The Learning and Development Lab
Directed by Elissa Newport, Ph.D. and Heidi Getz, Ph.D.
The Learning and Development Lab
Directed by Elissa Newport, Ph.D. and Heidi Getz, Ph.D.
The Learning and Development Lab is part of the Learning and Developmental Plasticity research group at Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery at Georgetown University.
We study the acquisition of language, the relationship between language acquisition and language structure, and the memory systems that support language learning.
Get to know our directors as well as the rest of our team.
Learn more about our research and view selected publications.
Find out more about participating in our studies.
Learn more about joining the lab and get in contact with us.
Members of our lab include:
Faculty
A full-time lab manager
Post-doctoral research fellows, including fellows from the Georgetown University Neuroscience of Language Training Program
Graduate students from the Interdepartmental Program in Neuroscience (IPN), the Department of Linguistics, and the Interdisciplinary PhD Concentration in Cognitive Science
Undergraduate research assistants (RAs) who are often majoring or minoring in Psychology, Linguistics, Neurobiology, and/or Cognitive Science
Undergraduate researchers who are working on a senior thesis project
We are a part of the Learning and Developmental Plasticity research group, led by Dr. Elissa Newport.
This group includes three related lines of research:
Studies of language learning and language structure: This work is carried out by us, the Learning and Development Lab.
The Pediatric Stroke Research Project. This project focuses the neural and behavioral organization of language and visual-spatial skills in children and adults who have had a stroke, and it sheds important light on the capacity of the brain to reorganize language and cognitive functions after a brain injury.
The Development of Cerebral Lateralization Project. It is well-known that in most adults, the left side of the brain is specialized for language processing, while the right side is responsible for visual-spatial abilities. This is called “cerebral lateralization.” However, this division of functions to different sides of the brain may be much weaker, or even absent, in young children. This project investigates when these functions begin to lateralize in childhood.