Contributors
Dr Gwen Brekelmans
Data Manager and ECOLANG Project Manager (2019-2021)
![Profile photo of Dr Gwen Brekelmans](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/sites/pals/files/styles/non_responsive/public/gwenbrekelmans_pic_0.png?itok=TDjyrtS0)
Ricarda Brieke
Research Assistant (2018-2022)
![Profile Ricarda Brieke](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/sites/pals/files/styles/non_responsive/public/ricardabrieke_150.png?itok=f9o0FHe5)
Dr Francesco Cabiddu
![Profile Fancesco Cabiddu](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/sites/pals/files/styles/non_responsive/public/francesco_cabiddu_150x150.png?itok=N-ij5LsW)
Francesco's background is in developmental psychology and language acquisition. His research has focused on studying the domain-general cognitive processes (e.g., learning from associations; drawing analogies) that may underlie infants and children's vocabulary processing and learning in naturalistic settings. Francesco has combined different methodological approaches, including corpus analyses, behavioural evidence from adults and children, and computational modelling.
Dr Ed Donnellan
Research Fellow in Multimodal Communication and ECOLANG Project Manager (2021-2023), Honorary Research Fellow (from 2023)
![Profile Ed Donellan](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/sites/pals/files/styles/non_responsive/public/ed_donnellan.150x150.jpg?itok=SMz-TUKJ)
Ed’s background is in developmental and comparative psychology. His research focuses on multimodal communication in both humans and chimpanzees, factors contributing to early language development (from infancy to 4 years of age) and how information-seeking behaviours (e.g., curiosity) drive learning.
Dr Jason Drummond
Research Associate (2018)
Chris Edwards
![Profile Chris Edwards](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/sites/pals/files/styles/non_responsive/public/chris_edwards_1500x150.png?itok=w5y_h2xA)
Beata Grzyb
Dr Yan Gu
![Profile photo of Dr Yan Gu](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/sites/pals/files/styles/non_responsive/public/yan-gu_0.png?itok=jpI3LxBh)
I obtained my PhD in psycholinguistics at Tilburg University, Netherlands. After being a postdoc and research fellow at the UCL Language and Cognition Lab, I joined the University of Essex in 2022. My research mainly covers two areas, including the perception of time and the impact of language use.
I study language as a multimodal phenomenon (e.g., speech, text, gestures, intonation, gazing), and investigate the impact of using language on different aspects, such as (1) does language shape thought? (2) child-directed language and children's word learning; (3) the effect of immigrants' language proficiency on economic outcomes; (4) and research connecting language use and other fields.
Antonia Jordan-Barros
Research Assistant (from 2022)
![Profile Antonia Jordan Barros](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/sites/pals/files/styles/non_responsive/public/antoniajordanbarros_150x150.jpg?itok=FYH6p6Qv)
From October 2023 onwards, Antonia will pursue a PhD in Neuropsychology at the ToddlerLab at Birkbeck, University of London funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) while continuing to work in the lab part-time.
Dr Yasamin Motamedi
Research Associate (2017-2020)
Dr Margherita Murgiano
Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2019)
Professor Gabriella Vigliocco
ECOLANG Principal Investigator
![Profile Gabriella Vigliocco](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/sites/pals/files/styles/non_responsive/public/gabriella_vigliocco_150x150.jpg?itok=91atRLie)
I lead the Language and Cognition Lab, composed of psychologists, linguists, computer scientists and cognitive neuroscientists sharing the vision that understanding language and cognition requires integration of multiple levels of analysis and methodological approaches. The overarching goal of our work is understanding how language and other aspects of cognitive functioning relate to each other.
The main research focus of my research at present is on understanding natural language. This is funded by grants from ERC and ESRC.
I am also the Director for the Leverhulme Doctoral Training Programme in the Ecological Study of the Brain. The DTP is a 4-year PhD programme providing cutting-edge interdisciplinary training in the study of brain and behaviour in the real-world.
MSc Research Students
Harriet Hill-Payne
![Profile Harriet Hill-Payne](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/sites/pals/files/styles/non_responsive/public/harriet_hill-payne_150x150.png?itok=ZHrK5CJi)
Previously, Harriet worked in the museum sector, most recently as Programmes Manager at The Ruskin – Museum & Research Centre at Lancaster University. She holds a BA and MA in English Literature.
Niki Theofilogiannakou
Yumeng Wang (Marine)
![Profile Yumeng Wang (Marine)](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/sites/pals/files/styles/non_responsive/public/wang_yumengmarine.png?itok=syH_nTME)
Student Interns & Assistants
Jessie Shi, Wellani Xi, Claudia Tsz Yan Chan, Jessica Xuanyi Chen, Anushay Mazhar, Gina Li, Zhuolun Li, Junying Song, Yi Lyu, Yi Wang, Ada Rezaki, Runyi Yao, Ruidi Huang, Mingtong Li, Yunwei Dai, Yunzhi Luo, Shiyu Dong, Nan Chen, Fritz Peters, Dilay Ercelik, Vivien Klein, Zeynep Gokcelik, Camilla Lalli, Hillarie Mann, Giulia Li Calzi, Emir Ӧzder, Xinyun Hu, Kellie Fraser, Yiyang Hou, Niki Theofilogiannakou, Michi Aneez, Dicky Lim, Dora Szegedi, Guoda Trinkunaite