Elizabeth Hirshorn
Learning Research and Development CenterRoom 647
3939 O'Hara St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
TEL: 412-624-1538
FAX: 412-624-9149
EMAIL: hirshorn@pitt.edu
After majoring in Cognitive Science and Spanish at Wellesley College, I did research at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania working with Dr. Sharon Thompson-Schill, where I studied executive functioning on semantic and language processing. In graduate school at the University of Rochester I worked with Dr. Daphne Bavelier on research involving the effects of language experience and deafness on reading and memory. I am now a postdoctoral researcher in both the Fiez and Perfetti labs, working on projects exploring alternate routes to literacy.
My broad research interests could simply be described as trying to understand 'non-typical' ways of processing information to reach a common goal. For my graduate research, I studied how profoundly deaf individuals read, given that they 1) do not have access to the phonological information of a spoken language that is so highly linked to reading skill in hearing individuals, and 2) in some cases may not even know English. Despite these clear hurdles and the fact that reading IS difficult for profoundly deaf individuals, some reach high levels of literacy. I found both behavioral and neuroimaging (fMRI and DTI) evidence that those deaf individuals who are native signers of American Sign Language may rely on more semantic routes to literacy than the typical phonological–based routes.
Together with Dr. Fiez and Dr. Perfetti at the LRDC I will be exploring if those with developmental constraints on phonological processing (those with a history of dyslexia) that also reach a high level of literacy do so by similarly relying on semantic information to ultimately achieve high levels of comprehension. I will be examining different levels of processing involved in reading including lexical processing and working memory.Curriculum Vitae
Elizabeth Hirshorn CV