The Language Acquisition Lab
- The Lab
- Current Projects
- People
- Funding
- Recent Presentations
- Recent Publications
- Video Archive
- For Parents (under construction)
The Lab
The Language Acquisition Lab provides up-to-date technical support to researchers that wish to work on children's language development. Digital video recording equipment and sound recording equipment are available for data collection and analysis. Our lab also hosts a large toy library, assembled over the years to provide props for the Truth Value Judgment Task and the Elicited Production Task, experimental techniques developed by Dr. Rosalind Thornton and Prof. Stephen Crain.
The Language Acquisition Lab provides a welcoming environment for studies with children aged 18 months and upwards. Also working with different day care centers, a wide range of experiments have taken place in the lab, investigating the details of children's syntactic and semantic knowledge. Some of the results and experimental techniques that we have developed over the years can be found at the Child Language Videos Archive. This archive is a website designed to provide linguists all over the world as well as a more general audience, examples and explanations of different experiments conducted by researchers from the Language Acquisition Lab.
Current Projects 
People
Research Staff
- Professor Stephen Crain works on the acquisition of semantics. His current projects investigate children's acquisition of logical expressions in English, Chinese and Japanese.
- Dr Rosalind Thornton focuses on the acquisition of syntax. Current projects include two-year-old children's acquisition of sentence structure. She is also working on the acquisition of logical expressions in English and Japanese.
- Dr Britta Jensen is trained in syntax and semantics. Current projects include children's acquisition of logical words including universal quantifier 'every' and polarity items such as 'any'.
- Dr Graciela Tesan is the Lab Manager of the KIT-Macquarie Brain Research Laboratory. Current projects include young children's acquisition of syntax and language processing.
PhD Research Students 
- Nobu Akagi is working on the acquisition of focus expressions 'dake' and 'sika-nai' ('only') in Japanese-speaking children. He is also investigating disjunction in English and Japanese.
- Anna Notley is working on the acquisition of English-speaking children's acquisition of 'only'. She is also interested in the disjunction operator 'or' when it is combined with 'before' or with 'every'.
- Yi (Esther) Su is working on the acquisition of Chinese. Her current project investigates the disjunction operator 'huozhe' ('or') in the context of 'mei-ge' ('every'). She is also interested in the role of scalar implicatures.
- Francesco-Alessi Ursini is working on children's acquisition of prepositions and the relationship between language and cognition. He is also working on universal quantification ('every' and 'all').
- Peng Zhou is working on logical expressions in the acquisition of Chinese and English. Current projects investigate the Chinese universal quantifier 'dou' and disjunction in combination with 'before' in Chinese.
Funding
ARC Funding
- ARC Discovery Project Grant (2008 - 2011) "The meaning of 'OR' in logic and human languages". Crain, S., & Thornton, R. ($307,000)
- ARC Linkage-Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities Grant (2006) "A MEG based cognitive neuroscience laboratory" Crain, S., Coltheart, M., Michie, M., Crewther, D.P., Pammer, K., Johnson, B.W. & Mattingley, J.B. ($650,000)
- ARC Linkage Project grant, with Yokogawa Electric Co. as a partner organization (2006 - 2009) "An MEG (brain imaging) system to study cognitive processes in children" (Total grant contribution $970,000) Crain, S., Coltheart, M., Thornton, R., & Kado, H. ($220,000)
- ARC Federation Fellowship (2004 - 2009) "Logic and language: Foundations of cognitive growth." Crain, S. ($1,481,765)
- ARC Large Research Grants Scheme (2001 - 2003) "Linguistic and Cognitive Processes in Children at Risk for Developmental Dyslexia" Crain, S., & Byrne, B. ($90,000)
Macquarie University Funding
- Macquarie University Research Infrastructure Block Grant Scheme (2008) "Acquisition of a Storage Area Network (SAN)." Coltheart, M., Crain, S., Williams, M., Rich, A., Johnson, B., Barnier, A., Nickels, L., McArthur, G., Castles, A., Langdon, R., Palermo, R., Kinoshita, S., & Coltheart, V. ($60,000)
- Macquarie University Research Infrastructure Block Grant Scheme (2008) "64-Channel EEG acquire and analysis system and special MEG-compatable electrode caps and cable system." Rich, A., Williams, M., Johnson, B., Finkbeiner, M., Savage, G., & Crain, S. ($80,000)
- Macquarie University Research Innovation Fund (2007 - 2009) "From the Neuron to the Self: human nature and the new cognitive neurosciences." Sutton, J., Bayne, T., Coltheart, M., Crain, S., Langdon, R., Mackenzie, C., Menzies, P., & Barnier, A. ($250,000)
- Macquarie University Research Centres Scheme (2007 - 2011) "Centre for Language Sciences." Crain, S., Peters, P., Cupples, L., Johnston, T.A., Nickels, L., McMahon, C., & Thornton, R. ($150,000)
- Macquarie University Chair (Research Committee) Discretionary Fund (2007) "Third year logic." Crain, S. ($20,000)
- Macquarie University Research Infrastructure Block Grant Scheme (2007) "MACCS - Brain imaging software." Coltheart, M., Crain, S., & Johnson, B. ($36,310)
- Macquarie University New Staff Grant (2006) "Children's Answers to Questions." Thornton, R. ($17,224)
- Macquarie University Research Infrastructure Block Grant Scheme (2006) "Helium Recovery System for the Macquarie-KIT Brain Research Lab" Crain, S., Coltheart, M., Langdon, R., & McArthur, G. ($80,747)
- Macquarie University External Collaborative Research Grants Scheme (2006) "Investigating Auditory Processing using MEG" Crain, S., Coltheart, M., and Newell, P. ($15,000)
- Macquarie University Visiting Scholars Scheme (2006) "The use of context in language processing: Professor Mark Steedman" Crain, S. ($5,100)
- Macquarie University External Collaborative Research Grant (2006) "Investigating Auditory Processing using MEG." Crain, S., Coltheart, M., & Newall, P. ($15,000)
Department of Education Funding
- Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training Co-operative Research Centres Programme. (2006 - 2012) The HEARing Co-operative Research Centre. Core participants: The University of Melbourne, Cochlear Ltd., Siemens Hearing Instruments Pty Ltd, Australian Hearing, Macquarie University. Crain, S. ($32,550,000)