Susan Dunlap University of Pittsburgh
Learning Research and Development Center 3939 O’Hara Street, Room 642 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15260
412-623-9137 (mobile) sud4@pitt.edu
Education:
August 2012 Doctor of Psychology in Cognitive Psychology University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Charles A. Perfetti
“Quality of Orthographic Representations in English as a Second Language”
December 2006 Master of Science in Cognitive Psychology University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Advisor: Dr. Charles A. Perfetti
Thesis: “Incidental Reading of Familiar and Unfamiliar Words: An Event-Related Potential Study of English Monolingual and Chinese-English Bilingual Readers”
June 2002 Bachelor of Arts in Psychology
Graduated Summa Cum Laude University of Denver
Denver, Colorado
Advisor: Dr. Bruce Pennington
Psychology Departmental Honors Thesis: “Does First Language Affect Phonological Processing? A
Comparison of Bilingual Chinese and American English Speaking College Students”
Research Experience:
August 2005-present Graduate Student Researcher
Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center University of Pittsburgh
Co-Directors: Dr. Charles A. Perfetti and Dr. Ken
November 2000-August 2002 Research Assistant
Reading and Language Disorders Project University of Denver, Psychology Department Advisor: Dr. Bruce Pennington
June 1997-June 1998 Research Assistant
The Children’s Hospital, Denver, Colorado Advisor: Dr. Daniel McIntosh
Publications:
Zhou, H., Chen, B., Yang, M., & Dunlap, S. (2010). Language non-selective access to phonological representations: Evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63(10), 2051-2066.
You, W. P., Chen, B. G., & Dunlap, S. (2009). Frequency trajectory effects in Chinese character recognition: Evidence for the arbitrary mapping hypothesis. Cognition, 110, 39-50.
Chen, B. G., Ning, A. H., Bi, H. Y., & Dunlap, S. (2008). Chinese subject-relative clauses are more difficult to process than the object-relative clauses. Acta Psychologica, 129, 61-65.
Perfetti, C. A., & Dunlap, S. (2008). Learning to read: General principles and writing system variations. In K. Koda & A. Zehler (Eds.), Learning to read across languages (pp. 13-38).
New York: Routledge.
Liu, Y., Dunlap, S., Fiez, J., & Perfetti, C. (2007). Evidence for neural accommodation to a writing system following learning. Human Brain Mapping, 28, 1223-1234.
Chen, B. G., Zhou, H. X., Dunlap, S., & Perfetti, C. A. (2007). Age of acquisition effects in reading Chinese: Evidence in favor of the arbitrary mapping hypothesis. British Journal of Psychology, 98, 499-516.
Landi, N., Perfetti, C. A., Bolger, D. J., Dunlap, S., & Foorman, B. R. (2006). The role of discourse context in developing word form representations: A paradoxical relationship between reading and learning. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 94, 114-133.
Manuscripts:
Dunlap, S., Perfetti, C. A., Liu, Y., & Wu, S. (submitted). Learning vocabulary in Chinese as a foreign language: Effects of explicit instruction and semantic cue reliability. Submitted to Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism.
Chen, B., Zhou, H., Gao, Y., & Dunlap, S. (under review). Cross-language masked priming asymmetry with Chinese-English bilinguals: A test of the sense model. Revised and resubmitted to Acta Psychologica.
Bai, L., Chen, B., Ma, T., & Dunlap, S. (under review). Age of acquisition affects the retrieval of grammatical category information. Submitted to the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Chen, B., & Dunlap, S. (submitted). Is word-order similarity necessary for cross-linguistic structural priming? Submitted to Second Language Research.
He, W., Chen, B., & Dunlap, S. (in preparation). Processing difficulty of Chinese relative clauses depends on animacy configuration of the head nouns.
Chen, B., Wang, Z., Jia, Y., & Dunlap, S. (in preparation). Working memory influences the use of verb bias information during second language reading.
Conference Presentations:
Dunlap, S. (2011, March). Did I spell this correctly?: Effects of L1 background and L2
proficiency on study behaviors during English spelling training. Symposium presentation at the 4th annual Inter-Science of Learning Centers Conference, Washington, DC.
Dunlap, S. (2010, May). Spelling in English as a second language: Do students make different types of errors on different types of tasks? Symposium presentation at the 3rd annual Inter- Science of Learning Centers Conference, Boston, Massachusetts.
Dunlap, S., Friedline, B., Juffs, A., & Perfetti, C. A. (2010, March). Using CALL to direct processing focus on spelling and morphology. Invited colloquium at the American Association for Applied Linguistics, Atlanta, Georgia.
Dunlap, S., & Perfetti, C. A. (2009, March). Effects of explicit instruction on Chinese character learning. Poster presented at the Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics, Washington, DC.
Dunlap, S., Friedline, B., Juffs, A., & Perfetti, C. A. (2009, February). Lexical quality of English second language learners: Effects of focused training on orthographic encoding skill. Poster presented at the 2nd annual Inter-Science of Learning Centers Conference, Seattle,
Washington.
Dunlap, S., Liu, Y., Wu, S.-M., & Perfetti, C. A. (2007, April). Rules and exceptions: Strategies for learning vocabulary in Chinese as a second language. Poster presented at the annual
Dunlap, S., Liu, Y., & Perfetti, C. A. (2005, June). Incidental reading in L2, L1, and L0: An ERP study of Chinese and English. Poster presented at the 12th annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Toronto, Canada.
Liu, Y., Dunlap, S., Fiez, J., & Perfetti, C. (2005, June). Learning to read characters: An fMRI study of controlled learning of orthographic, phonological, and semantic constituents. Paper presented at the 12th annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Toronto, Ontario.
Perfetti, C., Liu, Y., Fiez, J., Nelson, J., & Dunlap, S. (2005, June). How the alphabetic brain learns to read Chinese: Implications of fMRI studies of adult learners for the functional neuroanatomy of learning to read. Paper presented at the 12th annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Toronto, Ontario.
Tokowicz, N., Dunlap, S., & Perfetti, C. A. (2004, November). An ERP investigation of concreteness effects. Poster presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Dunlap, S., Qin, L., Liu, Y., & Perfetti, C. A. (2004, April). Incidental reading: An ERP study of English and Chinese. Poster presented at the 11th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive
Neuroscience Society Eleventh Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California.
Tokowicz, N., Dunlap, S. Perfetti, C. A. (2003, November). Where in the brain is “it”? It depends on what “it” is. Poster presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Dunlap, S., & Pennington, B. (2002, April). Does first language affect phonological processing?
A comparison of bilingual Chinese and American English speaking college students. Poster presentation at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, University of
Wisconsin-Whitewater, Wisconsin.
Dunlap, S., Tunick, R., Raitano, N., Boada, R., & Pennington, B. (2002, April). Phonological processing in children with speech and language disorders. Poster presentation at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Ninth Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California.
Local Presentations:
Dunlap, S. (2012, July 7). Lessons learned from two ESL spelling interventions. Second
Language Acquisition Research Symposium 2012, English Language Institute, Department of Linguistics, University of Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, S. (2011, November 9). A mismatch between confidence and performance?: Evidence from an ESL spelling intervention study. Brown Bag Presentation for the Cognitive
Psychology Program, University of Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, S. (2011, February 23). Did I spell this correctly?: Effects of first language background and second language proficiency on study behaviors during English spelling training. Brown Bag Presentation for the Cognitive Psychology Program, University of Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, S. (2010, March 17). Developing robust lexical representations in English as a second language. Brown Bag Presentation for the Cognitive Psychology Program, University of Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, S., Friedline, B., Juffs, A., & Perfetti, C. A. (2009, June 10). Effects of a spelling intervention with learners of English as a second language. Presentation for the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center’s Symposium of Research in an Intensive English Program, University of Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, S. (2009, February 11). Lexical quality of English second language learners: Effects of focused training on orthographic encoding skill. Brown Bag Presentation for the Cognitive Psychology Program, University of Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, S. (2007, October 19). Rules and exceptions: Semantic cues for learning new vocabulary in Chinese as a second language. Presentation to the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center’s Chinese LearnLab Symposium “Bridging Chinese Pedagogy, Research, and Technology,”
Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, S. (2007, March 30). Rules and exceptions: Strategies for learning vocabulary in Chinese as a second language. Presentation to the Reading and Language Group, University of Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, S. (2006, September). Learning L2 vocabulary from semantic cues: A PSLC LearnLab study of implicit versus explicit training. Presentation to the Pitt-CMU Conference,
Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, S. (2006, June). Incidental reading: An ERP study. Master’s Thesis Defense, University of Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, S. (2006, January). What are some effective ways to support learning of new vocabulary in L2?: Evidence from some LearnLab studies. Brown Bag Presentation for the Cognitive Psychology Program, University of Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, S., Liu, Y., Chen, B. G., & Perfetti, C. A. (2005, September). Classroom learners of Chinese as a second language: Testing online study methods. Poster presented at the Pitt-
Dunlap, S. (2005, April). Incidental reading of English and Chinese: An ERP study. Brown Bag Presentation for the Cognitive Psychology Program, University of Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, S., Tokowicz, N., & Perfetti, C. A. (2004, November). Concreteness effects: An ERP investigation. Presentation to the Reading and Language Group, University of Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, S., Liu, Y., & Perfetti, C. A. (2004, April). Incidental reading: An ERP study of English and Chinese. Presentation to the Reading and Language Group, University of Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, S. (2003, September). How context influences word processing: A (sort of)
electrophysiological study. Brown Bag Presentation for the Cognitive Psychology Program, University of Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, S. (2001, June). Phonological processing and first language. Senior honors thesis presented to University of Denver Psychology Department, Denver, Colorado.
Dunlap, S. (2001, May) Does first language affect phonological processing?: A comparison of bilingual Chinese and American English speaking college students. Presented to the Undergraduate Research Symposium, University of Denver, Colorado.
Teaching Experience:
Human Cognitive Psychology (PSY 0421)
Summer 2007;
Summer 2008 Research Methods Laboratory
(PSY 0035L)
Fall 2007;
Spring 2008 Human Cognition Laboratory
(PSY 0420L)
Spring 2006;
Spring 2007 Guest Lectures:
Introduction to Psychology (PSY 0010)
October 2, 2006
Instructor: Michal Balass Topic: Memory
Developmental Psychology:
Cognitive Development (PSY 1330)
November 29, 2005 Instructor: Jana Iverson
Topic: Developmental Stages in Learning to Read Research Methods
(PSY 0035)
November 10, 2005 Instructor: Erik Reichle
Topic: ERP Methodology and Factorial Designs
Mentoring:
Summer 2010 Mentor, Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center
Supervised summer intern Hannah Bartle on project:
“Effects of L1 Vowel Status on L2 Encoding Errors”
Spring 2009 Mentor, First Experiences in Research
Supervised FER student Emma Weimer on project:
“Spelling Intervention: What is the Effect of the Way Spelling is Taught to Non-Native English Speakers?”
Summer 2008 Research Supervisor, Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center Supervised summer intern Jeanine Sun on project:
“Effects of Encoding Training on Improving Lexical Quality of ESL Learners”
Spring 2007 Research Advisor, Springboard Research Project, University of Pittsburgh Honors College
Advised Neuroscience major Margaret Rodgers on honors project: “Timed judgments of high and low frequency Chinese characters by non-Chinese speakers”
September 2003-April 2006 Graduate Student Mentor, University of Pittsburgh
Mentored students Debbie Bernstein and Jason Sherrill in the Cognitive Psychology doctoral program
Ad Hoc Reviewing:
November 2010-May 2012 Psychology Press, Taylor & Francis
Reviewed second edition of Fundamentals of Cognition textbook written by Michael Eysenck; prepared
supplementary materials (i.e., learning outcomes, web links, multiple choice questions, sample essays)
January 2011 Writing System Research
Reviewed manuscript submitted for publication in a special issue of the Writing System Research journal
March 2010 Cognitive Science Society
Reviewed abstracts submitted for presentations at the
June 2007 Applied Psycholinguistics
Reviewed manuscript submitted for publication
March 2004 Behavioral Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers Journal
Reviewed manuscript submitted for publication
Service Activities:
August 2010-May 2011 Coordinator, Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center Guest Speaker Series
Selected, invited, and hosted guest speakers for the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center
April 19, 2009;
April 12, 2008
Guest Speaker, Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth Pathways to College Program, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Spoke to a group of high school students and their parents about the college classroom experience, which comprised a sample lecture about a cognitive
psychology topic, interactive activities, and advice for doing well in college-level courses
August 28, 2009;
August 22, 2008;
January 3, 2008;
August 24, 2007;
September 9, 2006
Guest Speaker, New Teaching Assistant Orientation, University of Pittsburgh Center for Instructional Development and Distance Education
Spoke to a group of new graduate students about testing and grading procedures
August 27, 2010;
September 12, 2009;
September 6, 2008;
September 8, 2007
Guest Speaker, New Teaching Assistant Orientation, University of Pittsburgh Center for Instructional Development and Distance Education
Spoke to a group of new graduate students about handing difficult situations in the classroom August 22, 2008;
August 25, 2006
Guest Speaker, New Teaching Assistant Orientation, University of Pittsburgh Center for Instructional Development and Distance Education
Spoke to a group of new graduate students about how to prepare for first-time teaching at the university
May 2004-June 2005 Graduate Student Representative, University of Pittsburgh Served as a liaison between faculty and students in the Cognitive Psychology program; organized student
recruitment weekend activities; attended faculty meetings
January 2004-May 2004 Cognitive Program Brown Bag Coordinator, University of Pittsburgh
Scheduled student and faculty speakers for weekly brown bag talks on cognitive research
June 1997-August 2002 Undergraduate Women’s Committee, University of Denver Secretary, June 1997-June 2000; student group
dedicated to issues of safety, health, and education for female members of the community
September 1997-November 2000 Educational Technology Committee, University of Denver Web liaison; College of Education staff and faculty group working to improve quality and availability of technology for students, staff, and faculty
May 1996-November 2000 DU/Northwestside Schools Partnership: United for Education Excellence; University of Denver
Worked with Dr. Nick Cutforth on various after-school projects in Northwest Denver public schools
Grants, Awards, and Scholarships:
January 2012 Research Assistance for Graduate Students grant for $1000 March 2009 Graduate and Professional Student Association Travel
Grant for $200
Summer 2008 National Science Foundation grant through Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center, for a project with the English Language Institute
December 2004 Graduate and Professional Student Association Travel Grant for $150
November 2004 Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Organization Travel Grant for $175
June 2001 Shaklee-Trowill Research Award for Outstanding Thesis Awarded to one senior psychology student each year for
November 1999 Golden Key National Honor Society Scholarship
Awarded to one junior liberal arts student per year at each member university
Professional Affiliations:
American Educational Research Association Cognitive Neuroscience Society
Golden Key National Honor Society Phi Beta Kappa Society
Psi Chi National Honor Society in Psychology
