paramount importance (e.g., spoken language; music; motor skills). In our previous research with healthy adults (Conway, Bauernschmidt,
Huang, & Pisoni, 2010) and deaf children with cochlear implants (Conway, Pisoni, Anaya, Karpicke, & Henning, in press), we have shown that domain-general sequential learning abilities -- the cognitive
and neural processes involved in learning about the proper ordering of events and stimuli -- are important for successful language acquisition and processing. Furthermore, a period of auditory deprivation early in development appears to hinder such learning abilities (Conway, Pisoni, & Kronenberger, 2009). Here we present findings from three new research strands that further illustrate the nature of experience-dependent effects on sequential learning and language, including: 1) the impact of deafness on verbal versus non-verbal sequential learning skills; 2) the effectiveness of using computerized sequence training to improve learning and language; 3) and the use of event-related potential recordings to explore the electrophysiological brain mechanisms of sequential learning across development. Overall, these findings both increase our understanding of the role of experience in the development of these fundamental learning abilities as well as suggest new ways to capitalize on neurocognitive plasticity to enhance sequential learning in order to improve language functions.

Dear Cognitive Science Bloggers,
Just a reminder that Monday is our national holiday, and the IUBLA offices will be closed. Advising in Cognitive Science will resume on July 12. With questions, please contact the Office of the Registrar at UBLA, of course after the July 4th Holiday. Have a nice long weekend, happy Fourth!