People

Alexis K. Black

Principal Investigator

Dr. Black is interested in how babies see, hear, feel – and learn! – about their worlds. She received her Ph.D. in Linguistics and Cognitive Systems from the University of British Columbia in 2018, where she focused on auditory statistical learning across the lifespan. Alexis then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Haskins Laboratories, where she used a technique called neural decoding to study infant and adult EEG and hemodynamic brain signals. When she’s not in the lab, Alexis is probably either spending time outdoors, cuddling with her family, or reading (with a steaming cup of coffee!).

Martin Oberg

Lab Manager

Martin has undergraduate degrees from the University of Washington in Psychology and Linguistics where he studied visual perception with Geoffery Loftus. As a graduate student at UBC Martin studied conversational postural coordination with Eric Vatikiotis-Bateson.

Martin is interested in language acquisition and speech acoustics. When not in the lab, Martin is likely teaching his daughters how to solve a Rubik’s Cube.

Thalia Hernandez-DePaoli

Research Assistant

Thalia is studying Biology in her third year at UBC and hopes to pursue more education within the neuroscience field. She wishes to incorporate aspects of science and psychology in her degree. Her goal is to attend graduate school or medical school after graduation, with plans to help people in a clinical setting one day. She enjoys dancing flamenco, hiking, and travelling in her free time.

Ella Vanderkop-Girard

Research Assistant

Ella is a third-year student at McGill. She’s studying Cognitive Science with a minor in
Linguistics, and she’s hoping to become a speech pathologist. She’s interested in language acquisition, speech disorders, and the gender-related aspects of linguistics. She also loves the outdoors, dancing (badly), doing puzzles, and thrifting.