Janet F. Werker is a researcher in the field of

developmental psychology Developmental psychology is the science, scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult deve ...

. She researches the foundations of monolingual and bilingual infant language acquisition in infants at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

's Infant Studies Centre. Her research has pioneered what are now accepted baselines in the field, showing that language learning begins in early infancy (even before birth) and is shaped by experience across the first year of life. Werker received her

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in psychology at the University of British Columbia in 1982. She is a

Canada Research Chair Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program. Program goals The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada ...

and Killam Professor at the University of British Columbia and is the recipient of the 2015

SSHRC The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC; french: Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada, CRSH) is a Canadian federal research-funding agency that promotes and supports post-secondary research and traini ...

Gold Medal. On 29 December 2017, Werker was named an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

, "for her internationally renowned contributions to our understanding of speech perception and language acquisition in infants." In 2019, she was named one of four recipients of a

William James Fellow Award The William James Fellow Award is an award of the Association for Psychological Science which "honors APS Members for their lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology". The requirement is that "recipient ...

from the

Association for Psychological Science The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in ...

. Most recently, Werker was elected a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

, widely considered to be one of the highest honours a scientist can receive.

Research

Werker uses both behavioural and neuroimaging (particularly NIRS and ERP) methodology to identify maturational milestones that make it possible for children to begin the process of language acquisition. She has investigated how maternal depression and treatment for it can affect timing of language development in children. Directions in future research include identifying whether cultural cues, such as ethnicity, influence bilingual children's ability to keep their two languages distinct, and how watching talking faces, in addition to hearing speech, influences acquisition.

Biography

Werker completed her BA in psychology and social relations at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1974. She then went to the

for graduate work under Richard Tees. She attributes her interest in language acquisition to living in Vancouver, where most children grow up in bilingual households. Werker has been named a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Canada judges to have "made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, as well as in Canadian public life ...

, and a

Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS) is an honor accorded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to distinguished persons who are members of the Association. Fellows are elected ...

, as well as of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

and

Selected publications

*D. Choi, L. Batterink, A. Black, K. Paller and J.F. Werker, "Prelingual infants discover statistical word patterns at similar rates as adults: Evidence from neural entrainment," Psych. Sci., vol. 31, no. 9, pp. 1161–73, 2020. *A.G. Bruderer, D.K. Danielson, P. Kandhadai and J.F. Werker, "Sensorimotor influences on speech perception in infancy," PNAS, vol.112, no. 44, pp. 13531-6, 2015. *J.F. Werker and T.K. Hensch, "Critical Periods in Speech Perception: New Directions," Annu. Rev. Psych., vol. 66, pp. 173–196, 2015. *P. Kandhadai, D.K. Danielson and J.F. Werker, "Culture as a binder for bilingual acquisition," Trends Neurosci. Educ., vol. 3, pp. 24–7, 2014. *W.M. Weikum et al., "Prenatal exposure to antidepressants and depressed maternal mood alter trajectory of infant speech perception," PNAS, vol. 109, no. 2, pp. 17221–7, 2013.

References

External links

UBC Infant Studies Centre
(Janet F. Werker's research laboratory)
Janet F. Werker's Departmental Webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Werker, Janet F. Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Canadian psychologists Canadian women psychologists University of British Columbia alumni Harvard College alumni Academic staff of the University of British Columbia 20th-century Canadian women scientists 21st-century Canadian women scientists Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the Association for Psychological Science Developmental psycholinguists Fellows of the Cognitive Science Society Officers of the Order of Canada Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences