Prof Carmel Houston-Price Professor of Language & Cognitive Development
School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences Tel:
+44 (0)118 378 7918 c.houston-price@reading.ac.uk |
Professor Carmel Houston-Price Brief Bio As Professor of Language & Cognitive
Development at the University of Reading, my research explores how young
children learn about the world around them (more details below). I recently
spent three years on secondment to the University of Reading Malaysia
(2014-2017), where as Head of Section for Psychology & Clinical Language
Sciences I was responsible for introducing undergraduate and PhD programmes
in psychology. In my role as Academic Director (Research), I was responsible for
putting in place the structures required for research activity to flourish at
the branch campus. Previously, as Director of Teaching & Learning for
Psychology at the University of Reading, I ensured the successful delivery of
the undergraduate psychology programmes by the staff team, and for the ongoing
development of these programmes to enhance the quality of our offering to
students. I have been Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since
2015 and a member of the ESRC Peer Review College since 2009. I have previously held positions as Associate
Professor of Developmental Psychology (2010-1017) and Lecturer in Psychology
(2002-2010) at the University of Reading, and Temporary Lecturer in
Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford (2001-2002). I was awarded
a DPhil in Experimental Psychology by the University of Oxford in 2002, for a
thesis entitled “The acquisition of object
names in explicit and ambiguous referential contexts”. I graduated with a
1st class BSc (Hons) degree in Psychology from Royal Holloway,
University of London, in 1998, and was awarded the Jack Westaway Award for
Academic Excellence and the Experimental Psychology Society’s Undergraduate
Project Prize the same year. Research Interests – Language Development My research in the area of language development
has primarily explored how infants and older children learn the vocabulary of
the language(s) in which they are raised. Specifically, my work asks how children
use information provided by the learning environment to discover the meanings
of words in ambiguous situations. For example, studies using the preferential
looking paradigm have investigated whether infants use the statistical
covariation of words and their referents across situations to work out which
pairings they should learn; whether infants assume that new words must refer
to objects that stand out, rather than to less salient objects; and how
infants use social cues provided by adults versus non-intentional pointers to
determine reference. Fundamentally, I am interested in the origins of the
biases and strategies infants use to work out the meaning of new words. Thus,
my team has explored: whether infants can learn to follow non-intentional ‘gaze
direction’ cues to reference through reinforcement; and the origins of the
‘mutual exclusivity’ bias – the assumption that new words refer to items that
do not yet have labels. This work has shown the important role of linguistic
experience; infants who are raised in monolingual homes, who have much
experience of hearing one label for each object in their environment, demonstrate
the strategy during their second year, while infants who are raised in
bilingual homes do not. The ‘Experience-Driven Model’ described in this chapter
outlines potential environmental origins of the various strategies that
comprise the young word learner’s toolkit. My research with primary-school-aged
children has investigated how listening to stories in the classroom supports
the learning of difficult new vocabulary, and the benefits associated with
simultaneously hearing and reading new words when these are introduced. Current
work is investigating the advantages bilingual and multilingual individuals show
over monolinguals when learning new vocabulary, and how this interacts with
the modality in which words are presented. Other studies have explored how early
language learning skills are related to language outcomes in typically-developing
children and children with Down Syndrome. Research Interests – Development of Food Preferences My research into the development of
food preferences has explored how toddlers’ liking and intake of fruit and
vegetables can be manipulated through exposure techniques. This work has
shown that, alongside repeated exposure to a food’s taste, other types of
sensory exposure can support acceptance of new or disliked foods. For
example, visual familiarisation to foods through picture books increases
toddlers’ interest in looking at the exposed foods, their willingness to
taste them, and their liking and intake of the foods for up to several months
afterwards. Other work, conducted in collaboration with Ella’s Kitchen
(supported by the Technology Strategy Board), has demonstrated that engaging
in sense-based activities with fruit and vegetables in a play setting can
increase acceptance of foods when these are presented at mealtimes. Current projects in this area are
exploring the role of bitter taste sensitivity in the effectiveness of
repeated taste exposure to brassica vegetables, and developing new
interventions to support parents in providing healthy diets for their
children. For access to my publications, please
see my profile on ORCID
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