Hello, this introduction is updated from time to time, but is still pretty dull; all text, no picture, no interactive features.... My name is Don Metlay. I am an employee in Brain and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) at the University of Rochester. Note that my duties and skills have developed over time since I started to work with Ted Supalla and Elissa Newport. My first responsibilities were to assist them in researching age effects on language learning; editing some old stimuli and replacing others with new ones, and locating and testing adult subjects.
Currently, I work at the Sign Language Research Center (SLRC) where I do linguistic research, and design and develop various interactive multimedia projects. I assist Professor Ted Supalla in linguistic analyses of "home-grown" sign languages. We develop simple stimuli (both pictures and video) to elicit signs and grammar from native signers in other countries. Also, as part of a large team, I am creating a multimedia database of historic ASL based on several books and films.
Sometimes, I do some work at the Language Lab, I help graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and staffs by creating and editing video stimuli for their experimental work on language acquisition, creolization, grammaticalization and plasticity in language. More details can be found in Professors Elissa Newport's and Daphne Bavelier's web pages.