Outputs (24)

Neural signatures of word learning during adult-child interactions (2024)
Journal Article
Mosteller, S., Wijeakumar, S., & Wass, S. (2025). Neural signatures of word learning during adult-child interactions. Imaging Neuroscience, 3, Article 00407. https://doi.org/10.1162/imag_a_00407

Early language acquisition relies on the successful communication of specific word meanings when speaking or encoding labels. Here, we tested for evidence of this communication within the parallel functional neural activation that occurred for adults... Read More about Neural signatures of word learning during adult-child interactions.

Assessing the Effect of Object Locations on Word Learning During Naturalistic Adult-Child Interactions (2024)
Preprint / Working Paper
Mosteller, S., Wijeakumar, S., & Wass, S. (2024). Assessing the Effect of Object Locations on Word Learning During Naturalistic Adult-Child Interactions

The aim of this study was to assess previously observed relationships between object locations and early word learning within an ecologically valid design. Adults labelled objects during openly structured interactions with their child. Fine-grained d... Read More about Assessing the Effect of Object Locations on Word Learning During Naturalistic Adult-Child Interactions.

Caregiver executive functions are associated with infant visual working memory (2024)
Journal Article
Amaireh, G., Caes, L., Theyer, A., Davidson, C., & Wijeakumar, S. (2024). Caregiver executive functions are associated with infant visual working memory. Infant and Child Development, 33(6), Article e2543. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2543

Caregiver executive functions (EFs) play an integral role in shaping cognitive development. Here, we investigated how caregiver EF abilities (86 caregivers; Mage = 33.4 years, SD = 4.5) was associated with visual working memory (VWM) in infants (86 i... Read More about Caregiver executive functions are associated with infant visual working memory.

Caregiver executive functions are associated with infant visual working memory (2024)
Journal Article
Amaireh, G., Caes, L., Theyer, A., Davidson, C., & Wijeakumar, S. (2024). Caregiver executive functions are associated with infant visual working memory. Infant and Child Development, 33(6), Article e2543. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2543

Caregiver executive functions (EFs) play an integral role in shaping cognitive development. Here, we investigated how caregiver EF abilities (86 caregivers; mean age = 33.4 years, SD = 4.5) was associated with visual working memory (VWM) in infants (... Read More about Caregiver executive functions are associated with infant visual working memory.

The impact of caregiver inhibitory control on infant visual working memory (2024)
Journal Article
Davidson, C., Theyer, A., Amaireh, G., & Wijeakumar, S. (2024). The impact of caregiver inhibitory control on infant visual working memory. Infant Behavior and Development, 74, Article 101921. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2023.101921

Visual working memory (VWM) emerges in the first year of life and has far-reaching implications for academic and later life outcomes. Given that caregivers play a significant role in shaping cognitive function in children, it is important to understa... Read More about The impact of caregiver inhibitory control on infant visual working memory.

Stunting in infancy is associated with atypical activation of working memory and attention networks (2023)
Journal Article
Wijeakumar, S., Forbes, S. H., Magnotta, V. A., Deoni, S., Jackson, K., Singh, V. P., Tiwari, M., Kumar, A., & Spencer, J. P. (2023). Stunting in infancy is associated with atypical activation of working memory and attention networks. Nature Human Behaviour, 7(12), 2199–2211. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01725-3

AbstractStunting is associated with poor long-term cognitive, academic and economic outcomes, yet the mechanisms through which stunting impacts cognition in early development remain unknown. In a first-ever neuroimaging study conducted on infants fro... Read More about Stunting in infancy is associated with atypical activation of working memory and attention networks.

Home enrichment is associated with visual working memory function in preschoolers (2023)
Journal Article
Davidson, C., Caes, L., Shing, Y. L., McKay, C., Rafetseder, E., & Wijeakumar, S. (2024). Home enrichment is associated with visual working memory function in preschoolers. Mind, Brain, and Education, 18(1), 72-84. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12383

Home enrichment plays an important role in shaping children's development. In the current study, we inquired whether home enrichment was associated with pre-schoolers' visual working memory (VWM) function, a critical cognitive system necessary for ma... Read More about Home enrichment is associated with visual working memory function in preschoolers.

The first year in formal schooling improves working memory and academic abilities (2023)
Journal Article
Davidson, C., Shing, Y. L., McKay, C., Rafetseder, E., & Wijeakumar, S. (2023). The first year in formal schooling improves working memory and academic abilities. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 60, Article 101205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101205

Neurocognition and academic abilities during the period of 4 and 7 years of age are impacted by both the transition from kindergarten to primary school and age-related developmental processes. Here, we used a school cut-off design to tease apart the... Read More about The first year in formal schooling improves working memory and academic abilities.

Disentangling age and schooling effects on inhibitory control development: An fNIRS investigation (2021)
Journal Article
McKay, C., Wijeakumar, S., Rafetseder, E., & Shing, Y. L. (2022). Disentangling age and schooling effects on inhibitory control development: An fNIRS investigation. Developmental Science, 25(5), Article e13205. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13205

Children show marked improvements in executive functioning (EF) between 4 and 7years of age. In many societies, this time period coincides with the start of formal school education, in which children are required to follow rules in a structured envir... Read More about Disentangling age and schooling effects on inhibitory control development: An fNIRS investigation.

Frontotemporal activation differs between perception of simulated cochlear implant speech and speech in background noise: An image-based fNIRS study (2021)
Journal Article
Defenderfer, J., Forbes, S., Wijeakumar, S., Hedrick, M., Plyler, P., & Buss, A. T. (2021). Frontotemporal activation differs between perception of simulated cochlear implant speech and speech in background noise: An image-based fNIRS study. NeuroImage, 240, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118385

In this study we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate neural responses in normal-hearing adults as a function of speech recognition accuracy, intelligibility of the speech stimulus, and the manner in which speech is disto... Read More about Frontotemporal activation differs between perception of simulated cochlear implant speech and speech in background noise: An image-based fNIRS study.