We often think of learning as something you do in a classroom. However, unbeknownst to us, our brains are constantly adapting to better anticipate and meaningfully interpret the information we get from our environment. Incidental learning of this sort likely supports the development of important skills such as learning our ambient language, visually deciphering the complex natural scenes around us, and creating a multisensory view of the world. I believe that we continue to use environmental information starting in infancy and continuing into adulthood, with our cognitive systems constantly adapting to new information.

 

    My research investigates how our perceptual systems (visual/auditory) and our memory systems work together to flexibly change how we interpret new information based on our experience.  To uncover the interrelationships between perception, memory, and experience, I study infants and adults and employ a variety of methodologies ranging from behavioral tasks to eye-tracking and functional neuroimaging measures (NIRS, fMRI, and EEG).

 

    I also study a key aspect of our daily experience: since the world around us is structured and meaningful, the information we receive through our senses is filled with predictable or statistical information.  In general, humans—starting in infancy and continuing into adulthood—exhibit a pervasive sensitivity to the predictability of information in their environment. This response to predictability has a significant impact on daily experiences—again often unbeknownst to us. For example, Emberson, Lupyan, Goldstein and Spivey (2010) demonstrated that the adult attentional system is reflexively captured by less predictable overheard speech such as the half of a conversation (halfalogue) overheard when someone is on a cell phone.

 

    My research connects responses to predictability or statistics with progressive behavioral change. Exposure to novel statistical regularities creates a strong mismatch between a participant’s mental model of the world and the information received from the external environment. I examine the learning process induced by this mismatch or error signal, how perceptual and memory systems work in tandem to support experience-based change in both of these cognitive systems. Because this research is concerned with the application of general learning mechanisms to specific experiences, we have developed learning paradigms in two perceptual systems and motivated by key developmental tasks: vision (the development of visual object processing) and audition (language learning).

 

    See list of publications on my vita (link above).

    Email me for re/preprints: lemberson at bcs dot rochester dot edu