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Staff Profile

Dr Jelena Mirkovic

Associate Professor, REF Unit of Assessment Lead

Staff profile image of Jelena Mikovic

My main research area is psychology of language learning and use. I am interested in the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underpin our linguistic abilities, and in particular how language learning and use are supported by domain-general learning and memory mechanisms. To address these questions, I use a range of methods including behavioural studies and computational modeling, in both adults and children.

Qualifications

  • PhD Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
  • MSc Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
  • BSc Psychology, University of Belgrade, Serbia

Further information

Teaching

Undergraduate

  • Biological Bases of Behavior
  • Advanced Topics in Brain and Behavior
  • Cognition
  • Language Development

Postgraduate

  • Psychological Research Methods
  • Child Development
  • MSc Research Paper
  • MRes Thesis
 

 

Research

My main research area is the psychology of language learning and use. I am interested in the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underpin our ability to use language, and specifically how language learning and use are supported by domain-general learning and memory mechanisms. To address these questions, I use a range of methods including behavioural studies and computational modelling, in both adults and children.

Publications

Book

Gaskell, M.G. & Mirković, J. (Eds). (2016). Speech Perception and Spoken Word Recognition. Psychology Press.

Peer-reviewed publications

Mirković, J., Vinals, L., & Gaskell, M. G. (in press). The role of complementary learning systems in learning and consolidation in a quasi-regular domain. Cortex.

Mirković, J., & Altmann, G. T. (2019): Unfolding meaning in context: The dynamics of conceptual similarity. Cognition, 183, 19-43.

Nag, S., Snowling, M. & Mirković, J. (2018): The role of language production mechanisms in sentence repetition in children: Evidence from an inflectionally complex language. Applied Psycholinguistics, 39, 303-325.

Mirković, J., & Gaskell, M. G. (2016). Does sleep improve your grammar? Preferential consolidation of arbitrary components of new linguistic knowledge. PloS One, 11(4), e0152489.

Humphreys, G. F., Mirković, J., & Gennari, S. P. (2016). Similarity-based competition in relative clause production and comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language, 89, 200-221. 

Trenkic, D., Mirković, J., & Altmann, G. T. M. (2014): Real-time grammar processing by native and non-native speakers: Constructions unique to the second language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17, 237-257.

Mirković, J. & MacDonald, M. C. (2013): When singular and plural are both grammatical: Semantic and morphophonological effects in agreement. Journal of Memory and Language, 69, 277-298. 

Gennari, S. P., Mirković, J. & MacDonald, M. C. (2012): Animacy and competition in relative clause production: a cross-linguistic investigation. Cognitive Psychology, 65, 141-176.

Mirković, J., Forrest, S. F. & Gaskell, M. G. (2011): Semantic regularities in grammatical categories: Learning grammatical gender in an artificial language. In L. Carlson, C. Hölscher, & T. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 324-329). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Mirković, J., Seidenberg M. S. & Joanisse, M. F. (2011): Rules vs. statistics: Insights from a highly inflected language. Cognitive Science, 35, 638-681.

Altmann, G. T. M. & Mirković, J. (2009): Incrementality and prediction in human sentence processing. Cognitive Science, 33, 583-609.

Mirković, J., Seidenberg, M. S. & MacDonald, M. C. (2008): Acquisition and representation of grammatical categories: grammatical gender in a connectionist network. In B. C. Love, K. McRae, & V. M. Sloutsky (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1954-1959). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Mirković, J., MacDonald, M. C. & Seidenberg, M. S. (2005): How is gender represented? Evidence from a complex inflectional system. Language and Cognitive Processes, 20, 139-167.