Members

Kristine Onishi

Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
McGill University
Stewart Biological Sciences Bldg., 1205 Dr Penfield Avenue #N8/16
tel: 514-398-1725
e-mail: kris.onishi(at)mcgill.ca

Membership Status

Principal Member

Research Themes

Language Acquisition

Areas of Expertise

Language development and processing, cognitive psychology

Current Research Interests

I am interested in how we become competent language users--how we learn the relevant sound and conceptual structures for language and how we map between the two. My research has examined:

  • how infants (and adults) learn about the sound structures of their native language. For example, how do speakers of English learn that "fing" is a more likely word than "ngif"?; and
  • what types of conceptual structures infants possess that enable language learning. For example, do infants understand that other people act on the basis of goals and beliefs.

Selected Publications

  • Onishi, K.H., & Baillargeon, R. (2005). Do 15-month-old infants understand false beliefs? Science, 308, 255-258.
  • Chambers, K.E., Onishi, K.H., & Fisher, C. (2003). Infants learn phonotactic regularities from brief auditory experience. Cognition, 87, B69-B77.
  • Onishi, K.H., Chambers, K.E., & Fisher, C. (2002). Learning phonotactic constraints from brief auditory experience. Cognition,83, B13-B23.
  • Onishi, K.H., & Murphy, G.L. (2002). Discourse model representation of referential and attributive descriptions. Language and Cognitive Processes, 17, 97-123.

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