We are interested in exploring the intertwined relationship between cognitive functioning and our understanding of the social world, and how this relationship could be mediated by our language environment.  Our research focuses on

1) how children, young adults, and older adults perceive communicative cues and make social inferences and selective trust;

2) how cognitive and social cognitive functioning and aging might be affected by the patterns of dual language use, including age-of-acquisition, proficiency, and usage

3) how technology influences the way we communicate and interact with each other, and how it can be harnessed in ways that can improve or slow down the decline of cognition and social cognition.

Our research spans across the developmental spectrum, from preschoolers to young adults to the elderly population.  If you would like to enquire about participating in our research or would like to engage in our research, please email us at psychlab@sutd.edu.sg.

NEW: We are looking for bright and aspiring students with an innovative mind to pursue a PhD in HASS (Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences) with us!  Please contact Prof. Yow directly for more information.

**********************************

We wish to pay tribute to Mr Lee Kuan Yew, our founding Prime Minister of Singapore. His selfless commitment to the welfare of the country, his deep devotion to family ties, his unwavering determination for Singapore to survive and succeed, and his steadfast belief in integrity, we are grateful for all that he had done, so so much for Singapore.

Our research is very much inspired by his commitment to bilingualism.  To unite our people and reposition ourselves in the global world, we need a common language. But we also need to preserve our heritage, culture and emotional bonding, hence our mother tongue. It is not an easy feat to learn and use two languages well.  Mr. Lee has shown us that nothing is impossible – studiously learning Mandarin at a mature age, not giving up and persevering every day without fail.

We hope that our research would continue to yield important insights to the bilingual processes and help contribute to the language development and language policies for our people in Singapore and also the world.  We will miss you, Mr Lee.