Mara Breen

I am a Professor of Psychology in the Psychology & Education department at Mount Holyoke College where I direct the Cognition, Attention, Perception, and Speech Lab (CAPSlab). I have a B.A. from Hampshire College and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from MIT. I teach courses in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, and music cognition. In my research, I use cognitive and brain imaging methods to explore how the musical aspects of language (pitch and rhythm) help people understand speech and facilitate literacy acquisition.