Janet L. McDonald

Professor

Cognitive Area

Office: 223A Audubon Hall
Phone: (225) 578-4116


psmcdo@lsu.edu

TEACHING:

PSYC 4033 Memory and Forgetting

PSYC 4111 Intermediate Statistics

PSYC 7754 Psycholinguistics

HNRS 3033 Psychological Methods

 

MY RESEARCH INTERESTS:

My research is done within the field of psycholinguistics. I am specifically interested in first and second language acquisition, bilingualism, and language comprehension.

Several of my current research projects deal with language learning in adulthood. If you have studied a foreign language in high school or college, you probably have encountered some frustration. Unlike your native language, acquired when you were a child, learning a second language in adulthood seems effortful and difficult. Your ultimate level of mastery in the second language is also likely to be much less than that of native speakers. Why is it that acquiring language after childhood is so difficult? One of the first theories offered to explain this effect is the Critical Period Hypothesis (Lenneberg, 1967). This is a biologically based hypothesis, which states that if exposure to and acquisition of a language does not occur within a maturationally defined time period, native-like language acquisition will not be possible. According to this theory, regardless of amount of exposure or learning situation, adults learners will not be able to master a new language.

However, recently other hypotheses have been offered to explain adults' poorer level of language learning ability. These explanations focus on the disadvantage of having a large memory and processing capacity for the acquisition of language. According to these hypotheses, changes in the learning situation could affect the level of ultimate attainment in adult language learners.

My own work focuses on how limiting adults' processing capacity affects their ability to learn and generalize a new language. Results of several studies teaching adults an unfamiliar language (sign language) indicate that while learning is slower in capacity limited adults, their ability to generalize the language to new situations is superior to adults with no capacity limitations (Cochran, McDonald & Parault, 1999).

Other projects examine grammatical mastery achieved in a second language by speakers who have acquired this language at different ages. While grammatical mastery by young learners shows an influence of their first language, older learners show a general deficit regardless of their native language (McDonald, 2000). Currently my lab is examining other facets of second language processing, including perceptual processing and memory load, which may also be tied to age of second language acquisition.

There are numerous research opportunities in my lab for students who are interested in language acquisition, language comprehension or bilingualism (or who are bilingual themselves!)

 

• Isurin, L. & McDonald, J. L. (2001). Retroactive interference form translation equivalents: Implications for first language forgetting. Memory & Cognition, 29, 312-319.

• McDonald, J. L. (2000). Grammaticality judgments in a second language: Influences of age acquisition and native language. Applied Psycholinguistics, 21, 395-423.

• Cochran, B.P, McDonald, J.L. & Parault, S.J. (1999). Too smart for their own good: The disadvantage of superior processing capacity for adult language learners. Journal of Memory & Language, 41, 30-58.

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