Brock Ferguson, PhD Northwestern University Evanston, IL

Transcription

1 Brock Ferguson, PhD Northwestern University Evanston, IL CONTACT Address Swift Hall, 2029 Sheridan Rd., Room 013 Northwestern University, Evanston, IL Phone Website RESEARCH INTERESTS Learning; Language acquisition; Conceptual development; Social-communicative development; Word learning; Speech perception; Statistics; Infancy EDUCATION 2012 present Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, USA) Ph.D. Psychology (Cognitive) Advisor: Sandra R. Waxman Committee members: Casey Lew-Williams (Princeton University), Steven Franconeri (Northwestern University) 2015 Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, USA) Certificate in Business Management for Scientists and Engineers Kellogg School of Management 2012 Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, USA) M.S. Psychology (Cognitive) Advisor: Sandra R. Waxman Thesis: What s in a name? How referential communication facilitates categorization in infancy 2010 University of Ottawa (Ottawa, ON, Canada) B.A. Psychology Magna Cum Laude Advisor: Christopher T. Fennell

2 Thesis: Word-action association in sentential frames at 14-, 17-, and 20-months ADDITIONAL RESEARCH EXPERIENCE Research Assistant, Language Development Lab University of Ottawa Supervisor: Christopher T. Fennell Summer 2009 Volunteer, Infant Studies Centre University of British Columbia Supervisor: Janet F. Werker FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS & AWARDS nd Place, Computational Social Science Summit Datathon ($1000) 2015 SRCD Student Travel Award ($300) 2014 Summer Workshop Travel Grant ($1,000) 2013 Northwestern Graduate Research Grant ($2,475) SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship ($60,000) Teaching Assistant of the Year ($1000) Northwestern University Graduate Fellowship Dean s Honours List, University of Ottawa Academic Scholarship, University of Ottawa PEER-REVIEWED PAPERS Dink, J.W., & Ferguson, B. (in prep.). Introducing eyetrackingr: An R Package for Cleaning, Analyzing, and Visualizing Eye-tracking Data. Ferguson, B. & Waxman, S.R. (in prep.). Forging links to cognition: Novel sounds produced by non-human agents promote 6-month-old infants object categorization. Ferguson, B. & Waxman, S.R. (in prep.). Object identification in infancy: A role for language? Ferguson, B., Franconeri, S. & Waxman, S.R. (submitted). Very young infants (and adults) generalize abstract rules in the visual modality. Ferguson, B., Graf, E., & Waxman, S.R. (submitted). When veps cry: Two-year-olds efficiently learn novel words from linguistic context alone. Perszyk, D.R., Ferguson, B., & Waxman, S.R. (submitted). Maturation constrains the effect of exposure in linking language and thought: Evidence from healthy preterm infants.

3 Ferguson, B., & Lew-Williams, C. (2016). Communicative signals promote abstract rule learning by 7-month-olds. Scientific Reports, 6. Waxman, S.R., Fu, X, Ferguson, B., Geraghty, K., Leddon, E., Liang, J, & Zhao, M (2016). How early is infants attention to objects and actions shaped by culture? New evidence from 24-month-olds raised in the US and China. Frontiers in Cultural Psychology. Ferguson, B., & Waxman, S. R. (2016). What the [beep]? Six-month-olds link novel communicative signals to meaning. Cognition, 146, Ferguson, B., Havy, M., & Waxman, S.R. (2015). The precision of 12-month-old infants link between language and categorization predicts vocabulary size at 12 and 18 months. Frontiers in Psychology, 6:1319. Ferguson, B. & Waxman, S. R. (2015). Visual abstract rule learning by 3- and 4- month-old infants. In R. Dale, C. Jennings, P. Maglio, T. Matlock, D. Noelle, A. Warlaumont, & J. Yoshimi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 37th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. Ferguson, B., Perszyk, D. R., & Waxman, S. R. (2015). Very young infants responses to human and non-human primates vocalizations. Commentary on Ackermann, Hage, & Ziegler (2015) in Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Ferguson, B., & Lew-Williams, C. (2014). Communicative signals promote abstract rule learning by 7-month-olds. In P. Bello, M. Guarini, M. McShane, & B. Scasselati (Eds.), Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. Ferguson, B., Graf, E., & Waxman, S. R. (2014). Infants use known verbs to learn novel nouns: Evidence from 15- and 19-month-olds. Cognition, 131(1), Ferguson, B. & Waxman, S. R. (2013). Communication and categorization: New insights into the relation between speech, labels, and concepts for infants. In M. Knauff, M. Pauen, N. Sebanz, & I. Wachsmuth (Eds.), Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. METHODOLOGICAL SOFTWARE & PAPERS Dink, J. W., & Ferguson, B. (2015). eyetrackingr: An R Package for Eye-tracking Data Analysis. Retrieved from Ferguson, B. (2014). Abstract Rule Learning (ARL) for Matlab. Retrieved from Ferguson, B. (2013). Infant-Controlled Categorization (ICC) for Matlab. Retrieved from

4 Ferguson, B. (2013). Habituation (HAB) for Matlab. Retrieved from Ferguson, B. (2013). Object Representation & Tracking (ORT) for Matlab. Retrieved from CONFERENCE PAPERS AND POSTER PRESENTATIONS Ferguson, B., Abu-Zhaya, R., Lew-Williams, C., & Seidl, A. (2016, May). Can touch promote abstract rule learning from tones by 7-month-old infants? Paper to be presented at the XX Biennial International Conference on Infant Studies, New Orleans, LA, USA. Ferguson, B., & Waxman, S. R. (2016, May). Forging links to meaning: How communicative experience shapes the link between communication and object categorization. Paper to be presented at the XX Biennial International Conference on Infant Studies, New Orleans, LA, USA. Ferguson, B., Havy, M., & Waxman, S. R. (2015, November). Individual differences in the precision of the link between language and categories at 12 months predict present and future vocabulary growth. Paper presented at the 40 th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA, USA. Ferguson, B., & Waxman, S. R. (2015, October). Can 3- and 4-month-old infants learn rules in the visual modality? Poster presented at 9 th Biennial Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Columbus, Ohio, USA. Ferguson, B., & Lew-Williams, C. (2015, June). Infants learn abstract rules most reliably from communicative signals. Poster presented at the 2015 International Conference on Interdisciplinary Advances in Statistical Learning, San Sebastien, Spain. Ferguson, B., & Lew-Williams, C. (2015, March). Infants learn abstract rules from non-speech communicative signals. Paper presented at the 2015 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Ferguson, B., & Waxman, S. R. (2015, March). When veps cry: Two-year-olds efficiently learn words from ambient language. Paper presented at the 2015 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Ferguson, B., & Lew-Williams, C. (2014, November). Communicative status underlies the speech advantage in infants abstract rule learning. Paper presented at the 39 th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA, USA.

5 Schmader, C., Jamrozik, A., Ferguson, B., & W. S. Horton (2014, August). Inferring intimacy from metaphor use: Does metaphor type matter? Poster presented at the 24 th Annual Meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, Chicago, IL, USA. Geraghty, K., Ferguson, B., Fu, X. & Waxman, S.R. (2014, July). When less is more: Evidence from Mandarin-acquiring infants acquisition of transitive verbs. Paper presented at the International Association for Studies in Child Language, Amsterdam. Ferguson, B., & Waxman, S. R. (2014, July). Can non-human agents communicative signals facilitate 6-month-olds object categorization? Poster presented at the Rovereto Workshop on Cognition and Evolution, Rovereto, Italy. Ferguson, B., & Lew-Williams, C. (2014, July). Novel Communicative Signals Facilitate Abstract Rule Learning in 7-month-old Infants. Poster presented at the XIX Biennial International Conference on Infant Studies, Berlin, Germany. Ferguson, B., & Waxman, S. R. (2014, July). Meaning in Context: How Do Infants Use Known Verbs to Learn Novel Nouns? Poster presented at the XIX Biennial International Conference on Infant Studies, Berlin, Germany. Ferguson, B., & Waxman, S. R. (2013, November). What the [beep]? Infants accept non-speech communicative signals as object labels. Poster presented at the 38 th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA, USA. Ferguson, B., & Waxman, S. R. (2013, July). Communication and categorization: How do labels facilitate categorization at 6 months? Poster presented at the 35 th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Berlin, Germany. Graf, E., Ferguson, B., & Waxman, S. R. (2013, May). Known verbs facilitate novel noun reference resolution in 20-month-olds. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, Seattle, WA, USA. Ferguson, B., & Waxman, S. R. (2013, January). Novel human communicative signals facilitate categorization in infants. Poster presented at the Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development 2013, Budapest, Hungary. Graf, E., Ferguson, B., & Waxman, S. R. (2013, January). Known verbs facilitate novel noun reference resolution in 20-month-olds. Poster presented at the Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development 2013, Budapest, Hungary. Ferguson, B. (2010). Word-action association in sentential frames at 14-, 17-, and 20-months. Proceedings of the 40th Annual Ontario Psychology Undergraduate Thesis Conference (p. 8). Windsor, ON: University of Windsor.

6 INVITED TALKS AND WORKSHOPS Northwestern University, Analyzing and Visualizing Time Series Data in R, July 1-2, Workshop leader. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Computational Social Science Summit Datathon, Social Deviance and Crime, May 15-16, Won 2 nd place for our project, Deviance, Crime, and Communities in Chicago with Jacob Dink and Jacob Zweig. University of Ottawa, Linear models, mixed-effects models, and growth curve analyses in R, December 9, Invited workshop leader. GUEST LECTURES 2014 Language Development in Developmental Psychology PSYCH How to Make a Scientific Poster in Honours Thesis PSYCH What do infants know? And how do we know this? in Theory of Knowledge (St. John s, Vancouver, BC) 2013 Communication & Cognition in Nature & Nurture PSYC (University of Chicago) 2012 The Evolution of Language in Behavior Genetics & Evolutionary Psychology PSYCH314 TEACHING EXPERIENCE 2014 TA, Developmental Psychology PSYCH TA, Psychology Honours Thesis Seminar TA, Psychology Honours Thesis Seminar Spring 2012 TA, Personality Psychology PSYCH215 Winter 2012 TA, Behavior Genetics & Evolutionary Psychology PSYCH314 PEER REVIEW (AD-HOC) Child Development Psychological Science Journal of Experimental Child Psychology Cognitive Science Society

7 PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES Member of the Cognitive Science Society Member of the International Society for Infant Studies Member of Society for Research in Child Development Member of the Cognitive Development Society Member of the American Psychological Association PRESS November 2 nd, 2015 Northwestern University What the beep? Infants link new communicative signals to meaning September 8 th, 2015 Chicago Tribune Is your technology hurting your child s development? August 31 st, 2015 Northwestern University Northwestern researchers find predictor of child vocabulary April 1 st, 2014 Popular Science s KinderLab Can you verb me now? April 1 st, 2014 Futurity Toddlers build on what they know to learn new words March 10 th, 2014 Scientific American Infants use known verbs to learn novel nouns March 7 th, 2014 Science Daily Infants using known verbs to learn novel nouns: Before infants begin to talk in sentences, they are paying careful attention to conversations March 7 th, 2014 Northwestern University Infants using known verbs to learn novel nouns