Linguistics: phonetics/laboratory phonology, language acquisition, psycholinguistics

​​​​​My research focuses on the nature and boundaries of phonological categories. 

In both adults and infants, I investigate

1. how and when phonological categories emerge,

2. how detailed, structured, and specific their representations are and

3. how variable and malleable they are in perception and production.

Specific topics include

• speaker-specific variability within/across phonological categories

• the effect of phonetic variability on minimal pair learning

• structured relations between phonetic cues

• phonetic convergence/accommodation and the perception/production link

A variety of behavioural and online experimental measures are used such as

• gaze data from eye-tracking, pupillometry

• acoustic-phonetic analyses of cues

• reaction times

• categorisation and rating tasks

Education

• Ph.D. Linguistics - University of Potsdam, 2023

Structured variability in voicing cue relations - with Prof. Adamantios Gafos & Prof. Natalie Boll-Avetisyan

• M.Sc. Linguistics - University of Potsdam ​(partial)

• M.A. English/German Linguistics & Literature - Ghent University, 2015 - with Prof. Ellen Simon

Simultaneous bilingual phonological acquisition. A longitudinal case study on the voicing contrast of two Dutch-English bilingual siblings​.

• B.A. English/German Literature & Literature - Ghent University, 2014