Dr Laura Shapiro

Research Interests

My research interests are in reading development and categorisation.

Reading development

I am currently conducting a longitudinal study of reading development, in collaboration with Julia Carroll and Jonathan Solity, funded by the ESRC. We are investigating the relative influences of teaching method and early cognitive skills in causing reading difficulties.

Categorisation

I am interested in how neurological injury can result in selective naming deficits for certain categories of object (most commonly, animals and/or plants). I have been investigating normal adult processing to test theories based on evidence from cognitive neuropsychology. In particular, in collaboration with Luc Boutsen, Andrew Olson and Koen Lamberts I have been investigating the relative influences of similarity and semantic category on normal object naming and categorisation.

I am also interested in the influence of language on category development. In collaboration with Debi Roberson and Jules Davidoff, we have been investigating the influence of language development on colour categorisation, longitudinally and cross-culturally.

Ph.D Students

Jessica Gilbert is using MEG and fMRI to investigate perceptual processing of living and non-living objects

Julia Badger is investigating the development of category induction strategies in primary school children

Publications

• Shapiro, L.R. & Solity, J. (2008). Delivering Phonological and Phonics Training within Whole Class Teaching. The British Journal of Educational Psychology, 78 (4), 597-620.
• Shapiro, L.R., Hurry, J., Masterson, J., Wydell, T. & Doctor, E. (2008). Classroom Implications of Recent Research into Literacy Development: From Predictors to Assessment. In press in Dyslexia. [download pdf]
  
• Solity, J. & Shapiro, L.R. (2008). Developing the Practice of Educational Psychologists through Theory and Research. Education and Child Psychology, 25 (3), 119-145.
• Shapiro, L. R., Lamberts, K. & Olson, A. C. (2008). Measuring the influence of similarity on category-specific effects. The European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 20(2), 346-366. [download pdf]
• Roberson, D., Davidoff, J., Davies, I.R.L. & Shapiro, L. R. (2006) Colour Categories and Category Acquisition in Himba and English. In N. Pitchford & C. Bingham (Eds.) Progress in Colour Studies, 159-172. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. [download pdf]
• Ellefson, M.R., Shapiro, L.R. & Chater, N. (2006). Asymmetrical switch costs in children. Cognitive Development, 21, 108-130. [download pdf]
• Shapiro, L. R. & Olson, A. C. (2005). Does normal processing provide evidence of specialised semantic subsystems? Language and Cognitive Processes, 20(6). [download pdf]
• Roberson, D., Davidoff, J., Davies, I.R.L. & Shapiro, L.R. (2005). Color categories: Confirmation of the Relativity Hypothesis. Cognitive Psychology, 50, 378-411. [download pdf]
• Roberson, D., Davidoff, J., Davies, I. & Shapiro, L. (2004). The Development of Color Categories in Two Languages: A Longitudinal Study. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 554-571. [download pdf]
• Lamberts, K. & Shapiro, L. (2002). Exemplar models and category specific effects. In E. M. E. Forde and G. W. Humphreys (Eds.), Category-Specificity in Brain and Mind. Psychology Press. [download pdf]
• Roberson, D., Davidoff, J. & Shapiro, L. (2002). Squaring the circle: the cultural relativity of ‘good’ shape. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 2(1), 33-93. [download pdf]