My research focuses on spoken language processing and learning about language. In most of our conversations, we hear and see each other communicate. We use this visual information not only to understand what the speaker says but also to learn, for example, about a speaker's idiosyncratic way of speaking or to learn the meaning of novel words.

Within this framework of multisensory communication, my research investigates a) how we (learn to) process and bind information the language we see and hear over time, b) how we process and adjust to speakers' idiosyncratic ways of speaking, and c) how we learn and process multisensory (temporal) relationships. For example, addressing the latter issue, my work has shown that when teaching a novel word speakers temporally align their manual movements to the prosodic structure of their utterances and that adults and infants use audiovisual temporal alignment to resolve and learn the intended referent of the novel word.

These issues are addressed with a variety of behavioral methods (e.g., eye tracking, motion tracking, preferential looking paradigm), testing young and older adults as well as infants and toddlers.

Current Research Funding

Max Planck Society; Max Net Research Network on Cognition Grant “Face Perception in Social Contexts”

MPI Ph.D. Students