Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences

• Lexical development in infants and young children
• Fast mapping in early word learning
• Word comprehension-production gap
• Category knowledge, semantic priming, and naming
• Relationship between speech and gesture

Lisa Gershkoff is an associate professor in the Department of Speech, Hearing and Language Sciences and the Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University, where she directs research in the Baby Language Laboratory. The focus of her research is on the development of language in infants and young children. Studies carried out in her lab are designed to address how children become fast and efficient speakers of language. Of particular interest is the relation between language comprehension and production: how children's understanding and use of words change over time, and why there are gaps between what children know and what they say. Also of interest is gestures' role in speaking, particularly as it relates to difficulties with lexical retrieval. Her research has been funded by grants from both the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health. Dr. Gershkoff teaches courses on child language and research methods.

Gershkoff-Stowe, L. (2017). Cognitive development. In J. Damico & M. Ball (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Human Communication Sciences and Disorders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Chen, C., Gershkoff-Stowe, L., Wu, C., Cheung, H., & Yu, C. (2016). Tracking multiple statistics: Simultaneous learning of object names and categories in English and Mandarin speakers. Cognitive Science, 40(7), 1-25. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cogs.12417/full

Gershkoff-Stowe, L. (2014). The shape bias in word learning. In P. J. Brooks & V. Kemp (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Language Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483346441.n171

Gershkoff-Stowe, L. & Hahn, E. R. (2013). The word comprehension-production gap in children and adults. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 13, 489-509. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2012.11.005

Hahn, E. & Gershkoff-Stowe, L. (2010). Children and adults learn actions for objects more readily than labels Language Learning and Development, 6, 283-308.

Gershkoff-Stowe, L. & Hahn, E. (2007). Fast mapping skills in the developing lexicon. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50(3) ,682-697.