Elika Bergelson | Scholars@Duke

Elika Bergelson
Crandall Family Assistant Professor

Dr. Bergelson accepts PhD applicants through the Developmental and Cog/CogNeuro areas of P&N and the CNAP program.

In my research, I try to understand the interplay of processes during language acquisition.
In particular, I am interested in how word learning relates to other aspects of learning language (e.g. speech sound acquisition, grammar/morphology learning), and social/cognitive development more broadly (e.g. joint attention processes) in the first few years of life.

I pursue these questions using three main approaches: in-lab measures of early comprehension and production (eye-tracking, looking-time, and in EEG studies in collaboration with the Woldorff lab), and at-home measures of infants' linguistic and social environment (as in the SEEDLingS project).

More recently the lab is branching out to look at a wider range of human populations and at infants who are blind or deaf/heard of hearing.

Office Hours

By appointment.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Crandall Family Assistant Professor, Psychology and Neuroscience, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2020 - 2024
Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Psychology and Neuroscience, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2016
Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences, Section of Surgical Disciplines 2019
Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, University Institutes and Centers 2019

Contact Information

210 Reuben-Cooke Bldg, Durham, NC 27708
Box 90086, Durham, NC 27708
elika.bergelson@duke.edu (919) 660-8753
Bergelson Lab Website

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania 2013
Duke Appointment History
- Assistant Professor in the Program in Linguistics, Linguistics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2018 - 2020
- Scholar in Residence in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Psychology and Neuroscience, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2016
Recognition
In the News
- JUL 23, 2019 Duke Research Blog
  
  Six-Month-Old Baby Brains Are Categorically Brilliant
- NOV 20, 2017
  
  Car, Stroller, Juice: Babies Understand When Words Are Related
Awards & Honors
Research
Selected Grants
- CAREER: Understanding Early Language: Evidence from Blind Infants & Deaf Infants awarded by National Science Foundation 2019 - 2024
- Investigating the role of intra- and inter- talker acoustic variability on word learning in infants awarded by National Institutes of Health 2019 - 2022
- Analyzing Child Language Experiences Around the World (ACLEW) awarded by National Endowment for the Humanities 2017 - 2020
- Mechanisms of Word Learning in Infancy awarded by National Institutes of Health 2014 - 2020
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Academic Articles
  - Cychosz, M., Cristia, A., Bergelson, E., Casillas, M., Baudet, G., Warlaumont, A. S., … Seidl, A. (2021). Vocal development in a large-scale crosslinguistic corpus. Developmental Science, e13090. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13090
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Meylan, S. C., Foushee, R., Bergelson, E., & Levy, R. P. (2021). Child-directed Listening: How Caregiver Inference Enables Children's Early Verbal Communication. Corr, abs/2102.03462.
    Open Access Copy
  - Laing, C., & Bergelson, E. (2020). From babble to words: Infants' early productions match words and objects in their environment. Cognitive Psychology, 122, 101308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2020.101308
    Full Text
  - Bergelson, E. (2020). The Comprehension Boost in Early Word Learning: Older Infants Are Better Learners. Child Development Perspectives, 14(3), 142–149. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12373
    Full Text
  - Sheskin, M., Scott, K., Mills, C. M., Bergelson, E., Bonawitz, E., Spelke, E. S., … Schulz, L. (2020). Online Developmental Science to Foster Innovation, Access, and Impact. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 24(9), 675–678. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2020.06.004
    Full Text
  - Cristia, A., Lavechin, M., Scaff, C., Soderstrom, M., Rowland, C., Räsänen, O., … Bergelson, E. (2020). A thorough evaluation of the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system. Behavior Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-020-01393-5
    Full Text
  - Garrison, H., Baudet, G., Breitfeld, E., Aberman, A., & Bergelson, E. (2020). Familiarity plays a small role in noun comprehension at 12-18 months. Infancy : The Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies, 25(4), 458–477. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12333
    Full Text
  - Cristia, A., Bulgarelli, F., & Bergelson, E. (2020). Accuracy of the Language Environment Analysis System Segmentation and Metrics: A Systematic Review. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research : Jslhr, 63(4), 1093–1105. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_jslhr-19-00017
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Bulgarelli, F., & Bergelson, E. (2020). Look who's talking: A comparison of automated and human-generated speaker tags in naturalistic day-long recordings. Behavior Research Methods, 52(2), 641–653. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-019-01265-7
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Räsänen, O., Seshadri, S., Karadayi, J., Riebling, E., Bunce, J., Cristia, A., … Soderstrom, M. (2019). Automatic word count estimation from daylong child-centered recordings in various language environments using language-independent syllabification of speech. Speech Communication, 113, 63–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2019.08.005
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Moore, C., Dailey, S., Garrison, H., Amatuni, A., & Bergelson, E. (2019). Point, walk, talk: Links between three early milestones, from observation and parental report. Developmental Psychology, 55(8), 1579–1593. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000738
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Bergelson, E., Amatuni, A., Dailey, S., Koorathota, S., & Tor, S. (2019). Day by day, hour by hour: Naturalistic language input to infants. Developmental Science, 22(1), e12715. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12715
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Bergelson, E., Casillas, M., Soderstrom, M., Seidl, A., Warlaumont, A. S., & Amatuni, A. (2019). What Do North American Babies Hear? A large-scale cross-corpus analysis. Developmental Science, 22(1), e12724. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12724
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Laing, C. E., & Bergelson, E. (2019). Mothers' Work Status and 17-month-olds' Productive Vocabulary. Infancy : The Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies, 24(1), 101–109. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12265
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Bergelson, E., & Swingley, D. (2018). Young Infants' Word Comprehension Given An Unfamiliar Talker or Altered Pronunciations. Child Development, 89(5), 1567–1576. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12888
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Bergelson, E., & Aslin, R. N. (2017). Nature and origins of the lexicon in 6-mo-olds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(49), 12916–12921. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1712966114
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Frank, M. C., Bergelson, E., Bergmann, C., Cristia, A., Floccia, C., Gervain, J., … Yurovsky, D. (2017). A Collaborative Approach to Infant Research: Promoting Reproducibility, Best Practices, and Theory-Building. Infancy : The Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies, 22(4), 421–435. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12182
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Bergelson, E., & Aslin, R. (2017). Semantic Specificity in One-Year-Olds' Word Comprehension. Language Learning and Development : The Official Journal of the Society for Language Development, 13(4), 481–501. https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2017.1324308
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - VanDam, M., Warlaumont, A. S., Bergelson, E., Cristia, A., Soderstrom, M., De Palma, P., & MacWhinney, B. (2016). HomeBank: An Online Repository of Daylong Child-Centered Audio Recordings. Seminars in Speech and Language, 37(2), 128–142. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0036-1580745
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Bergelson, E., & Swingley, D. (2015). Early Word Comprehension in Infants: Replication and Extension. Language Learning and Development : The Official Journal of the Society for Language Development, 11(4), 369–380. https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2014.979387
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Bergelson, E., & Swingley, D. (2013). The acquisition of abstract words by young infants. Cognition, 127(3), 391–397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.02.011
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Bergelson, E., & Swingley, D. (2013). Young toddlers' word comprehension is flexible and efficient. Plos One, 8(8), e73359. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0073359
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Bergelson, E., Shvartsman, M., & Idsardi, W. J. (2013). Differences in mismatch responses to vowels and musical intervals: MEG evidence. Plos One, 8(10), e76758. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0076758
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Bergelson, E., & Swingley, D. (2012). At 6-9 months, human infants know the meanings of many common nouns. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(9), 3253–3258. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1113380109
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Bergelson, E., & Idsardi, W. J. (2009). A neurophysiological study into the foundations of tonal harmony. Neuroreport, 20(3), 239–244. https://doi.org/10.1097/wnr.0b013e32831ddebf
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Poeppel, D., & Bergelson, E. (2008). How music speaks to us. Nature, 452(7188), 695–696. https://doi.org/10.1038/452695a
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Bunce, J. P., Soderstrom, M., Bergelson, E., Rosemberg, C. R., Stein, A., alam, F., … Casillas, M. (n.d.). A cross-cultural examination of young children’s everyday language experiences. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/723pr
    Full Text
  - Cristia, A., Bulgarelli, F., & Bergelson, E. (n.d.). Accuracy of the Language Environment Analysis (LENATM) System Segmentation and Metrics: A Systematic Review. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/fhs57
    Full Text
  - Cristia, A., Lavechin, M., Scaff, C., Soderstrom, M., Rowland, C. F., Räsänen, O., … Bergelson, E. (n.d.). A thorough evaluation of the Language Environment Analysis (LENATM) system. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/czbym
    Full Text
  - Dailey, S., & Bergelson, E. (n.d.). Language input to infants of different socioeconomic statuses: A quantitative meta-analysis. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/jvdme
    Full Text
  - Garrison, H., Baudet, G., Breitfeld, E., Aberman, A., & Bergelson, E. (n.d.). Familiarity Plays a Small Role in Noun Comprehension at 12-18 months. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/sz38y
    Full Text
  - Garrison, H., Baudet, G., Breitfeld, E., Aberman, A., & Bergelson, E. (n.d.). Familiarity Plays a Small Role in Noun Comprehension at 12-18 months. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/b3pj6
    Full Text
  - Laing, C., & Bergelson, E. (n.d.). From babble to words: Infants’ early productions match words and objects in their environment. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/wp3n4
    Full Text
  - Soderstrom, M., Casillas, M., Bergelson, E., Rosemberg, C. R., alam, F., Warlaumont, A. S., & Bunce, J. P. (n.d.). Developing A Cross-Cultural Annotation System and MetaCorpus for Studying Infants’ Real World Language Experience. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/bf63y
    Full Text
- Conference Papers
  - Meylan, S. C., Levy, R., & Bergelson, E. (2020). Children's Expressive and Receptive Knowledge of the English Regular Plural. In S. Denison, M. Mack, Y. Xu, & B. C. Armstrong (Eds.), Cogsci. cognitivesciencesociety.org.
  - Bunce, J., Bergelson, E., Warlaumont, A. S., & Casillas, M. (2019). Daylong data: Raw audio to transcript via automated \& manual open-science tools. In A. K. Goel, C. M. Seifert, & C. Freksa (Eds.), Cogsci (pp. 15–16). cognitivesciencesociety.org.
  - Schuller, B. W., Batliner, A., Bergler, C., Pokorny, F. B., Krajewski, J., Cychosz, M., … Schmitt, M. (2019). The INTERSPEECH 2019 computational paralinguistics challenge: Styrian dialects, continuous sleepiness, baby sounds & Orca activity. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, Interspeech (Vol. 2019-September, pp. 2378–2382). https://doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2019-1122
    Full Text
  - Ryanta, N., Bergelson, E., Church, K., Cristia, A., Du, J., Ganapathy, S., … Yu, Z. (2018). Enhancement and analysis of conversational speech: JSALT 2017. In Icassp, Ieee International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing Proceedings (Vol. 2018-April, pp. 5154–5158). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICASSP.2018.8462468
    Full Text
  - Amatuni, A., He, E., & Bergelson, E. (2018). Preserved Structure Across Vector Space Representations. In Corr (Vol. abs/1802.00840).
    Open Access Copy
  - Bergelson, E., Amatuni, A., Casillas, M., Seidl, A., Soderstrom, M., & Warlaumont, A. S. (2017). Description of the Homebank Child/Adult Addressee Corpus (HB-CHAAC). In F. Lacerda (Ed.), Interspeech. ISCA.
  - Casillas, M., Amatuni, A., Seidl, A., Soderstrom, M., Warlaumont, A. S., & Bergelson, E. (2017). What do babies hear? Analyses of child-and adult-directed speech. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, Interspeech (Vol. 2017-August, pp. 2093–2097). https://doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2017-1409
    Full Text
  - Casillas, M., Bergelson, E., Warlaumont, A. S., Cristia, A., Soderstrom, M., VanDam, M., & Sloetjes, H. (2017). A new workflow for semi-Automatized annotations: Tests with long-form naturalistic recordings of childrens language environments. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, Interspeech (Vol. 2017-August, pp. 2098–2102). https://doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2017-1418
    Full Text
  - Laing, C., & Bergelson, E. (2017). More Siblings Means Lower Input Quality in Early Language Development. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. J. Davelaar (Eds.), Cogsci. cognitivesciencesociety.org.
  - Schuller, B., Steidl, S., Batliner, A., Bergelson, E., Krajewski, J., Janott, C., … Zafeiriou, S. (2017). The INTERSPEECH 2017 Computational Paralinguistics Challenge: Addressee, Cold & Snoring. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, Interspeech (Vol. 2017-August, pp. 3442–3446). https://doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2017-43
    Full Text
  - Warlaumont, A. S., VanDam, M., Bergelson, E., & Cristia, A. (2017). Home Bank: A repository for long-form real-world audio recordings of children. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, Interspeech (Vol. 2017-August, pp. 815–816). https://doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2017-2051
    Full Text
  - Bergelson, E. (2016). Workshop on Corpus Collection, (Semi)-Automated Analysis, and Modeling of Large-Scale Naturalistic Language Acquisition Data. In A. Papafragou, D. Grodner, D. Mirman, & J. C. Trueswell (Eds.), Cogsci. cognitivesciencesociety.org.
  - Metze, F., Riebling, E., Warlaumont, A. S., & Bergelson, E. (2016). Virtual machines and containers as a platform for experimentation. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, Interspeech (Vol. 08-12-September-2016, pp. 1603–1607). https://doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2016-997
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Bergelson, E., & Swingley, D. (2013). Social and Environmental Contributors to Infant Word Learning. In M. Knauff, M. Pauen, N. Sebanz, & I. Wachsmuth (Eds.), Cogsci. cognitivesciencesociety.org.
    Open Access Copy
  - Bergelson, E., & Idsardi, W. J. (2009). Structural Biases in Phonology: Infant and Adult Evidence from Artificial Language Learning. In J. Chandlee, M. Franchini, S. Lord, & G. M. Rheiner (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Vols 1 and 2 (pp. 85-+). Boston, MA: CASCADILLA PRESS.
    Link to Item
  - Amatuni, A., & Bergelson, E. (n.d.). Semantic Networks Generated from Early Linguistic Input. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.1101/157701
    Full Text
Teaching & Mentoring
Recent Courses
- NEUROSCI 493: Research Independent Study 1 2021
- NEUROSCI 494: Research Independent Study 2 2021
- PSY 334: Cognitive Development 2021
- NEUROSCI 493: Research Independent Study 1 2020
- PSY 334: Cognitive Development 2020
- PSY 393: Research Independent Study 2020
- PSY 494: Research Independent Study 2020
- LINGUIST 437S: Language Development 2019
- NEUROSCI 493: Research Independent Study 1 2019
- NEUROSCI 494: Research Independent Study 2 2019
- PSY 437S: Language Development 2019
- PSY 493: Research Independent Study 2019
- PSY 737S: Language Development 2019
Advising & Mentoring
- Charlotte Moore (Ph.D. Student, 2016-)
  Shannon Dailey (Ph.D. Student, 2017-)
  Erin Campbell (Ph.D. Student, 2018-)
  
  Catherine Laing (PostDoc, 2016-2017, now faculty at Cardiff)
  Federica Bulgarelli (PostDoc, 2018-)
  Stephan Meylan (Postdoc, jointly mentored with Roger Levy at MIT, 2018-)
  Carla Ferndandez (Postdoc, jointly mentored with Marty Woldorff, 2019-)
  (see bergelsonlab.com for further information on mentees and undergraduate RAs)
Available to mentor:
- PhD
- Undergraduate
Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
Outreach & Engaged Scholarship
- Summer Neuroscience Program Mentor. Summer Neuroscience Program. 2019 2019

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Education, Training, & Certifications

Duke Appointment History

In the News

Awards & Honors

Selected Grants

Selected Publications

Academic Articles

Conference Papers

Recent Courses

Advising & Mentoring

Available to mentor:

Outreach & Engaged Scholarship