David Braze

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David Braze
	Haskins Laboratories 300 George Street, Ste. 900 New Haven, CT 06511 Phone: (203) 865-6163 x241 Fax: (203) 865-8963 Email: braze at haskins yale edu		Research « Views « Outreach « Collaborators « Publications « Manuscripts « Job Seekers «
Senior Scientist, Haskins Laboratories Investigator, Neurobehavioral Mechanisms in Reading Comprehension
Research			top of page «
I am interested in sentence, narrative and discourse comprehension, in the cognitive structures and processes that underlie the human ability to fluidly assemble compositional meaning from more-or-less novel strings of words. So, a central focus of my research is the question of how lexical, grammatical, semantic and pragmatic processes interact with one another to yield the apprehension meaning as encoded in the spoken word. Much of my recent work has examined two issues closely connected to this central theme. One line of research looks at how general linguistic capacities support reading ability. There is, after all, considerable overlap in the mechanisms for comprehension of speech and those that support comprehension of print. However, there seem to be subtle and interesting differences in the relative importance of these mechanisms to each modality. A somewhat startling possibility in this connection is that learning to read may have considerable impact on the organization of the neural structures that support speech comprehension. A second component of my research looks at the bases of individual differences in ability to comprehend speech and print, and the role that experience plays in sentence parsing and in comprehension generally. Aims of this research are, on the one hand, to discover which aspects of language function are relatively more variable across individuals, and which less so and, on the other, to address the logically independent question of which language-related functions are more plastic and which less so. I use a variety of experimental methods to explore these questions. Tracking eye-movements during reading, to get moment-by-moment indicators of processing load, is a technique that has figured prominently in my work for some time. More recently, I have begun to use the method of tracking eye-movements over 'visual worlds' to answer questions about the online comprehension of speech. I also use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at brain-behavior relationships in comprehending spoken and written language.
My View of Linguistics			top of page «
The discipline of linguistics is concerned with characterizing the human capacity for language in both it's psychological and social contexts. A central goal of the linguistic sciences is to provide a theoretical account of the structures, capacities and processes that underlie language acquisition, including features of production and comprehension in each developmental state. This implies that a focus on language in its psychological aspect is primary. However, a complete theory must address language use in real communicative contexts. Moreover, we should be careful to consider language specific capacities within a broader cognitive framework. A fully adequate theory must explain individual variation in linguistic ability, including both 'normal' variation and disordered language.
Community Outreach			top of page «
I am happy to talk about our research to educators in the region. If you are an administrator or teacher at a high school, adult school or community college and you would like to learn more about our work, please contact me. I am available to make a presentation at your facility, to host a visit to Haskins Labs, or for an informal conversation. You can find my contact details at the top of this page.
Collaborators			top of page «
Jessica Grittner Anue Kukona Jim Magnuson Einar Mencl Aaron Schultz Don Shankweiler Whit Tabor Julie Van Dyke
Publications			top of page «
Shankweiler, D. P., Mencl, W. E., Braze, D., Tabor, W., Pugh, K. R., & Fulbright, R. K. (in press). Reading Differences and Brain: Cortical Integration of Speech and Print in Sentence Processing Varies with Reader Skill. Developmental Neuropsychology. [abstract] [request ms] Braze, D., Tabor, W., Shankweiler, D. P., & Mencl, W. E. (2007). Speaking up for Vocabulary: Reading Skill Differences in Young Adults. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 40.3, 226-243. [abstract] [PubMed] [publisher] [Haskins Archive PDF] Braze, D. 2004. Aspectual Inflection, Verb Raising, and Object Fronting in American Sign Language. Lingua, 114.1, 29-58. [PubMed] [publisher] [Haskins Archive PDF] Braze, D., D. Shankweiler, W. Ni, & L. Palumbo. 2002. Readers’ Eye Movements Distinguish Anomalies of Form and Content. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 31.1, 25-44. [PubMed] [publisher] [Haskins Archive PDF] Crain, S., Ni, W., Shankweiler, D. P., Conway, L., & Braze, D. (1996). Meaning, Memory and Modularity. Proceedings of the NELS 26 Sentence Processing Workshop (pp. 27-44). MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 9. Cambridge, MA. [abstract] [Haskins Archive PDF]
Manuscripts and Presentations			top of page «
Braze, D., Shankweiler, D. P., Mencl, W. E., Tabor, W., Constable, R. T. & Fulbright, R. K. (under revision). Sentence Processing by Ear and by Eye: homing in on the heteromodal language brain. Haskins Laboratories. September 20, 2006. [abstract] [PDF] Braze, D., Mencl, W.E., Shankweiler, D.P., Tabor, W. & Schultz, A. (2006, July 6). Skill-Related Differences in the Online Reading Behavior of Young Adults: Evidence from Eye-Movements. Talk given at the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. Vancouver, Canada. [abstract] [PDF] Braze, D., Mencl, W. E., Tabor, W., & Shankweiler, D. P. (2005). Speaking up for Vocabulary: Reading Skill Differences in Young Adults. Talk given at the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. Toronto, Ontario. (See Braze etal., 2007, Journal of Learning Disabilities) Braze, D., Shankweiler, D. P., & Tabor, W. (2004). Individual Differences in Processing Anomalies of Form and Content. Poster presented at the 17th CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. College Park, MD. [PDF] Braze, D. (2003). The Role of Experience in Sentence Acceptability and Sentence Processing. Poster presented at the 16th CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. Boston, MA. [PDF] Braze, D., Ni, W., & Shankweiler, D. P. (2001). The Parser Distinguishes Anomalies of Form and Content. Poster presented at the 14th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. Philadelphia, PA. [PDF]
Jobs			top of page «
Internships: Work and Learn in our Lab There is no better way to learn about cognitive neuroscience, experimental psycholinguistics or literacy research than by doing it. If you are a college or university student looking for a challenging internship we'd like to talk to you. Skills that are valued in our lab range from basic computer literacy (wordprocessor, spreadsheet or slideshow), to programming and scripting (python, matlab, R), to graphic arts (traditional or computer-based), and beyond. But no matter what your background may be, if you are enthusiastic, willing to learn and to contribute, we may be able to find a place for you. Email or call. Paid Positions None available, at present.

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David Braze

Research

My View of Linguistics

Community Outreach

Collaborators

Publications

Manuscripts and Presentations

Jobs

Internships: Work and Learn in our Lab

Paid Positions