Past Events
Dr. Yamasaki gave an excellent presentation on second language reading skill and bilingualism. Thank you Dr. Yamasaki for sharing your research with us and facilitating such a wonderful discussion! Please see here for more details about Dr. Yamasaki's presentation.
Abstract: Reading represents a complex, cognitively demanding skill that is essential to functioning in modern society. Given its centrality, it is not particularly surprising that over a century of research has focused on investigating individual differences in reading skill. While this work has been foundational in improving our understanding of the factors that support and constrain readers, one critical limitation to much of this work is that the vast majority has been conducted on monolingual English speakers, despite much greater diversity among readers. The goal of my program of research is to establish inclusive models of reading that can account for the variety of language experiences that represent a broader group of developing readers. In this talk, I will discuss two lines of my research that work towards this aim by investigating: (1) the unique factors that support second-language reading skill among adults and (2) the mechanisms that support early first- and second-language reading development during childhood.
Bio: Dr. Yamasaki’s research interests lie at the crossroads of cognitive and developmental psychology. Her program of research leverages cognitive neuroscience, behavioral co-variance, longitudinal designs, and training studies to explore how variability in linguistic experiences interact with executive processes (e.g., executive attention and memory) to support language and reading development across the lifespan.
