Donald Shankweiler

Professor Emeritus

Psychological Sciences

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Education

Ph.D., 1960, University of Iowa

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Research Interests

• Language, speech and the brain
• Reading and brain Reading acquisition

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Research Synopsis

My research focuses on developmental problems of speech and reading and their neural bases. I am a member of the group at Haskins Laboratories and UConn that is exploiting functional neuroimaging tools to study how patterns of brain activity are molded by experience with spoken and written language. The group is also studying eye movements in reading connected material to investigate the temporal course of reading and comprehending text in real time by readers at various levels of skill. Earlier, my research investigated the nature of cerebral hemispheric specialization for speech and other cognitive functions based on studies of brain-damaged and neurologically intact persons.

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Teaching

• Now retired from teaching

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Publications

Recent

Fowler, C.A., Shankweiler, D., & Studdert-Kennedy, M. (2016). Perception of the speech code revisited: Speech is alphabetic after all. Psychological Review, 132, 125-150.

Shankweiler, D. & Fowler, C.A. (2015). Seeking a reading machine for the blind and discovering the speech code. History of Psychology, 18, 78-99.

Representative

Van Dyke, J. & Shankweiler, D. (2013). From verbal efficiency theory to lexical quality: The role of memory processes in reading comprehension. In M. A. Britt, S. R. Goldman, & J.-F. Rouet (Eds.) Reading: From words to multiple texts. New York: Routledge.

Shankweiler, D., 2012. Reading and phonological processing. In V. S. Ramachandran (Ed.). Encyclopedia of human behavior, vol. 3, pp. 249-256. New York: Academic Press.

Shankweiler, D., Conway Palumbo, L, Fulbright, R.K., Mencl, W.E., et al. (2010). Testing the limits of language production in long-term survivors of stroke: A psycholinguistic and anatomic study. Aphasiology, 24, 1455-1485.

Shankweiler, D. Braze, E., Mencl, E., Tabor, W., Pugh, K., & Fulbright, R. (2008). Reading differences and brain: Cortical integration of speech and print in sentence process. Developmental Neuropsychology, 33, 745-776.

D. Shankweiler C.V.

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Professional Activities

• Editorial boards formerly served: Journal of Applied Psycholinguistics, Cortex, Reading Research Quarterly.
• Former chair of Graduate Committee, Department of Psychology, UConn
• Member of Haskins Laboratories Board of Directors from 2004.

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Additional Information

Invited Lectures

• Norman Geschwind Memorial Lecture, Annual meeting of the International Dyslexia Association, 2012.
• Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award (shared with A.M. Liberman), Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, 1998.

Dr. Shankweiler’s research was funded for 45 years by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development