My research examines human language and memory, focussing on three inter-related themes: (1) the processes whereby new words are learned; (2) the relationship of these processes to short-term and long-term memory systems; and (3) the phonological representations of words. I adopt a multi-disciplinary approach to investigating these issues, attempting to combine experimental, computational, and neuroscientific methodologies.
In recent work, I have focussed particularly on the first and second research themes. A growing body of evidence indicates that human vocabulary learning, nonword repetition, and verbal short-term memory abilities are related in some way (e.g., Baddeley, Gathercole, & Papagno, 1998; Gathercole & Baddeley, 1993). Research in my lab aims to uncover the details of processing mechanisms that could underlie these various abilities (e.g., Gupta & MacWhinney, 1993, 1995; Gupta, 1996a, 1996b; Gupta & MacWhinney, 1997; Gupta, 2003; Gupta, 2005; Gupta, Lipinski, Abbs, & Lin, 2005), and has also attempted to specify the neural correlates of these processes and relationships (e.g., Gupta & MacWhinney, 1997; Gupta, MacWhinney, Feldman, & Sacco, 2003). In addition, based on computational considerations as well as neuropsychological evidence, I have proposed that the process of learning a single new word can be fractionated into components that rely differentially on the two long-term memory systems termed procedural memory and declarative memory (Gupta & Dell, 1999; Gupta & Cohen, 2002; Gupta & Lipinski, 2002). These various lines of research in my lab together lead to a view of how verbal short-term memory, linguistic processes and representations, and procedural and declarative memory systems are yoked together in order to learn new lexical items, and this serves as our general theoretical framework. It is also an important research goal to apply this theoretical framework to characterizing and understanding neuropsychological deficits in lexical processing and memory (e.g., Martin & Gupta, 2004). One such ongoing series of investigations aims to examine these cognitive abilities in adult aphasic populations, and to extend my computational work to provide an account of the patterns of performance in these subjects. Other issues studied in my lab include human statistical learning of syntactic structure in language (e.g., Ludden & Gupta, 2000) and the effects of neighbohood structure on the processing and learning of nonwords (Lipinski & Gupta, 2003; Lambert, Chang, & Gupta, 2003; Lipinski & Gupta, 2005).
Some of my earlier work focussed more on the theme of phonological representation, using neural network simulations to explore how the topology of the perceptual representation system could be shaped through exposure to the linguistic environment in early infancy (Gupta & Mozer, 1993; Gupta, 1994). I have also previously used computational models to examine the relationship between linguistic theory and language processing, in the context of a particular sub-domain of phonology (Gupta & Touretzky, 1991; 1992; 1994).
For more specific information about current research projects and about my lab, visit the Language and Memory Lab on the web.
This page last updated October 24, 2005.