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Inge-Marie Eigsti

Associate Professor

Department of Psychology
University of Connecticut

860-486-6021
inge-marie.eigsti@uconn.edu
IME_MRI  
  During 2011-2012, Dr. Eigsti will be on sabbatical at the Institute de Neurosciences Cognitives de la Méditerranée (http://www.incm.cnrs-mrs.fr ).

Research interests

My research addresses a fundamental issue in human cognition: how constraints imposed by brain development and core neurocognitive processes impact on more complex aspects of cognition and learning, with an emphasis on language acquisition. As a scientist, I am intrigued by the interaction of language acquisition and brain development. As a clinician, I am motivated by the prospect of understanding the puzzles presented by atypical development and its consequences, and what implications this might have for intervention. Although most research on language acquisition and neurocognitive processes is based on typically developing learners, the study of perturbations in development can often lead to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of growth and change. I use several converging approaches to study these issues, including behavioral paradigms and structural and functional imaging in both atypical and normal populations.

Click here for details regarding current and recent projects, and here to see a current CV. Click here to go to my lab's home page.
 
 

Professional Experience
2011 - present    Associate Professor, Psychology, University of Connecticut (Clinical Division)
2009 - present    Research Scientist, Haskins Laboratories
2004 - 2011    Assistant Professor, Psychology, University of Connecticut
2001 - 2004    Postdoctoral Fellowship, Sackler Institutes for Developmental Psychobiology at Columbia University and Weill Medical College of Cornell University
1993 - 1995    Internship, ATR (Advanced Telecommunications Research Lab) in Kyoto, Japan

Education
2001    University of Rochester. Dual Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and Brain and Cognitive Sciences
2000 - 2001    Internship in Child and Adolescent Psychology;  University of Rochester Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry
2000    M.A. (Clinical Psychology), University of Rochester
1999    M.A. (Brain and Cognitive Sciences), University of Rochester
1993    A.B cum laude (Linguistics), The University of Chicago

 

Teaching

I currently teach two undergraduate courses. Syllabi and course materials are available via HuskyCT:
1. Abnormal Psychology (PSYC 2300)
2. Seminar on Autism and Developmental Disorders (PSYC 3370W)

I also teach two graduate courses
1. Cognitive Assessment (Fall)
2. Language Acquisition in Atypical Populations (Spring, every 2-3 years; co-taught with Letty Naigles)

In addition, undergraduate students participate in research in the lab, often as part of PSYC 3889. If you are interested in joining the lab, please click here for more information.



Awards and Honors

2011 Fulbright Research Scholar Award, “Embodied cognition: Insights from autism
2000  Language Learning Dissertation Award, “Word learning and memory functions in young children with autism"
1999  Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology Dissertation Award, “Word learning and memory functions in autism



Recent publications
(* indicates publications with graduate students)

*Mayo, J., & Eigsti, I.M. (in press). A comparison of statistical learning in school-aged children with high functioning autism and typically developing peers. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Eigsti, I.M.
(in press). Entry: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. In F. R. Volkmar (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. New York: Springer Verlag.

Eigsti, I.M. (in press). Entry: Theories of language development. In F. R. Volkmar (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. New York: Springer Verlag.

Eigsti, I.M., & Magnuson, J.S. (in press). Entry: Psycholinguistics. In F. R. Volkmar (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. New York: Springer Verlag.


*Eigsti, I.M.,
Schuh, J.M., Mencl, E., Schultz, R.T., & Paul, R. (in press). The neural underpinnings of prosody in autism. Child Neuropsychology.

*de Marchena, A., Eigsti, I. M., Worek, A., Ono, K. E., & Snedeker, J. (2011). Mutual exclusivity in autism spectrum disorders: Testing the pragmatic hypothesis. Cognition. 119, 96-113.

Eigsti, I.M. (2011). Executive functions. In D. Fein (Ed.), Neuropsychology of Autism (pp. 185-204). New York: Oxford University Press.

Eigsti, I.M., & Mayo, J. (2011). Implicit learning in ASD. In D. Fein (Ed.), Neuropsychology of Autism (pp. 267-80). New York: Oxford University Press.


*Eigsti, I. M.,
Weitzman, C., Schuh, J. M., de Marchena, A., & Casey, B. J. (2011). Language and cognitive outcomes in internationally adopted children. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 629-646.

*Eigsti, I. M., de Marchena, A. B., Schuh, J. M., & Kelley, E. (2011). Language acquisition in autism spectrum disorders: A developmental review. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 5, 681-691.

*Brynskov, C., & Eigsti, I. M. (2010). Det tidlige sprog hos børn med autisme – en udviklingsmæssigt afgørende faktor [The critical influence of early language abilities in autism on longterm outcomes]. Psyke &  Logos, 31, 443-460.

*de Marchena, A., & Eigsti, I. M. (2010). Conversational gestures in autism spectrum disorders: Asynchrony but not decreased frequency. Autism Research, 3, 311-322.

Fifer, W. P., Byrd, D. L., Kaku, M., Eigsti, I. M., Isler, J. R., Grose-Fifer, J., et al. (2010). Newborn infants learn during sleep. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107, 10320-10323.


*Helt, M. S., Eigsti, I. M., Snyder, P. J., & Fein, D. A. (2010). Contagious yawning in autistic and typical development. Child Development, 81(5), 1620-1631.

Eigsti, I. M.,
& Bennetto, L. (2009). Grammaticality judgments in autism spectrum disorders: Deviance or delay. Journal of Child Language, 19, 1-23.

*Eigsti, I. M., & Schuh, J. M. (2008). Neurobiological underpinnings of language in autism spectrum disorders. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 28, 128-149.

Eigsti, I. M., Bennetto, L., & Dadlani, M. B. (2007). Beyond pragmatics: Morphosyntactic development in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37(6), 1007-1023.

Eigsti, I. M., Zayas, V., Mischel, W., Shoda, Y., Ayduk, O., Dadlani, M. B., Aber, J.L., Casey, B.J. (2006). Predicting cognitive control from preschool to late adolescence and young adulthood. Psychological Science, 17(6), 478-484.

Eigsti, I. M., & Cicchetti, D. (2004). The impact of child maltreatment on expressive syntax at 60 months. Developmental Science, 7(1), 88-102.


      
Directions to the lab   Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab
Department of Psychology
University of Connecticut
263 Bousfield Hall
406 Babbidge Road, Unit 1020
Storrs, CT 06269-1020