Michelle Peter

Researcher (Alumni)

Organisation:

University of Liverpool

A bit about Michelle Peter

I have always been fascinated by how children manage the tricky business of learning language. In particular, I am interested in learning what factors during the first years of a baby’s life are important for language development.

I completed my undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Liverpool in 2008, and have recently submitted my doctoral thesis, also at the University of Liverpool. Using the structural priming paradigm, my research explored how and when children learn about grammar, with a particular focus on how their experience with verbs influences the language that they produce. My findings have shown that although children seem to have early abstract grammatical knowledge, they also have knowledge about how individual verbs behave (see Peter, Chang, Pine, Blything & Rowland, 2015).

My Role in LuCiD

I was a postdoc researcher on the Language 0-5 Project.

LuCiD publications (25) by Michelle Peter

Monaghan, P., Donnelly, S., Alcock, K., Bidgood, A., Cain, K., Durrant, S., Frost, R. L. A., Jago, L., Peter, M. S., Pine, J. M., Turnbull, H., & Rowland, C. F. (2023). Learning to generalise but not segment an artificial language at 17 months predicts children’s language skills 3 years later. Cognitive Psychology

Durrant, S., Jessop, A., Chang, F., Bidgood, A., Peter, M. S., Pine, J. M. & Rowland, C. F. (2021). Does the understanding of complex dynamic events at 10 months predict vocabulary development? Language and Cognition 13, 66–98.

Samanta, S., Bannard, C., Pine, J. & The Language05 Team (2020). Can automated gesture recognition support the study of child language development? In Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Toronto, ON: Cognitive Science Society.

Frost, R. L. A., Jessop, A., Durrant, S., Peter, M., Bidgood, A. Pine, J., Rowland, C. & Monaghan, P. (2020). Non-adjacent dependency learning in infancy, and its link to language development. Cognitive Psychology, 120, 101291.

Peter, M. S., Durrant, S., Jessop, A., Bidgood, A., Pine, J. M. & Rowland, C. F. (2019). Does speed of processing or vocabulary size predict later language growth in toddlers? Cognitive Psychology, 115, 101238.

Noble, C., Sala, G., Peter, M., Lingwood, J., Rowland, C., Gobet, F. & Pine, J. M. (2019). The impact of shared book reading on children’s language skills: A meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 28, 100290.

Bidgood, A., Cameron-Faulkner, T., Durrant, S., Peter, M., Rowland, C. (2015). Multimodal input and children's gesture and vocabulary growth. Workshop on Extensive and Intensive Recordings of Children's Language Environment (WEIRCLE), Paris, France.

Bidgood, A., Cameron-Faulkner, T., Peter, M., Durrant, S., Rowland, C. (2016). The role of showing and pointing in the vocabulary growth of children aged 8-15 months. International Conference on Infant Studies, New Orleans, USA.

Bidgood, A., McLaughlin, P., Durrant, S., Peter, M., Pine, J., & Rowland, C. (2018). The relationship between oral-motor skills and 2 years, vocabulary production and later articulation skills. Paper presented at the Child Language Symposium, Reading, UK.

Peter, M. (2018). Babies: Their wonderful world. Featured in 2 episodes on BBC 2

Peter, M., Bidgood, A., Durrant, S., Pine, J., Rowland, C. (2018). Investigating the relationship between language processing efficiency, vocabulary, and working memory across development. Paper presented at Child Language Symposium, Reading, UK.

Peter, M., Rowland, C. (2018). Aligning developmental and processing accounts of implicit and statistical learning Topics in Cognitive Science DOI: 10.1111/tops.12396

Frost, R., Rowland, C., Durrant, S., Peter, M., Bidgood, A., Monaghan, P. (2018). Statistical learning in infants, and its relationship with language development: A study of nonadjacent dependency learning. Paper presented at 26th Conference on Architectures and Mechanisms of Language Processing (AMLaP), Berlin, Germany.

Frost, R., Peter, M., Durrant, S., Bidgood, A., Rowland, C., Monaghan, P., Christiansen, M. (2016). How do infants use nonadjacent dependencies during language development? (1) Poster presented at Fifth Implicit Learning Seminar Lancaster, UK.

Durrant, S., Peter, M., Bidgood, A., McLaughlin, P., & Rowland, C. (2017). Executive Function and Language in Typically Developing Toddlers. Paper presented at the International Association for the Study of Child Language, Lyon, France.

Durrant, S., Peter, M., Bidgood, A., Monaghan, P., Frost, R., Bannard, C., Kidd, E., & Rowland, C. (2017). Does variation in infants statistical learning ability predict variation in later vocabulary growth? Lessons learned from the Language 0-5 Project. Paper presented at the European Conference on Developmental Psychology, Utrecht, Holland.

Durrant, S., Rowland, C. F. , Chang, F., Jessop, A., Bidgood, A., Peter, M. (2016). Chasing, causality and goals: Conceptual understanding at 9 months and its relationship to later language use. Paper presented at the XX Biennial International Conference on Infant Studies, New Orleans, LA, USA.

Bidgood, A., Cameron-Faulkner, T., Durrant, S., Peter, M. & Rowland, C.F. (2016). The role of gestures and babble in the vocabulary growth of children aged 8-18 months. Paper presented at the 1st Lancaster Conference on Infant and Child Development, Lancaster, UK.

Bidgood, A., Kirk, E., Durrant, S., Peter, M., Pine, J. & Rowland, C. (2018). Baby sign, mind-mindedness and language development. (1) Poster presented at The 3rd Lancaster Conference on Infant and Early Child Development (LCICD), Lancaster, UK.

Bidgood, A., Kirk, E., Durrant, S., Peter, M., Pine, J. & Rowland, C. (2018). Baby sign, mind-mindedness and language development. Poster presented at the 8th International Society for Gesture Studies Conference, Cape Town, South Africa.

Peter, M. (2015). The role of the verb in the development of syntax: evidence from the structural priming paradigm. PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.

Frost, R. L. A., Peter, M., Durrant, S., Bidgood, A., Rowland, C., Monaghan, P. & Christiansen, M. H. (2016). How do infants use nonadjacent dependencies during language development? Poster presented at the XX Biennial International Conference on Infant Studies, New Orleans, LA, USA.

Frost, R. L. A., Peter, M., Durrant, S., Bidgood, A., Rowland, C., Monaghan, P. & Christiansen, M. H. (2016). How do infants use nonadjacent dependencies during language acquisition? Poster to be presented at the Fifth Implicit Learning Seminar. Lancaster, UK.

Rowland, C. & Peter, M. (2015). Up to speed? Nursery World Magazine, 15 June, 18-20.

Peter, M., Chang, F., Pine, J., Blything, R. and Rowland, C. (2015). When and how do children develop knowledge of verb argument structure? Evidence from verb bias effects in a structural priming task. Journal of Memory and Language, 81, 1-15.

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