Skip to main content

Dr Natasha Kirkham (Birkbeck): Development occurs in the middle of things

When: —
Venue: Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street

No booking required

Development occurs in the middle of things.

Abstract: Children's formal learning takes place in dynamic multisensory environments, which can be noisy, distracting and occasionally chaotic. Sometimes the information provided is mutually supportive (e.g., consistent or redundant cues), but at other times it can be de-correlated (independent cues), or even contradictory (conflicting cues). Prior research has shown that multisensory information can sometimes facilitate learning in infants (Bahrick & Lickliter, 2000; Lewkowicz, 2000; Richardson & Kirkham, 2004; Wu & Kirkham, 2010) and adults (e.g., Shams & Seitz, 2008; Frassinetti, Bolognini, & Ladavas, 2002). Consequently, the idea that information received simultaneously from multiple modalities is 'supportive' of learning has been used as the basis for educational programs in literacy and numeracy, dealing with both typically and atypically developing children (Bullock, Pierce, & McClelland, 1989; Carbo, Dunn, & Dunn, 1986; Luchow & Sheppard, 1981; Mount & Cavet, 1995). And yet, beyond its intuitive appeal, there has been no systematic investigation of the effects of multisensory stimuli on school-aged children's basic learning (Barutchu, Crewther, Fifer, Shivdasani, Innes-Brown, Toohey et al., 2011). In this talk, I will present evidence from our latest work looking at the pros and cons of multimodal information in a learning setting.

Biography: Natasha is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck. Previously she was an assistant professor and Stanford University. She got her PhD at Cornell University. She enjoys fine wine and walks on the beach!