kyle e. chambers

gustavus adolphus college
department of psychology
800 west college avenue
saint peter, mn 56082
gmail: kechambers

employment

2008-present, assistant professor, gustavus adolphus college
2007-2008, visiting assistant professor, reed college
2004-2007, postdoctoral fellow, university of rochester

education

2004, PhD, cognitive psychology, university of illinois
2002, MA, cognitive psychology, university of illinois
1998, BA, psychology, oklahoma state university
1998, BA, philosophy, oklahoma state university

research interests


The language processing system is continually in flux, adapting to recent experience, while maintaining the accumulated experience of a lifetime of speaking and listening. My research examines the mechanisms and representations used by the language processing system to accommodate and integrate recent changes in the sound patterns of the linguistic environment.

Specifically, I am interested in the mechanisms that might be used by adults to adjust to new accents and acquire second languages; and how infants might use similar mechanisms to learn the phonology of their native language and begin the process of lexical development.

representative publications

(clicking the publishing date will download a pdf)
Chambers, K. E., Onishi, K. H., & Fisher, C. (in press). A vowel is a vowel: Generalizing newly-learned phonotactic constraints to new contexts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition.

Fisher, C., Church, B., & Chambers, K. E. (2004). Learning to identify spoken words. In D. G. Hall and S. R. Waxman (Eds.) Weaving a lexicon (pp. 3-40). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Chambers, K.E., Onishi, K.H., & Fisher, C. (2003). Infants learn phonotactic regularities from brief auditory experience. Cognition, 87, B69-B77.

Onishi, K. H., Chambers, K. E., & Fisher, C. (2002). Learning phonotactic constraints from brief auditory exposure. Cognition, 83, B13-B23.

Fisher, C., Hunt, C. M., Chambers, K. E., & Church, B. A. (2001). Abstraction and specificity in preschoolers' representations of novel spoken words. Journal of Memory and Language, 45, 665-687.

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recent presentations

Khu, M., Nitka, D., Chambers, K. E., & Onishi, K. H. (2009, April). The effect of phonotactic regularities on infant word learning. Poster presented to the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, CO, US.

Chambers, K. E., Onishi, K. H., Wu, Y., & Lomibao, J. (2007, March). Statistical Learning and word recognition: Nonwords and words mingle. In K. E. Chambers & K. H. Onishi (Chairs), From artificial language learning to normal language processing. Symposium held at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Boston, MA, USA.

Chambers, K. E., Onishi, K. H., Wu, Y., & Lomibao, J. (2006, November). Nonwords and words mingle. Paper presented at the Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA, USA.

Chambers, K. E., Onishi, K. H., Wu, Y., & Lomibao, J. (2006, June). The influence of nonwords on recognizing words. Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Kyoto, Japan.

Chambers, K. E., Onishi, K. H., & Fisher, C. (2005, April). Rule abstraction and speech sound representation in infancy. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of Society for Research in Child Development, Atlanta, GA, USA.

Chambers, K. E., & Onishi, K. H. (2004, November). Generalizing phonotactic regularities across vowel contexts in infancy. Paper presented at the Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA, USA.

Chambers, K. E., Onishi, K. H., & Fisher, C. (2004, May). Constraints on phonotactic learning in infancy. In K. E. Chambers (chair), Distributional learning in phonological development: Generalizations and constraints. Symposium at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Chicago, IL, USA.

Chambers, K. E., Onishi, K. H., & Fisher, C. (2003, November). Going beyond the input: Extending newly learned phonotactic regularities. Paper presented at the Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA, USA.

Chambers, K. E. & Onishi, K. H. (2003, April). Acquisition of complex phonotactic regularities in infancy. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa, FL, USA.

Chambers, K. E. & Onishi, K. H. (2002, November). Generalizing phonotactic regularities. Poster presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Psychonomics Society, Kansas City, MO, USA.

Chambers, K. E., Onishi, K. H., & Fisher, C. (2002, June). Generalizing phonotactic regularities from brief auditory experience. Poster presented at the Eighth Conference on Laboratory Phonology, New Haven, CT, USA.

Chambers, K. E., Onishi, K. H., & Fisher, C. (2002, April). Phonotactic acquisition in infancy. Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Toronto, CAN.

Chambers, K. E., Onishi, K. H., & Fisher, C. (2001, October). The continuity of phonotactic learning. Poster presented to the Cognitive Development Society, Virginia Beach, VA, USA.

Chambers, K. E., & Onishi, K. H. (2001, May). Within-syllable phonotactic learning. Paper presented to the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL, USA.

Chambers, K. E., & Onishi, K. H. (2001, April). Distributional learning of phonotactic constraints. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN, USA.