Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences

Lisa Gershkoff-Stowe

Associate Professor of Speech and Hearing Sciences
Core faculty of Cognitive Sciences
E-mail: gershkof@indiana.edu
Phone: (812) 856-0667

Research Interests

My research investigates the acquisition of children's first words and the real-time processes that make those words accessible for use. My interest in the normal processes of development also extends to children and adults with word retrieval deficits. Currently I am examining three related lines of research. First, I am particularly interested in children's failures of retrieval, that is, the errors they produce when attempting to name familiar objects. I believe these naming errors offer a unique window onto the structure and operations of the lexicon as it is newly emerging and rapidly changing. Second, I am interested in the gap that exists between the words children understand and the words they produce. I want to know what accounts for this asymmetry between receptive and productive vocabulary growth and exactly what changes in the language processing system to enable children eventually to say the words they know. Finally, a third line of research concerns the sudden appearance of the vocabulary spurt towards the end of the second year of life and the corresponding rise in the fast-mapping of new words in production. I carry out research on these topics in the Baby Language Laboratory where we study children's everyday experience with retrieving and producing words.

Teaching Responsibilities/Interests

I teach courses on normal communication development during infancy and early childhood as well as a course on the cognitive foundations of language. In the fall semester, I teach a research methods course for masters-level students that emphasizes how to think critically about research.