Professor Usha Goswami
Position/Status
Professor of Education
Director, Centre for Neuroscience in Education
Fellow, St John's College, Cambridge
E-mail Address: ucg10@cam.ac.uk
Phone: 01223 767635
Qualifications
B.A. (Hons) in Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford
P.G.C.E. University of London in Primary Education
D. Phil. in Developmental Psychology, University of Oxford
Membership of Professional Bodies/Associations
Society for Research in Child Development
Experimental Psychology Society
British Psychology Society
British Neuropsychology Society
Society for the Scientific Study of Reading
Reading Hall of Fame, International Reading Association
Profile
Usha Goswami is Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. In 2005, she became Director of the Centre for Neuroscience in Education.
Prior to moving to Cambridge in January 2003, she was Professor of Cognitive Developmental Psychology at the Institute of Child Health, University College London. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in 1987, her topic was reading and spelling by analogy. Her research has covered the relations between phonology and reading, with special reference to rhyme and analogy in reading acquisition, and rhyme processing in dyslexic and deaf children's reading. A major focus of the research is cross-linguistic with projects including cross-language studies of the impact of deficits in auditory temporal processing on reading development and developmental dyslexia, neuroimaging studies of the neural networks underpinning reading in good and poor deaf adult readers, studies of reading development and its precursors in deaf children with cochlear implants, and a set of projects based around lexical statistics, investigating the impact of 'neighbourhood relations' (similarity relations such as rhyme) in phonological and orthographic processing in different languages.
Usha Goswami has received a number of career awards, including the British Psychology Society Spearman Medal (awarded for early career research excellence), the Norman Geschwind-Rodin Prize (a Swedish award for research excellence in the field of dyslexia), and Fellowships from the National Academy of Education (USA) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany). She advised on the National Curriculum and the National Literacy Project, and was one of the three UK members of the Managing Committee of the European Concerted Action on Learning Disorders as a Barrier to Human Development (COST-A8). She is a member of the Neurosciences and Mental Health Board of the Medical Research Council, and of the Cross Board Group of the Medical Research Council. She is Associate Editor of Developmental Science, and is on the editorial boards of Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Reading and Writing, Reading Research Quarterly, Dyslexia, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Cognitive Development. From 2001-2005 she was Editor of Applied Psycholinguistics.
Academic Area/Links
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience and Education
Research Topics
- Cognitive development
- Reading development
- Dyslexia
- Spelling development
- Reasoning by analogy
- Neuroscience in Education
Research Projects
Rhythmic Perception, Music and Language: A New Theoretical Framework for Understanding and Remediating Specific Language Impairment
April 2010 - December 2012, The Nuffield Foundation (£148k)
Dyslexia: A new theoretical framework: Rhythm perception, music and language
October 2009 - October 2011, Leverhulme Trust (£91k)
Auditory Processing in Dyslexic Children: Behavioural and Neural Investigations
(With Dénes Szücs as co-PI)
April 2005 - March 2009 Medical Research Council (£930k)
This is a longitudinal project following the auditory processing, language and reading abilities of dyslexic children from the ages of 7 - 11 years. Brain measurements of auditory perception will be taken each year, to explore the link between rhythm perception and literacy at the neural level.
Researchers: Dr Martina Huss; Dr Tim Fosker
Humans, The Analogy-Making Species
(With co-PIs from 7 EU member states, as a STREP project)
October 2006 - July 2009 EU Framework VI (£22k)
Completed Research Projects
Linguistic Factors, Phonological & Orthographic Processing in Dyslexia (2000 - 2003)
Economic And Social Research Council
Researcher: Dr Ulla Richardson
This project aimed to provide important information required for a deeper understanding of the factors underlying the development of phonological awareness in dyslexic children and how these factors impact their reading and spelling development.
Phonological Representations in Dyslexic Children (2000 - 2003)
Child Health Research Appeal Trust
Researcher: Jenny Thomson (SLT)
This project examined the factors underlying the development of phonological awareness in dyslexic children, in particular those relating to vocabulary, naming and basic auditory processing.
Exploring the behavioural characteristics and cortical correlates of reading in good and poor congenitally profoundly deaf readers (2001 - 2004)
Wellcome Trust Training Fellowship
Researcher: Dr Mairead Macsweeney
This project aimed to increase understanding of how a small minority of deaf people become skilled readers. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) was used to explore the cortical networks underlying written language processing by good and poor deaf readers and native signers matched on non-linguistic cognitive ability and vocabulary knowledge, along with hearing controls.
Phonological Skills, Vocabulary Development and Reading Development in Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants (2001-2005)
PPP Healthcare Trust
The aims of this project were to understand the factors determining reading development in deaf children with cochlear implants, in particular with respect to age at implantation and general language skills.
Co-Morbidity of Specific Language Impairment & Dyslexia (2003 - 2004)
The Gates Foundation
Researcher: Kathleen Corriveau
The project explored whether the accurate perception of rhythmic aspects of the auditory signal are impaired in children with specific language impairment (SLI), as they appear to be in dyslexic children, and whether such impairments can explain the co-morbidity of SLI and dyslexia.
Auditory Processing Skills, Phonological Awareness and Literacy Development in Monolingual and Bilingual Swedish Children
November 2003 - October 2005 EU Framework 6 Marie Curie Fellowship
(Intra-European Fellowship for Dr Louise Miller-Guron)
This project explored whether basic auditory processing abilities in children, specifically those concerned with tracking the rhythms of speech, can predict literacy development in Swedish. It also compares bilingual (Swedish-English) children with monolingual Swedish children.
Rhythmic Timing and Dyslexia: A Causal Connection?
June 2004 - September 2007 Economic & Social Research Council
Researcher: Dr Jennifer Thomson
This project explored in greater depth why basic auditory processing abilities in children, specifically those concerned with tracking the rhythms of speech, are impaired in dyslexia.
Course Involvement
PhD supervision
MPhil lecturing
Undergraduate Course lectures
Publications
Books:
Goswami, U. (2008). Cognitive Development: The Learning Brain. Psychology Press, Taylor & Francis.
Goswami, U. (2006). Cognitive Development: Critical Concepts in Psychology. London: Routledge.
Goswami, U. (2002 & 2004). Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development. Oxford: Blackwell.
Articles (a selection) - see also "Publications" on the CNE webpage for a more comprehensive list
Goswami, U (2009). Mind, brain, and literacy: biomarkers as usable knowledge for education. Mind, Brain, and Education, 3, 3, 176-184.
Thomson, J., Baldweg, T., & Goswami, U. (2009). The ERP signature of sound rise time changes. Brain Research.
Beddington, J., Cooper, C.L., Field, J., Goswami, U., Huppert, F.A., Jenkins, R., Jones, H.S., Kirkwood, T.B.L., Sahakian, B.J. & Thomas, S.M. (2008). The mental wealth of nations. Nature, 455, 1057-1060.
Goswami, U. (2008). Foresight Mental Capital and Wellbeing Project. Learning difficulties: Future challenges. The Government Office for Science, London.
Goswami, U. (2008). Analogy and the brain: A new perspective on relational primacy. Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 31, 387-8.
Goswami, U. (2008). Reading, complexity and the brain. Literacy, 42, 67-74.
Thomson, J. & Goswami, U. (2008). Rhythmic processing in children with developmental dyslexia: Auditory and motor rhythms link to reading and spelling. Journal of Physiology Paris, 102, 120-129.
Green, J.A.K. & Goswami, U. (2008). Synaesthesia and number cognition in children. Cognition, 106, 463-473.
James, D., Rajput, K., Brinton, J. & Goswami, U. (2008). Phonological awareness, vocabulary and word reading in children who use cochlear implants. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 13, 117-137.
Goswami, U. (2008) Child development: Research review for the Byron review on the impact of new technologies on children. Department for Children, Families and Schools.
Goswami, U. & Bryant, P.E. (2007). Children's cognitive development and learning. Research survey for the Esme Fairburn Foundation Primary Review, University of Cambridge.
Szucs, D. & Goswami, U. (2007). Educational Neuroscience: Defining a new discipline for the study of mental representations. Mind, Brain and Education, 1(3), 114-127.
Pasquini, E., Corriveau, K. & Goswami, U. (2007). Auditory processing of amplitude envelope rise time in adults diagnosed with developmental dyslexia. Scientific Studies in Reading, 11, 259-286.
Goswami, U. (2005). Commentary on G. Thierry: The use of event related potentials in the study of early cognitive development. Infant & Child Development, 14, 95-98.
Ziegler, J., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading Acquisition, Developmental Dyslexia, and Skilled Reading Across Languages: A Psycholinguistic Grain Size Theory. Psychological Bulletin, 131 (1), 3-29.
Goswami, U. (2004). Neuroscience, Education and Special Education. British Journal of Special Education.
Richardson, U., Thomson, J., Scott, S.K., & Goswami, U. (2004). Auditory Processing Skills and Phonological Representation in Dyslexic Children. Dyslexia, 10, 215-233.
Muneaux, M., Ziegler, J.C., Truc, C., Thomson, J., & Goswami, U. (2004). Deficits in beat perception and dyslexia: Evidence from French. Neuroreport, 15 (7),1-5 .
Goswami, U. (2004). Neuroscience and Education. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 74, 1-14.
Goswami, U. (2003). How to Beat Dyslexia: The Broadbent Lecture 2003. The Psychologist, 16 (9), 462-465.
Goswami, U. (2003). Why theories about developmental dyslexia require developmental designs. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7, 534-54
De Cara, B., & Goswami, U. (2003). Phonological neighbourhood density effects in a rhyme awareness task in 5-year-old children. Journal of Child Language, 30, 695-710.
Goswami, U., Ziegler, J., Dalton, L., and Schneider, W. (2003). Nonword reading across orthographies: How flexible is the choice of reading units? Applied Psycholinguistics.
Goswami, U. (2002). In the beginning was the rhyme? A reflection on Hulme, Hatcher, Nation, Brown, Adams and Stuart, 2001. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 82, 47-57.
Goswami, U. (2002). Phonology, reading development and dyslexia: A cross-linguistic perspective. Annals of Dyslexia, 52, 1-23.
Goswami, U., Thomson, J., Richardson, U., Stainthorp, R., Hughes, D, Rosen, S. and Scott, S.K. (2002). Amplitude envelope onsets and developmental dyslexia: A new hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 99 (16), 10911-10916.
De Cara, B., and Goswami, U. (2002). Statistical Analysis of Similarity Relations among Spoken Words: Evidence for the Special Status of Rimes in English. Behavioural Research Methods and Instrumentation, 34 (3), 416-423.
Goswami, U. (2001). Cognitive development: No stages please, we're British. British Journal of Psychology, 92, 257-277.
Goswami, U., Ziegler, J., Dalton, L., and Schneider, W. (2001). Pseudohomophone effects and phonological recoding procedures in reading development in English and German. Journal of Memory and Language, 45, 648-664.
Singer-Freeman, K., and Goswami, U. (2001). Does half a pizza equal half a box of chocolates? Proportional matching in an analogy paradigm. Cognitive Development, 16, 811-829.
Goswami, U. (2000). The potential of a neuro-constructivist framework for developmental dyslexia: The abnormal development of phonological representations? Developmental Science, 3 (1), 27 - 29.
Sterne, A., and Goswami, U. (2000). Phonological awareness of syllables, rhymes and phonemes in deaf children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 41 (5), 609-625.
Goswami, U. (2000). Phonological Representations, Reading Development and Dyslexia: Towards a Cross-Linguistic Theoretical Framework. Dyslexia, 6, 133-151.
Goswami, U., and East, M. (2000). Rhyme and analogy in beginning reading: Conceptual and methodological issues. Applied Psycholinguistics, 21, 63-93.
Book Chapters
Goswami, U. (2003). Orthography, phonology and reading development: A cross-linguistic perspective. In M. Joshi (Ed.), Linguistic relativity of orthographic and phonological structures. Dordrecht, NL: Kluwer.
Goswami, U. (2003). Phonology, learning to read and dyslexia: A cross-linguistic analysis. In V. Csepe (Ed.), Dyslexia: Different Brain, Different Behaviour, pp. 1-40. NL: Kluwer Academic.
Goswami, U. (2002). Inductive and Deductive Reasoning. In U. Goswami (Ed.), Blackwell's Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development, pp. 282-302. Oxford: Blackwells.
Goswami, U. (2002). Rhymes, phonemes and learning to read: Interpreting recent research. In M. Cook (Ed.) Perspectives on the Teaching and Learning of Phonics, pp. 41-60. Royston, UK: United Kingdom Reading Association.
Goswami, U. (2002). Developmental Dyslexia in English. In I. Smythe, J. Everatt and R. Salter, International Book of Dyslexia, 2nd Edition. London: Wiley.
Goswami, U. (2002). Cognitive Development. In J.J. Ponzetti (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family Relationships, 2nd Edition. New York: Macmillan Reference USA.
Goswami, U. (2001). Developmental Dyslexia. In N.J. Smelser, and P.B. Baltes, (Eds) International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioural Science: Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience, pp. 3918-3921. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.
Goswami, U. (2001). Analogical reasoning in children. In Gentner, D., Holyoak, K. J., and Kokinov, B. N. (Eds.) The analogical mind: Perspectives from cognitive science, pp. 437-470. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Goswami, U. (2001). The 'phonological representations' hypothesis in dyslexia. In G. Schulte-Koerner (Ed.), Legasthenie: erkennen, verstehen, foerdern, pp. 67-74. Bochum: Winkler.
Goswami, U. (2001). Early phonological development and the acquisition of literacy. In S. Neuman and D. Dickinson (Eds), Handbook of Research in Early Literacy for the 21st Century, pp. 111-125. New York: The Guilford Press.
Goswami, U., and De Cara, B. (2000). Lexical representations and development: The emergence of rime processing. In Cutler, A., McQueen, J., and Zondervan, R. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Workshop on Spoken Word Access Processes, Max-Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics, pp. 99-102.
Goswami, U. (2000). Phonological and Lexical Processes. In Barr, R., Kamil, M., Mosenthal, P., and Pearson, D. (2000) Handbook of Reading Research, Volume 3, pp. 251-268.
Goswami, U. (2008). Cognitive Development: The Learning Brain. Psychology Press, Taylor & Francis.