Tweety Language Development Lab Members

About Us

The Tweety Language Development Lab at the University of Arizona aims to study cognition and language development in infants. We study how infants find patterns in auditory input - primarily language - and how toddlers combine complex abilities to become master language users.

Our studies provide new information to parents and specialists working with infants and children. We see infants as young as 4 months old through 20 months old. Our studies are relatively short, typically taking about 30 minutes to complete, and you will be with your child the entire time.

As a thank you, your child will be able to choose a book to take home! We have a free parking space behind the Psychology building for you to use during your visit.

If you are interested in learning more about our work or are interested in bringing your child in for a study, please feel free to call us at (520) 626-5720 or email us at tweetylanguagedevelopmentlab@gmail.com.

Lab Members

Image

Dr. LouAnn Gerken, Director of the Tweety Lab

Dr. Gerken, the director of the Tweety Lab, is a professor of psychology. She is interested in how, as younger infants learn more about their world (primarily their language and musical worlds), their expectations and subsequent learning change. That is, younger infants are able to learn different kinds of information than older infants.  She is also interested in how infants seem to have a sense of whether they are learning, which causes them to direct their attention to learning domains where they are making the most progress.  In her spare time, Dr. Gerken travels, runs with her dog, and reads novels, preferably murder mysteries set in the 1920’s. Email Dr. Gerken!

Image

Dr. Megan Figueroa, Research Scientist/Lab Manager

Dr. Figueroa received her BA and MA in English linguistics from Arizona State University in 2010 and 2012, her MA in Linguistics from the University of Arizona in 2015, and her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Arizona in 2018. Her research interests include the acquisition of morphosyntax in monolingual and bilingual children with and without language impairment. Her dissertation was titled: "Who breaked the rule? Rethinking English past tense overregularizations." In her free time, she enjoys reading young adult novels, spending time with her dog, pretending to be a foodie, and cross-stitching nonsense. Email Dr. Figueroa!

Affiliate Researchers

• Dr. Rebecca Gomez, Director of the Tigger Lab at the University of Arizona
• Dr. Mary Peterson, Director of the Visual Perception Lab at the University of Arizona
• Chewie Mon, Member of the Visual Perception Lab

Contact Us

• tweetylanguagedevelopmentlab@gmail.com
• (520) 626-5720
• Address:
  Department of Psychology
  1503 E University Blvd
  Tucson, AZ 85721-0068