Anne-Kathrin Mahlke

I hold both a B.Sc. in Cognitive Science from the University of Tübingen, and a B.A. in Speech and Language Therapy from the University of Cologne, followed by an M.Sc. in Teaching and Research Logopaedics from RWTH Aachen University. Throughout my studies, I worked as a research assistant in various research groups, contributing to projects on semantic language processing, mental model formation, and pragmatic abilities in individuals with traumatic brain injury.

My thesis projects reflect the breadth of my interests: In Tübingen, I investigated semantic and phonological processing of time-compressed speech. In Cologne, I focused on developing a new test for verbal memory. During my master’s degree, I completed a research internship in the Infant Laguage and Cognition group at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL) in Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain. The results of that internship formed the basis of my master’s thesis on mon- and bilingual infants’ processing of native and non-native languages, focussing specifically on neural oscillations.

Alongside my academic research, I gained clinical experience as a speech and language therapist, focusing on children with developmental language disorder. I also taught university courses on grammatical disorders in children for future special education teachers.

Currently, I bring my interdisciplinary perspective to my PhD project on the role of curiosity in infants’ language development, where I investigate what makes infants and young children curious, and how that influences their language development.

The role of curiosity in infants’ and young children’s word learning

To This project investigates the factors that induce curiosity in infants and young children, and how they influence language development. To that end, we are investigating how different environmental and internal factors – such as the register and content of parents’ speech, infants’ previous vocabulary knowledge, or different object properties – interact with infants’ exploratory behaviour, attention allocation, and learning outcomes. To gain a deep understanding of infants’ curious behaviour, we use a wide array of methods, from EEG and eye-tracking to behavioural measures and interaction analysis.

I am curious about the active role that children play in their own development, especially in language acquisition. To me, this is an exciting aspect when exploring the cognitive and social aspects underlying normal language development, but also a potentially important factor in developmental language disorders. My long-term goal is to bring findings from cognitive developmental research into clinical research and practice, in order to develop and provide optimal care to infants and children suffering from language disorders and delays.

• o Quinting, J., Stenneken, P., Mahlke, A., de Beer, C., Hogrefe, K., Hussmann, K., Baumgaertner, A., MacDonald, S., & Jonas, K. (2022), Measuring Verbal Reasoning and Executive Strategies in German Speaking People with Cognitive-Communication Disorders: Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Pilot Testing of the FAVRES-DE. Aphasiology, 1-23
• Rubi-Fessen, I., Jonas, K., Hüsgen, A., Gerhards, L., Rosenkranz, A., Stenneken, P., Mahlke, A., Quinting, J. (2022), Characteristics of language and communication after subcortical lesions in the left and right hemisphere. [Research Poster 2184132]. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 103(12). e112-e113
• o Papenmeier, F., Boss, A., & Mahlke, A. (2019), Action goal changes caused by agents and patients both induce global updating of event models. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 45 (8), 1441-1454

• October 2023 - Cutting Gardens EEG and MEG methods multi-hub meeting, Donostia Garden, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
• August 2022 - Speech Language Pathology Summer School (SLP-SS), University of Turku, Turku, Finland