PhD Supervision

Current PhD student:

Alex Sheehan. 2021-present. Project “Examining bilingualism as a dynamic linguistic experience: insights from brain function”. Funded by an ESRC South East Network for Social Sciences PhD Studentship

Alumni (with links to current academic positions when available):

Dr Jia’en Yee. 2018-2022 . Project: “Effects of Orthographic transparency on brain connectivity, structure and language processing”. Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme

Dr Najla Alrwaita. 2018-2021. Project: “The Effects of Diglossia on Cognition: Evidence from Executive Functions”

Dr Michal Kořenář. 2018-2021 . Project: “Bilingualism sculpts the core of the brain: an investigation of experience-dependent neuroplasticity induced by the variable use of two languages”. Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme

Dr Varun Arunachalam Chandran. 2017-2021. Project : “Investigating the neural correlates of autistic traits using a dimensional approach“. Funded by a Felix Scholarship

Dr Toms Voits. 2017-2020. Project: “Bilingualism as a neuroprotective factor in ageing: Insights from healthy and clinical populations”. Funded by a University of Reading Anniversary PhD studentship

Dr Eleanor Luckock. 2015-2020. Project: “The influence of a multilingual environment on word learning in children and adults”

Dr Vincent DeLuca. 2015-2018. Project: “Bilingualism Effects in Brain Structure and Language Processing: An (f)MRI methodology”. Funded by a University of Reading International PhD studentship

Undergraduate and postgraduate project supervision

2023/2024

MSc dissertations:

Jessica McGUire (tbc)

Emily Dawson

Lauen Hill

2022/2023

2021/2022

MSc dissertations:

Emma Northover: “Does the quantified bilingual experience predict creativity as measures of divergent and convergent thinking?”

Eden Rendell: “Bilingualism and creativity. Does an advantage only occur in thosw who code-switch frequently?”

2020/2021

MSc dissertations:

Pauline Kaplicz: “The effects of bilingualsm on the volumes of the hippocampus and the amygdala in ageing bilinguals”

Lian Hawkins: “Bilingual experience and the ageing brain-An investigation into the effects of frequency of use of a second language on the volumes of the caudate nucleus. globus pallidus and putamen”

Fatima Shab: “Perspective Taking Task-The Effect of Diglossia in Children on Task Accuracy”

Evangelos Nikiforos Kyrmizakis: “The impact of bilingualism and use of the second language in episodic and working memory in older adults”

BSc dissertations:

Sophie Aubrey: “An investigation into the effects of bilingualism on the volume of the thalamus in the ageing brain”

Rachael Scott: “The effects of bilingualism on the structure of the nucleus accumbens in ageing bilinguals”

Anna Czoch: “Effects of the bilingual experience on volumes of amygdalae in older adults”

Nia Lloyd Jones: “The effect of bilignualism on executive function”

Rebecca Rushton: “The effect of bilingualism on executive function using age, duration and frequency of use of a second language as modulating factors”

2019/2020

BSc dissertations:

Queenie Lam & Ho Kwok: “Will the experience and the number of languages spoken affect creativity?”

Rachel Monnin: “The effect of bilingualism on executive functioning with age, frequency and duration of use of a second language as predictors”

Laura Lomax: “Effect of language experience on visuo-spatial cognitive abilities”

MSc dissertations:

Rachel Sanders: “The effects of bilingual experience on executive control”

Alex Sheehan: “The effect of bilingualism on white matter integrity and executive function performance”

Student on research placement:

Sarah Jad (MSc)

2018/2019

MSc dissertations:

James Philip: “An investigation of source code as a second language that restructures the brain. A voxel-based morphometry study”

Ninette O’Mara: “The structural effects of bilingualism on the putamen of lifelong elderly bilinguals: an MRI study”

Sindhu Menon Rajan: “The effects of bilingualism on the volume of caudate nucleus in the healthy ageing brain”

BSc dissertations:

Sheikha Al Hamdani  & Lubna Zulkifli: “Suppression of first language when encounter second language in non-native English speakers”

Tahmina Aktar: “The effects of the degree of bilignualism (or bilingual experiences) on executive functions and attention”

Student on research placement:

Chelsea Sporle (BSc)

2017/2018

MSc dissertation:

Holly Davies: “The comparative effects of bilingualism and trilingualism on grey matter density in language-associated cortex”

BSc dissertations:

Corinne Cheah & Cheryl Gan: “Processing of morphologically complex words in English-Mandarin bilinguals”

Louise Carter & Emma Samson: “The effects of bilingualism during cognitive testing”

Students on research placement:

Einas Alharbi (MSc), Lilia Adamou (BSc)

2016/2017

MSc dissertations:

Deena Husain Saleh Marshad Falah Alomari. “Bilingualism advantage on inhibitory control in Arabic/English bilinguals as compared to English monolinguals in the Global-Local task”

BSc dissertations:

Bethan Taylor & Rachel Willis: “The Cognitive Advantage of Bilingualism on Inhibition in the Global-Local Executive Function Task for Welsh-English and English Individuals.”

Abigail Morley: “The effects of bilingualism and socioeconomic status on perspective-taking abilities”.

Amy Clarke: “Using the NIH Toolbox to investigate cognition in Epilepsy: a case-control design”

Students on research placement:

Nanette Naude (MSc), Cheryl Shu Wern Gan (BSc), Wafa Islam (BSc).

2015/2016

MSc dissertations:

Eleni Konstandopoulou. “Bilingualism: Its effects on brain structure and cognition”. Project funded by a Franklin Grant from the American Philosophical Society.

Candice Harry. “Comparing native English processing of inflection and derivation”

2014/2015

MSc dissertation:

Jennifer Lau. “Investigating the differences between abstract, emotion, and action-related verbs: A transcranial magnetic stimulation study”

BSc dissertations:

Luke Pascoe. “Researching the abstractness of English verbs: A behavioural analysis”

Tiffany Jackson: “Impact of Working Memory Capacity on Syntactic Preferences in Non-Native English Speakers”

Canhan Hua: “The effects of speed on syntactic preferences in native speakers”

Adam Foord: “Hidden Syntactic Dependencies within Language”

Jared Checketts: “Name that object: A psycholinguistic experiment”

2013/2014

BSc dissertations:

Leanne Kirkwoood: “Effects of Regularity and Priming on Inflected Verb Type Forms: An Interaction”

Ishita Chowdhury: “Morphological Processing of Regular and Irregular Past
Tense in L2 learners of English”

Rowena Bicknell: “Is the ERP correlate of familiarity under voluntary control?”

Josh Cable: “Active Suppression of Memory Recollection”

Declan Greenhalgh: “ERP Evidence for Trained Recollection Avoidance”

Ben Steward: “An Event-Related Potential Study of Memory Intrusions”

2012/2013

MSc dissertation:

Elisavet Moschopoulou. “The effects of naturalistic exposure to a second language on the structure of the brain”

Student on placement:

Francesca Allerton (BSc)