LouAnn Gerken

Professor, Psychology and Cognitive Science
Director, Language Development Laboratory
Gerken Headshot

Psychology 330 (Office)
Psychology 406 (Lab)

520-626-5720
gerken@arizona.edu

Research Interests: 

  • Early language development with emphasis on language structure (phonology and syntax).
  • Comparison of language structure learning in infants and adults.
  • Comparison of language and music development.

Updated: 07/05/22

Selected Publications: 

  • Figueroa, M., & Gerken, L. (2019). Experience with morphosyntactic paradigms allows toddlers to tacitly anticipate overregularized verb forms months before they produce them. Cognition, 191. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2019.05.014
  • Gerken, L. A. (2004). Nine-nonth-olds extract structural principles required for natural language. Cognition, 93, B89-B96. 
  • Gerken, L. A., & Knight, S. (2015). Infants generalize from just (the right) four words. Cognition, 143, 187–192. 
  • Gerken, L. A., Quam, C., & Goffman, L. (2019). Adults fail to learn a type of linguistic pattern that is readily learned by infants. Language Learning and Development, 15(4), 279-294. 
  • Goffman, L., & Gerken, L. (2019). An alternative to the procedural ∼ declarative memory account of developmental language disorder. Journal of Communication Disorders, 105946.

 

Courses Taught:

  • PSY 340 - Introduction to Cognitive Development (2023)
  • PSY 341 - Language Development: Online (2017)
  • PSY 412 - Animal Learning: Comparative Cognition (2024)
  • PSY 533 - Theories of Language Development (2008)

*Year listed indicates when this individual last taught the specified course.

Updated: 11/13/23

Degree(s)

  • Ph.D. Columbia University (1987)