About Me
Hello! I’m a developmental scientist currently working as a lecturer at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. I run research projects with infants, children, and adults using a range of behavioral and neuroscientific methods, and below you can find more details about this work and resulting publications. I’ve been lucky enough to live and work in quite a few different places in Europe, ranging from the big and bulky (Berlin) to the small and seasidey (Morecambe). I’m happy anywhere I can go for interesting walks, make (embarrassingly sloppy) risotto, and drink a beer or two at the weekend. Luckily, the euregio is delivering on all three. If we are interested in the same things, or you want to find out more about my work, don’t hesitate to drop me a line.
Research Statement
I’m interested in the variability inherent in cognitive development during infancy and early childhood. In particular, I explore how shyness, a component of children’s temperament, shapes their attentional and language processing. The behavioural profile of shyness is driven by a physiological reactivity in response to novelty. While we know that shy children generally speak less, my work argues that the relation between shyness and language development runs deeper than a reluctance to respond. Instead, my work demonstrates that the cognitive processes underlying language learning are modulated by the child’s shyness, meaning that shyness could be a profound individual difference in children’s cognitive processing, explaining their reduced language use. By examining these relations, I hope to better illuminate the mechanisms of early cognitive development of all children, by taking into account important individual differences in their biological and neurological functioning.
Academic Positions
DFG-funded research unit “Crossing the Borders.”
Education
Title of thesis: “Temperament and early word learning: The effect of shyness on referent selection and retention”
- Supervised by Gert Westermann and Katherine Twomey
- Examined by Melissa Allen and Larissa Samuelson
Publications click on title for pdf
click on title for pdf