Principal Investigator: dr Marta Marecka

The aim of the project is to investigate how selected individual cognitive abilities influence learning of foreign words, in particular learning the phonological form of foreign words. In three planned studies we examine how auditory perception, phonological skills, phonological short term memory, working memory and cognitive control interact with each other and influence the acquisition of the foreign phonological forms. The project tests four hypotheses:
1) Greater sensitivity to basic auditory cues such as pitch and amplitude rise time facilitates learning novel words of a foreign language.
2) Learners use the information about the phonological system in a particular language to learn novel word forms
3) Cognitive control takes part in learning novel vocabulary in a foreign language
4) Better short-term memory and working memory is connected with better word learning