As always, host Bob Barrett selects an Academic Minute to air during The Best of Our Knowledge.
Each week this program examines some of the issues unique to college campuses, looks at the latest research, and invites commentary from experts and administrators from all levels of education.
For this week‘s edition (#1314), Bob has selected Lynn Perry‘s segment that explores onomatopoeia. Lynn Perry is a assistant professor in the department of psychology at the University of Miami College of Arts & Sciences.
Research Interests: A question motivating much of my research is What do words do? In particular, I’m interested in the extent to which verbal labels causally impact cognitive processes over developmental and immediate timescales. In answering this question, I use a variety of methods, including behavioral studies with children between 1 and 12 years of age, and non-invasive brain stimulation techniques with adults.
Current Research: Iconicity in language development
Why do some words sound like what they mean? We recently found that children learning English and Spanish tend to acquire words high in iconicity, or correspondence between form and meaning, earlier than words low in iconicity. Ongoing research projects are exploring the role of iconicity in language development and in language evolution.
