Elissa L. Newport
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PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 1975 |
Contact Information
- 362 Meliora (dept chair's office), 414 Meliora
- Brain & Cognitive Sciences
- University of Rochester
- Rochester, NY 14627-0268
- (585) 275-8689 (office)
Office Hours
Afternoons, by appointment.
Research Overview
My primary research interest is in the acquisition of language, and in the relationship between language acquisition and language structure.
One line of research focuses on the language acquisition process, investigating how learners go from linguistic input to knowledge of the grammar of a language. Part of this research examines the input children receive for learning English, and analyzes the extent to which this input is capable of supporting the rules children form. Another part of this research examines unusual children around the world acquiring creole languages, where input is extremely reduced or inconsistent, but where the children seem to acquire complex rules nonetheless. This research includes studies of the emergence of young sign languages in Nicaragua, Japan, Israel, and the U.S.
In recent work we have begun to study both normal acquisition and creolization using miniature languages presented to learners in the lab, where we can control both the input and the structure of the language, to see how the learning process (which we have called "statistical learning") actually works. Understanding this learning process involves identifying the particular computations learners make in analyzing the language, and also understanding the constraints and biases in these computational processes which may give rise to phenomena like creolization.
A second line of research concerns maturational effects on language learning, comparing children to adults as first and second language learners, and asking why children, who are more limited in most cognitive domains, perform better than adults in language acquisition. These studies involve the acquisition of signed and spoken languages at varying ages.
We are also conducting studies of human learners acquiring musical and other nonlinguistic patterns, and of nonhuman primates attempting to learn the same materials, to see where sequential learning, and the constraints on such learning, differ across species and domains.
Finally, a long-term interest concerns understanding why languages universally display certain types of structures, and considers whether constraints on pattern learning in children may provide part of the basis for universal regularities in languages of the world.
Selected Publications
- Hudson Kam, C.L., & Newport, E.L. Getting it right by getting it wrong: When learners change languages. Cognitive Psychology, 2009, in press.
- Gebhart, A.L., Aslin, R.N, & Newport, E.L. Changing structures in mid-stream: Learning along the statistical garden path. Cognitive Science, 2009, in press.
- Reeder, P.A., Newport, E.L., & Aslin, R.N. The role of distributional information in linguistic category formation. In N. Taatgen, H. van Rijn, L. Schomaker and J. Nerbonne (eds), Proceedings of the 31st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 2009, in press.
- Gebhart, A. L., Newport, E. L. and Aslin, R. N. (2009) Statistical learning of adjacent and non-adjacent dependencies among non-linguistic sounds. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 486-490.
- Aslin, R.N., & Newport, E.L. (2008) What statistical learning can and can't tell us about language acquisition. In J. Colombo, P. McCardle, and L. Freund (eds.), Infant Pathways to Language: Methods, Models, and Research Directions. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Wonnacott, E., Newport, E.L., & Tanenhaus, M.K. (2008). Acquiring and processing verb argument structure: Distributional learning in a miniature language. Cognitive Psychology, 56, 165-209.
- Bavelier, D., Newport, E.L., Hall, M., Supalla, T., & Boutla, M. (2008). Ordered short-term memory differs in signers and speakers: Implications for models of short-term memory. Cognition, 107, 433-459.
- Thompson, S.P., & Newport, E.L. (2007). Statistical learning of syntax: The role of transitional probability. Language Learning and Development, 3, 1-42.
- Bavelier, D., Newport, E.L., Hall, M., Supalla, T., & Boutla, M. (2006). Persistent difference in short-term memory span between sign and speech: Implications for cross-linguistic comparisons. Psychological Science, 17, 1090-1092.
- Weiss, D.J. & Newport, E.L. (2006). Mechanisms underlying language acquisition: Benefits from a comparative approach. Infancy, 9, 241-257.
- Coppola, M. & Newport, E.L. (2005). Grammatical 'Subjects' in home sign: Abstract linguistic structure in adult primary gesture systems without linguistic input. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102, 19249-19253. [Supporting materials and methods are available at the PNAS website http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0509306102/DC1
- Wonnacott, E., & Newport, E.L. (2005). Novelty and regularization: The effect of novel instances on rule formation. In A. Brugos, M.R. Clark-Cotton, and S. Ha (eds.), BUCLD 29: Proceedings of the 29th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
- Hudson Kam, C.L., & Newport, E.L. (2005). Regularizing unpredictable variation: The roles of adult and child learners in language formation and change. Language Learning and Development, 1, 151-195.
- Singleton, J.L., & Newport, E.L. (2004). When learners surpass their models: The acquisition of American Sign Language from inconsistent input. Cognitive Psychology, 49, 370-407.
- Boutla, M., Supalla, T., Newport, E.L., & Bavelier, D. (2004). Short-term memory span: Insights from sign language. Nature Neuroscience, 7, 997-1002.
- Creel, S.C., Newport, E.L., & Aslin, R.N. (2004). Distant melodies: Statistical learning of non-adjacent dependencies in tone sequences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30, 1119-1130.
- Newport, E.L., & Aslin, R.N. (2004). Learning at a distance: I. Statistical learning of non-adjacent dependencies. Cognitive Psychology, 48, 127-162.
- Newport, E.L., Hauser, M.D., Spaepen, G., & Aslin, R.N. (2004). Learning at a distance: II. Statistical learning of non-adjacent dependencies in a non-human primate. Cognitive Psychology, 49, 85-117.
- Bavelier, D., Newport, E.L., & Supalla, T. (2003). Children need natural languages, signed or spoken. Cerebrum, 5, 19-32.
- Creel, S.C., & Newport, E.L. (2002). Tonal profiles of artificial scales: Implications for music learning. In C. Stevens, D. Burnham, G. McPherson, E. Schubert and J. Renwick, (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition. Sydney, Australia: Causal Productions, pp. 281-284.
- Newport, E.L. (2002). Critical periods in language development. In L. Nadel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd./Nature Publishing Group.
- Mintz, T.H., Newport, E.L., & Bever, T.G. (2002). The distributional structure of grammatical categories in speech to young children. Cognitive Science, 26, 393-425.
- Sanders, L.D., Newport, E.L., & Neville, H.J. (2002). Segmenting nonsense: An event-related potential index of perceived onsets in continuous speech. Nature Neuroscience, 5, 700-703.
- Hauser, M., Newport, E.L., & Aslin, R.N. (2001). Segmentation of the speech stream in a non-human primate: Statistical learning in cotton-top tamarins. Cognition, 78, B41-B52.
- Newport, E.L., Bavelier, D., & Neville, H.J. (2001). Critical thinking about critical periods: Perspectives on a critical period for language acquisition. In E. Dupoux (Ed.), Language, Brain and Cognitive Development: Essays in Honor of Jacques Mehler. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Landau, B., Sabini, J., Jonides, J., & Newport, E.L. (Eds.). (2000). Perception, Cognition, and Language: Essays in Honor of Henry and Lila Gleitman. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Newport, E.L., & Aslin, R.N. (2000). Innately constrained learning: Blending old and new approaches to language acquisition. In S.C. Howell, S.A. Fish, and T. Keith-Lucas (Eds.), Proceedings of the 24th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
- Newport, E.L., & Supalla, T. (2000). Sign language research at the millennium. In K. Emmorey and H. Lane (Eds.), The Signs of Language Revisited: An Anthology in Honor of Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Newport, E.L., & Supalla, T. (1999). Sign languages. In R. Wilson & Keil, F. (eds.), The MIT Encyclopedia of the cognitive sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Hudson, C.L., & Newport, E.L. (1999). Creolization: Could adults really have done it all? In A. Greenhill et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development: Vol. 1. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
- Newport, E.L. (1999). Reduced input in the acquisition of signed languages: Contributions to the study of creolization. In M. DeGraff (Ed.), Language Creation and Language Change: Creolization, Diachrony, and Development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Saffran, J.R., Johnson, E.K., Aslin, R.N., & Newport, E.L. (1999). Statistical learning of tonal sequences by human infants and adults. Cognition, 70, 27-52.
- Aslin, R.N., Saffran, J.R., & Newport, E.L. (1998). Computation of conditional probability statistics by 8-month old infants. Psychological Science, 9, 321-324.
- Spelke, E.S., & Newport, E.L. (1998). Nativism, empiricism, and the development of knowledge. In R.M. Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of Child Psychology, Vol. 1: Theoretical Models of Human Development. 5th edition. (Editor-in-Chief: William Damon). New York: Wiley.
- Saffran, J.R., Newport, E.L., Aslin, R.N., Tunick, R.A., & Barrueco, S. (1997). Incidental language learning: Listening (and learning) out of the corner of your ear. Psychological Science, 8, 101-105.
- Senghas, A., Coppola, M., Newport, E.L., & Supalla, T. (1997). Argument structure in Nicaraguan Sign Language: The emergence of grammatical devices. In E. Hughes, M. Hughes, and A. Greenhill (Eds.), Proceedings of the 21st Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development: Vol. 2. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
- Saffran, J.R., Aslin, R.N., & Newport, E.L. (1996). Statistical learning by 8-month old infants. Science, 274, 1926-1928.
- Saffran, J.R., Newport, E.L., & Aslin, R.N. (1996). Word segmentation: The role of distributional cues. Journal of Memory and Language, 35, 606-621.
- Gleitman, L.R., & Newport, E.L. (1995). The invention of language by children: Environmental and biological influences on the acquisition of language. In L.R. Gleitman and M. Liberman (Eds.), An Invitation to Cognitive Science, Vol. 1: Language. 2nd edition. Cambridge: MIT Press.
- Goldowsky, B.N., & Newport, E.L. (1993). Modeling the effects of processing limitations on the acquisition of morphology: The less is more hypothesis. In J. Mead (ed.), The Proceedings of the 11th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. Stanford, CA: CSLI.
- Newport, E.L. (1990). Maturational constraints on language learning. Cognitive Science, 14, 11-28.
- Johnson, J.S., & Newport, E.L. (1989). Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language. Cognitive Psychology, 21, 60-99.
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Research Collaborators
- Richard N. Aslin, Professor, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester
- Daphne Bavelier, Associate Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester
- Marc Hauser, Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University
- Robert A. Jacobs, Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester
- Ernest J. Nordeen, Professor, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester
- Kathy W. Nordeen, Professor, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester
- Ted Supalla, Associate Professor, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester
Research Support
For the past twenty-nine years my work has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. I am also currently a co-Principal Investigator on grants from the McDonnell Foundation and the Packard Foundation.
Courses
Undergraduate
Graduate
Current Students
Graduate Students
- Alison Austin
- Galina Badyulina
- Sarah Davis
- Patty Reeder
- David Ruskin
Postdoctoral Fellows
- Andrea Gebhart
- Sara Finley