Faculty Profile
Kara Hawthorne (Faculty Member is Retired, or has otherwise left the University)
Assistant Professor of Communication Science and Disorders
Phone Number:
Email: khawthor@olemiss.edu
https://sites.google.com/a/go.olemiss.edu/kara-hawthorne/home
Key Words: Child Language Development, Foreign Accent, Disordered Speech, Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, Music Cognition
Research Description: I am interested in just about anything having to do with how children and adults perceive and process prosody. Prosody is the rhythmic and melodic aspects of speech, and it includes things like stress, intonation, and tone of voice. Many types of speech and language disorders affect prosody, and I am also interested in those populations. Some of the questions I'm currently investigating are listed below, but I'd be happy to discuss any related topics that are of interest to you. (1) How do children and adults process foreign-accented speech? How does this compare to how children and adults process disordered speech? (2) What language skills predict reading ability in individuals with intellectual disabilities? (with Dr. Susan Loveall) (3) How does our ability to interpret linguistic prosody (like word stress) versus emotional prosody (happy or sad voice) change from toddlerhood to old age? (4) Can infants and adults learn the same types of structures in music as they can in language? (5) How do people with cochlear implants understand prosody?
Honors Theses:
Zosel, Alexis P. (2019) Interactions Between Contextual and Phonetic Information in Children's and Adults' Perception of Non-Native Speech (full text)
Fischer, Sarah Elizabeth (2018) Speech Language Pathologists and Prosody: Knowledge and Clinical Practices (full text)
Available Research Projects:
Cochlear Implants
Project Description: People with cochlear implants don't hear pitch information very well. How does this impact their ability to use prosody?
Desired Student Qualifications: Background in communication sciences and disorders, linguistics, or psychology.
Project Timeline: 1 year
Duties of Student Researcher: You will help with designing stimuli and preparing the experiment. You will also test participants and write up your results.
Last Updated on 2016-09-11 14:00:03
Foreign-accented versus disordered speech
Project Description: How do preschoolers and adults understand foreign accented speech, versus speech that is atypical because the speaker has a speech/language disorder?
Desired Student Qualifications: Background in communication sciences and disorders, linguistics, psychology, or second language acquisition.
Project Timeline: 1 year
Duties of Student Researcher: You will help with designing stimuli and preparing the experiment. You will also test participants and write up your results.
Last Updated on 2015-10-01 14:40:38
Integrating linguistic and emotional cues to meaning
Project Description: How does our ability to interpret linguistic prosody (like word stress) versus emotional prosody (happy or sad voice) change from toddlerhood to old age?
Desired Student Qualifications: Background in communication sciences and disorders, linguistics, psychology, or second language acquisition.
Project Timeline: 1 year
Duties of Student Researcher: You will help with designing stimuli and preparing the experiment. You will also test participants and write up your results.
Last Updated on 2015-10-01 14:42:03
Language and literacy
Project Description: What language skills predict reading ability in individuals with intellectual disabilities? (with Dr. Susan Loveall)
Desired Student Qualifications: Background in communication sciences and disorders, linguistics, psychology, or second language acquisition.
Project Timeline: 1 year
Duties of Student Researcher: You will help with designing stimuli and preparing the experiment. You will also test participants and write up your results.
Last Updated on 2015-10-01 14:40:25
Music cognition
Project Description: Can infants and adults learn the same types of structures in music as they can in language?
Desired Student Qualifications: Background in communication sciences and disorders, linguistics, psychology, or music.
Project Timeline: 1 year
Duties of Student Researcher: You will help with designing stimuli and preparing the experiment. You will also test participants and write up your results.
Last Updated on 2015-10-01 14:42:42