Collaborations

Historically, the DeLTA Center was grounded in research topics that explore specialized areas within the larger frame of "change". However, as new members join the DeLTA Center, ideas about development and learning are being continuously challenged, re-shaped and broadened.

Student interdisciplinary research awards

The DeLTA Center sponsors a competition for research grants led by students that cross laboratory and disciplinary boundaries. Up to four awards of $1,000 each are given each year. Selection is made via a review process modeled after the NIH procedures, but completely conducted by graduate student members of the Delta Center. Awardees include:

  • Maura Curran, mentored by Amanda Van Horne (CSD), Youjia Hua (College of Education), "Causal Adverbial Production, Language Intervention and Science Learning" (Spring 2016 | abstract)
  • Nicole Hendrix, mentored by Kristen Missall (U of Washington), Susan Cook (Psychology) and Megan Foley-Nicpon, "Embedded Instructional Gesture and Early Shape Learning: A Comparison of Seeing and Doing" (Spring 2016 | abstract)
  • Arianna Rigon, working in the labs of Melissa Duff and Michelle Voss, "Individual differences in social synchronization: a functional connectivity study" (Spring 2014 | abstract)
  • Marcin Wroblewski, working in the labs of Karla McGregor and Ruth Bentler, "Development of multisensory integration in noisy and reverberant listening conditions: linguistic and cognitive predictors in school age children," (Spring 2014 | abstract)
  • Bryan Brown, working in the labs of Tricia Zebrowski and John Spencer, "Lateralization of cortical activity associated with speech production, language processing and finger tapping tasks in children near the onset of stuttering." (Fall 2013 | abstract)
  • Caitie Hilliard & Elizabeth O'Neal, working in the labs of Susan Wagner Cook and Jodie Plumert, "High Stakes Communication About Safety: Gesture Makes the Point." (Fall 2013 | abstract)
  • Tanja Roembke, working in the labs of Bob McMurray and Ed Wasserman, "Word learning in humans and pigeons - What role does pruning play?" (Fall 2013 | abstract)
  • Dave Warren, working in the labs of Bob McMurray and Melissa Duff, "Modeling word learning in adults with memory impairments after brain damage." (Fall 2012 | abstract)
  • Shan-Ju Lin, working in the labs of Amanda Van Horne, Susan Wagner Cook and Karla McGregor, "Use of gestures when describing motion events." (Spring 2012 | abstract)
  • Nate Klooster, working in the labs of Melissa Duff and Susan Cook: "Gestures make memories, but what kind? The cognitive and neural mechanisms of hand gesture." (Fall 2011 | abstract)
  • Tim Wifall, working in the labs of Eliot Hazeltine and Bob McMurray: "How does perceptual and motoric similarity affect learning?" (Fall 2011 | abstract)

Shared resources

Excel worksheet for calculating vocabulary statistics based on Samuelson & Smith, 1999.

If you use these statistics in a published paper, talk or other presentation please cite: Samuelson, L. K., & Smith, L. B. (1999). Early noun vocabularies: Do ontology, category organization and syntax correspond Cognition, 73(1), 1-33. Please also refer to this paper for details on how the word classifications were established.

KlattWorks, a new interface to the Klatt Synthesizer developed in 1980, manages and creates sets of Klatt Parameters that describe synthetic utterances.

KlattWorks is freely available to the public. The author asks that any paper that uses it cites a paper currently being prepared for publication: McMurray, B. (in preparation) KlattWorks: A [somewhat] new systematic approach to formant-based speech synthesis for empirical research.

Shared Facility

The CHild Imaging Laboratory in Developmental Science (CHILDS) is a world-class research facility designed to investigate the massive changes in brain and behavior found in early development. For DeLTA Center faculty and their students, CHILDS provides ready access to something found at no other facility in the world: the integration of eye/head-tracking, virtual reality, EEG/ERPs and NIRS technologies.