Julia Irwin

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., University of Connecticut

Email: irwinj1@southernct.edu

Phone: (203) 392-8804

Research interests:

Language development, communication, speech perception, autism, developmental disability

Research program:

My research program explores the development of communication and language. Within this broad area, my current research focuses on the role of the face in the perception of speech. I use a lifespan approach to examine the development of audiovisual speech perception in typically developing children and adults. Recently, I have begun extending my basic research on typical individuals to assess individual differences in audiovisual speech perception in special populations, including children with autism spectrum disorders, poor readers and stutterers. My work makes use of multiple methodologies, including eye-tracking, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event related potentials (ERP) to assess key factors that underlie perception of seen and heard speech and their spatial and temporal signatures.

Publications:

MANUSCRIPTS SUBMITTED/UNDER REVIEW

Irwin, Brancazio, Tornatore,  & Ross (submitted). Seeing to hear? Patterns of gaze to speaking faces in children with autism spectrum disorders.

Irwin, Moore, Tornatore & Fowler (under review). Promoting Emerging Language and Literacy during storytime. Children and Libraries.

PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES

Mirman, D., Irwin, J.R., Stephen, D. (in press). Eye Movement Dynamics Reveal Systemic Correlates of Development and Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Irwin, J.R., Tornatore, L.A., Brancazio., L & Whalen, D.H. (2011). Can children with autism spectrum disorders "hear" a speaking face? Child    development. DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01619.

Irwin, Mencl, Frost, Chen & Fowler (2011). Functional activation for imitation of seen and heard speech. Journal of Neurolinguistics. doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2011.05.001

Best, C.T., Kroos, C. & Irwin, J.R. (in press). "Now I see what you said: Infant sensitivity to place congruency between audio-only and silent-video presentations of native and nonnative consonants". Interspeech.

Katz, L., Brancazio, L, Irwin, J., Katz, S., Magnuson, J., Scarborough, H. & Whalen, D. (2011) What Lexical Decision and Naming Tell Us About Reading. Reading and Writing. DOI 10.1007/s11145-011-9316-9

Mongillo, E.A., Irwin, J.R., Whalen, D.H., Klaiman, C., Carter, A.S. & Schultz, R.T. (2008). Audiovisual processing in children with and without autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 38,1439-58.

Irwin, J.R. (2007). Auditory and audiovisual speech perception in children with autism spectrum disorders. Acoustics Today, 7-15.

Irwin, J.R., Whalen, D.H., & Fowler, C.A. (2006). A sex difference in visual influence on heard speech. Perception & Psychophysics, 68, 582-592.

Irwin, J.R. (2003). Parent and non-parent perception of the multimodal infant cry.  Infancy, 4, 503-516.

Irwin, J.R., Carter, A.S., & Briggs-Gowan, M. (2003). Reply to Fitzgerald.  Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 42, 1142.

Irwin, J.R., Carter, A.S., & Briggs-Gowan, M.  (2002).  The social-emotional development of late-talking toddlers.  Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 4, 1324-1332.

Horwitz, S.M., Irwin, J.R, Briggs-Gowan, M.J., Heenan, J. B., Mendoza, J. & Carter, A.S. (2003).  Language delay in a community cohort of young children. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 42, 932-940.

Briggs-Gowan, M.J., Carter, A.S., Irwin, J.R., Wachtel, K., & Cicchetti, D. (2004). The Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment: Screening for social-emotional problems and delays in competence.  Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 29, 143-155. 

Research Internship:

Every semester, students can register for Psy 197 (Research Internship) for up to three credits. Psych 197 is a great opportunity to gain first-hand experience in how cognitive psychology research is conducted. Students enrolled in Psych 197 are responsible for running participants in experiments, and get involved in various aspects of the research process, such as organizing data and files, scheduling and cataloging participants, and helping with data analysis.

If you are interested in enrolling in Psych 197, please email me during the registration period or during the add/drop period.

Independent Study/ Undergraduate Honors Thesis / Master's Thesis:

If you have an idea for a Research Study that you would like to conduct that involves language/communication in children or adults, please come see me so we can discuss how to set up an independent study project.

Off-Campus Research Internships and Other Research Opportunities:

Haskins Laboratories and Haskins Laboratories Child Language Studies has many ongoing projects involving several aspects of speech perception, speech production, and reading, including skilled reading, reading acquisition, and reading disability. There are sometimes opportunities for psychology majors to do an internship working with research teams at Haskins, by registering for Psych 463 (Field Practicum in Psychological Research).