Department of Linguistics

Department of Linguistics

     

My general research interest is in understanding the mechanisms that underlie speech perception, and their changes with advancing age and hearing loss. In my research I use psychological, linguistic, and neuroscientific methods to examine various questions related to this topic. I am currently holding a three-year (1/1/2008-31/12/2010) European Research Council postdoctoral fellowship for Future Leaders of Ageing Research in Europe (FLARE) that allows me to explore the effect of linguistic factors, and their age-related changes, on speech perception in adverse listening conditions such as background babble. My previous work includes an investigation of the interaction between hearing processes and memory in young and old adults (PhD Thesis, 2005, University of Toronto, Canada). Moreover, during a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (Cambridge, UK), I investigated the neural correlates of intact and illusory vowel perception and their interaction with attention using fMRI. I have taught Experimental Design & Statistic Analysis courses at various levels to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as an introductory course on Psychology of Aging.

---

Recent Publications

• Heinrich, A. & Schneider, B.A. (in press). Elucidating the Effects of Aging on Remembering Perceptually Distorted Word-Pairs. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (PDF 608KB)
• Heinrich, A. & Brodbeck, J. (2010). Altersbedingte Unterschiede in der Wissenstruktur. In S. Trepte & M. Verbeet (Eds.) Wissenswelten des 21.Jahrhunderts. VS, Hamburg
• Heinrich, A., Schneider, B.A., & Craik, F.I.M. (2008). Investigating the influence of continuous babble on auditory short-term memory performance. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 120(6), 735-751
• Heinrich, A., Carlyon, R.P., Davis, M.H, & Johnsrude, I.S.(2008). The continuity illusion and vowel perception: An fMRI study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20(10), 1-16