Recent & Ongoing Research

Lettuce Entertain You:

Validating Sandwich Builder as a Measure of Auditory Short-Term Memory

McLaughlin & Samuel (in press at BRM)

Each trial, a drive-thru customer’s sandwich order is presented auditorily, including a list of 1 to 10 sandwich ingredients (e.g., salami, cheddar cheese, mayo, and olives). The participant needs to remember these sandwich ingredients and then build the customer’s sandwich by selecting the necessary ingredients in the correct order.

Demo of a single trial of Sandwich Builder:

Recent Publications

2024
McLaughlin, Baese-Berk, & Van Engen
Exploring effects of brief daily exposure to unfamiliar accent on listening performance and cognitive load

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2024
McLaughlin & Van Engen
Social priming of speech perception: The role of individual differences in implicit racial and ethnic associations

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2024
McLaughlin, Colvett, Bugg, & Van Engen
Sequence effects and speech processing: Cognitive load for speaker-switching within and across accents

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I'm a big advocate of data and resource sharing!

The majority of my work can be found on Open Science Framework

(Some) Ongoing Projects

Perceptual mechanisms that support accent accommodation

Study 1: McLaughlin & Samuel (accepted at JEP:HPP)Study 2: McLaughlin & Samuel (data collection in progress)
The primary aim of this project is to improve our theoretical understanding of the perceptual mechanism(s) that support accent accommodation. We will investigate the roles of phonemic recalibration and criteria relaxation using a combination of behavioral and psychophysiological measures.
Study 1: Pre-printStudy 2: Pre-registration
Funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship from the European Commission

Using concurrent EEG and pupillometry to examine rapid talker and accent accommodation

McLaughlin & Samuel (data collection in progress)
In this project we will examine concurrent neural activity and pupil response during rapid talker and accent accommodation. We aim to disentangle effects of talker-switching within and across accents on attention and working memory.

Flower Power: Developing a tool for simulation-based power analyses of realistic pupillometry data

McLaughlin (in development)
The Flower Power project will have two phases: In Phase 1 (current) I am conducting a meta-analysis of typical within- and between-subject variation in pupillometry datasets. In Phase 2, I will be developing an R package that can simulate realistic pupillometry data for power analyses. The focus will be on simulation for Growth Curve Analysis (hence the name, "Flower" Power), but should be helpful for multiple analytic approaches.

The role of familiarity in multi-talker and multi-accent switching costs: A pupillometry investigation

Weiss, McLaughlin, Melguy, & Kapnoula (data collection in progress)
In this project, we aim to determine whether switching costs (such as those observed in McLaughlin et al., 2023; Psychonomic Bulletin and Review) are reduced for highly familiar accents and speakers.

Effects of accent familiarity and rhythmic abilities on cognitive load in L2 listening: An individual differences approach

Wong, McLaughlin, Samuel, & Kapnoula (data collection in progress)
In this project, we will examine whether individual listener differences in receptive and productive rhythmic ability predict cognitive load for accent perception in L2 listening.
Pre-registration

Now Pre-Print

Sandwich Builder: A Gamified Assessment Tool for Language Research

McLaughlin & Samuel (under review)
In this manuscript we examine the validity of a novel “gamified” tool, Sandwich Builder, as an assessment of short-term memory. Sandwich Builder comprises elements common to videogames to measure short-term memory in a way that participants find less aversive than traditional tasks like digit span or free recall. We present evidence of Sandwich Builder’s convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity, as well as test-retest reliability. Additionally, participants exit the Sandwich Builder task in a better mood, less fatigued, and more motivated (compared to classic short-term memory tasks). We conclude that Sandwich Builder is a valid tool for assessment of short-term memory in linguistic and cognitive research of individual differences with measurable advantages over other assessment tools.
Pre-print from PsyArXiv
Funded by a Gorilla & Prolific 2023 Behavioral Research Grant
Learn more about the process of creating Sandwich Builder in this Gorilla webinar!

Exposure to second language accent prompts recalibration of phonemic categories

McLaughlin & Samuel (under review)
We examine how first language (L1) Spanish listeners with varying levels of experience with English recalibrate their phonemic category boundaries following exposure to second language (L2), American English-accented Spanish.
Pre-print from PsyArXiv
Funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship from the European Commission

Working memory supports rapid talker and accent accommodation: An individual differences investigation

McLaughlin, Teuscher, Baese-Berk, & Van Engen (under review)
We investigate how individual listener differences in working memory capacity and attentional control may predict the degree of processing costs incurred by trial-to-trial changes in talker and accent.
Pre-print from PsyArXiv

Sequence effects during speech processing reveal multi-accent processing costs

McLaughlin, Colvett, Bugg, & Van Engen (in revision)
In this project, we aimed examine whether the switching costs observed in McLaughlin et al. (2023, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review) occur when switching between two second language accents. Specifically, we examine across-accent switching costs for Mandarin- and Turkish-accented English.
Pre-print from PsyArXiv

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