Karen E. Mulak

EDUCATION 2012 Ph.D., Psycholinguistics MARCS Auditory Laboratories, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, Australia Thesis: “The development of phonologically specified word forms” Supervisors: Catherine T. Best, Michael D. Tyler, Christine Kitamura, Anne Cutler 2006 B.Sc., Neuroscience; Cognitive Science minor Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, United States EMPLOYMENT 2018 – present Postdoctoral Associate Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland Supervisor: Rochelle S. Newman 2015 – 2018 Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Language Learning and Processing Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development Western Sydney University, Penrith, Australia Supervisor: Paola Escudero 2013 – 2015 Postdoctoral Research Officer The MARCS Institute, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, Australia Supervisors: Catherine T. Best, Paola Escudero, Jason A. Shaw 2011 – 2013 Research Assistant The MARCS Institute, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, Australia 2007 – 2008 Research Officer and Child Language Studies Laboratory Coordinator Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, Connecticut, United States 2006 – 2007 Research Associate Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, Connecticut, United States PUBLICATIONS Refereed Journal Articles Escudero, P., Mulak, K. E., Elvin, J., & Traynor, N. M. (2017). “Mummy, keep it steady”: Phonetic variation shapes word learning at 15 and 17 months. Developmental Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12640 Mulak, K. E., Bonn, C. D., Chládková, K., Aslin, R. N., & Escudero, P. (2017). Indexical and linguistic processing by 12- month-olds: Discrimination of speaker, accent, and vowel differences. PLOS ONE, 12, 5. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0176762 Alispahic, S., Mulak, K. E., & Escudero, P. (2017). Acoustic properties predict perception of unfamiliar Dutch vowels by adult Australian English and Peruvian Spanish listeners. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 52. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00052 Escudero, P., Mulak, K. E., Fu, C. S. L., & Singh, L. (2016). More limitations to monolingualism: Bilinguals outperform monolinguals in implicit word learning. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1218. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01218 Escudero, P., Mulak, K. E., & Vlach, H. A. (2016a). Cross-situational learning of minimal word pairs. Cognitive Science, 40(2), 455–465. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12243 Escudero, P., Mulak, K. E., & Vlach, H. A. (2016b). Infants encode phonetic detail during cross-situational word learning. Frontiers in Psychology, 1419. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01419 Escudero, P., Best, C. T., Kitamura, C., & Mulak, K. E. (2014). Magnitude of phonetic distinction predicts success at early word learning in native and non-native accents. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1059. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01059

Escudero, P., Simon, E., & Mulak, K. E. (2014). Learning words in a new language: Orthography doesn’t always help. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17(2), 384–395. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728913000436 Mulak, K. E., Best, C. T., Tyler, M. D., Kitamura, C., & Irwin, J. R. (2013). Development of phonological constancy: 19-month- olds, but not 15-month-olds, identify words spoken in a non-native regional accent. Child Development, 84(6), 2064–2078. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12087

Book Chapters Curtin, S., Hufnagle, D., Mulak, K. E., & Escudero, P. (2017). Speech Perception: Development. In Reference Module in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology. Elsevier. Mulak, K. E., & Best, C. T. (2013). Development of word recognition across speakers and accents. In L. J. Gogate & G. Hollich (Eds.), Theoretical and computational models of word learning: Trends in psychology and artificial intelligence (pp. 242–269). Hershey: IGI Global: Robotics Division.

Conference Proceedings Traynor, N. M., Mulak, K. E., Robbins, R., Weidemann, G., & Escudero, P. (2016). The role of positive affect in the acquisition of word-object associations. In Proceedings of the 16th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology (pp. 9–12). Parramatta, Australia: Causal Productions. Best, C. T., Kroos, C. H., Mulak, K. E., Halovic, S., Fort, M., & Kitamura, C. (2015). Message vs. messenger effects on cross- modal matching for spoken phrases. In Proceedings of the 1st Joint Conference on Facial Analysis, Animation and Auditory-Visual Speech Processing. Vienna, Austria. Best, C. T., Shaw, J. A., Docherty, G., Evans, B. G., Foulkes, P., Hay, J., Al-Tamimi, J., Mair, K., Mulak, K. E., & Wood, S. (2015). From Newcastle MOUTH to Aussie ears: Australians’ perceptual assimilation and adaptation for Newcastle UK vowels. In Proceedings of INTERSPEECH-2015. Dresden, Germany. Best, C. T., Shaw, J. A., Mulak, K. E., Docherty, G., Evans, B. G., Foulkes, P., Hay, J., Al-Tamimi, J., Mair, K., & Wood, S. (2015). Perceiving and adapting to regional accent differences among vowel subsystems. In Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2015). Glasgow: University of Glasgow. Escudero, P., Bonn, C. D., Aslin, R. N., & Mulak, K. E. (2015). Indexical and linguistic processing in infancy: Discrimination of speaker, accent and vowel differences. In Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2015). Glasgow: University of Glasgow. Alispahic, S., Escudero, P., & Mulak, K. E. (2014a). Difficulty in discriminating non-native vowels: Are Dutch vowels easier for Australian English than Spanish listeners? In Proceedings of Interspeech 2014, 15th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (pp. 1293–1296). Singapore. Alispahic, S., Escudero, P., & Mulak, K. E. (2014b). Is more always better? The perception of Dutch vowels by English versus Spanish listeners. In Proceedings of the 15th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology (pp. 219– 222). Christchurch, New Zealand: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association. Alispahic, S., Escudero, P., & Mulak, K. E. (2014c). More vowels are not always better: Australian English and Peruvian Spanish learners’ comparable perception of Dutch vowels. In Proceedings of the 39th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 40–51). Boston, Massachusetts. Escudero, P., Mulak, K. E., & Alispahic, S. (2014). Acoustic distance explains speaker versus accent normalization in infancy. In Proceedings of the 15th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology (pp. 80–83). Christchurch, New Zealand: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association. Shaw, J. A., Best, C. T., Mulak, K. E., Docherty, G., Evans, B. G., Foulkes, P., Hay, J., Al-Tamimi, J., Mair, K., Peek, M. & Wood, S. (2014). Effects of short-term exposure to unfamiliar regional accents: Australians’ categorization of London and Yorkshire English consonants. In Proceedings of the 15th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology. Christchurch, New Zealand: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association.

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Wright, S., Shaw, J., Best, C. T., Docherty, G., Foulkes, P., Evans, B. G., Hay, J., & Mulak, K. E. (2014). Improvements to vowel categorization in non-native regional accents resulting from multiple- versus single-talker training: A computational approach. In Proceedings of the 15th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology (pp. 124–127). Christchurch, New Zealand: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association. Escudero, P., Mulak, K. E., & Vlach, H. (2013). Cross-situational statistical learning of phonologically overlapping words. In Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 418–423). Berlin, Germany: Cognitive Science Society.

Manuscripts in Submission Mulak, K. E., Vlach, H. A., & Escudero, P. Lexical encoding is stronger for consonants than vowels: Evidence from cross- situational learning across degrees of ambiguity. Cognitive Science. Shaw, J. A., Best, C. T., Docherty, G., Evans, B., Foulkes, P., Hay, J., & Mulak, K. E. Resilience of English vowel perception across regional accent variation. Laboratory Phonology.

AWARDS AND HONOURS 2015 The MARCS Institute Achievement Award for Exemplary Service in Mentorship

GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS 2017 Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language Transdisciplinary & Innovation Grant Look who’s talking: Perceived ethnic background of speaker impacts language learning, Principle Investigator (A$17,644) 2015 Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language Technology Development Grant Offline experimentation outside the lab: A vowel categorization task, Co-Investigator (A$10,580) 2012 The MARCS Institute Research Grant Scheme Cross-situational word learning in adults, Co-Investigator (A$11,297) Orthographic effects on non-native word learning, Co-Investigator (A$10,832) 2010 MARCS Auditory Laboratories Graduate Student Conference Travel Award International Conference on Infant Studies, Baltimore, MD (A$2,263) International Congress on Acoustics, Sydney, Australia (A$430) 2009 MARCS Auditory Laboratories Student Field Work Award (A$5,000) 2008 MARCS Auditory Laboratories Graduate Student Conference Travel Award INTERSPEECH, Brisbane, Australia (A$1,500) Australian Consortium for Social and Political Research (A$1,797) Experimental Psychology Conference, Perth, Australia (A$926) Endeavour International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (A$61,569)

INVITED TALKS 2017 “Processing typology and ‘typologizing’ processing” ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language Summer School, Canberra, Australia “Linguistic and cognitive contributions to cross-accent word identification in infants” Workshop on the Developing Lexicon, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 2015 “Research methods in L1 acquisition” ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language Summer School, Sydney, Australia 2014 “Development of phonological constancy” Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. 2009 “Examining the development from early to expert word segmentation” Department of Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences, University College London.

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CONFERENCE ACTIVITY 2017 Mulak, K. E. Linguistic and cognitive contributions to cross-accent word identification in infants. Invited abstract for presentation at the Workshop on the Developing Lexicon, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Mulak, K. E., Escudero, P. & Vlach, H. Cross-situational learning of phonologically overlapping words over differing degrees of within-trial ambiguity. Poster accepted for presentation at the Workshop on the Developing Lexicon, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. 2016 Mulak, K. E., & Escudero, P. The development of cross-accent word identification in monolingual and bilingual infants. Poster presented at the 16th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, Parramatta, Australia. Escudero, P., Mulak, K. E., Fu, C. S. L., & Singh, L. Simultaneous and late sequential bilinguals’ cross-situational learning of minimal word pairs. Poster presented at the 16th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, Parramatta, Australia. Mulak, K. E., & Escudero, P. The development of cross-accent identification of familiar words by monolingual and bilingual infants. Abstract presented at New Sounds, Aarhus, Denmark. Escudero, P., Mulak, K. E., Fu, C. S., & Singh, L. Bilingual and L2 learners’ cross-situational learning of minimal pair words. Abstract presented at New Sounds, Aarhus, Denmark. Mulak, K. E., & Escudero, P. The development of cross-accent identification of familiar words by monolingual and bilingual infants. Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, New Orleans, United States. Escudero, P., & Mulak, K. E. Attention to linguistic and indexical information in female versus male voices at 12 months: Evidence from eye-tracking and online encoding. Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, New Orleans, United States. 2015 Mulak, K. E., & Escudero, P. Cross-accent identification of familiar words by 17-month-old monolingual and bilingual infants. Poster presented at the Workshop on Infant Speech Perception, Sydney, Australia. Escudero, P., Mulak, K. E., & Vlach, H. Influences of looking during training on infants’ cross-situational learning of minimal pairs. Abstract presented at the Workshop on Infant Language Development, Stockholm, Sweden. Escudero, P., Mulak, K. E., Bonn, C. D., & Aslin, R. N. Effect of task demands on infants’ normalization of cross- speaker and cross-accent variation. Poster presented at the Workshop on Infant Language Development, Stockholm, Sweden. 2014 Escudero, P., Mulak, K. E., & Vlach, H. Infants’ cross-situational learning of minimally different words depends on the type and magnitude of the phonological contrast. Poster presented at the 39th Boston University Conference on Language Development (acceptance rate: 34%), Boston, United States. Mulak, K. E., Alispahic, S., & Escudero, P. Do infants normalize speaker and accent variability in vowel production? Paper presented at the 14th Conference on Laboratory Phonology, Tokyo, Japan. Mulak, K. E., Best, C. T., Tyler, M. D., & Kitamura, C. Divergent development of phonologically specified word forms: 15-month-olds’ sensitivity to vowel variation, and 19-month-olds’ sensitivity to consonant variation. Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Berlin, Germany. 2012 Mulak, K. E., Best, C. T., Tyler, M. D., & Kitamura, C. Twelve-month-olds may segment words from continuous speech in the face of non-native suprasegmental features. Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Minneapolis, United States. 2010 Mulak, K. E., Best, C. T., Tyler, M. D., Kitamura, C. & Bundgaard-Nielsen, R. L. Vocabulary size predicts the development of phonological constancy: An eyetracking study of word identification in a non-native dialect by 15- and 19- month-olds. Paper presented at the 20th International Congress on Acoustics, Sydney, Australia.

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Mulak, K. E., Best, C. T., Tyler, M. D., Kitamura, C., & Bundgaard-Nielsen, R. L. Vocabulary size predicts phonological constancy at 15 months: An eyetracking study of word identification in a non-native dialect. Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Baltimore, United States. 2008 Mulak, K. E., Best, C. T., Irwin, J. R., & Tyler, M. D. Dialect effect on toddler word recognition in a gaze-tracking task. Paper presented at the 25th Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference, Fremantle, Australia. Mulak, K. E., Best, C. T., Irwin, J. R., & Tyler, M. D. The effect of dialect on toddler identification of depicted words. Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Vancouver, Canada.

DEPARTMENTAL TALKS 2017 “Thesis writing tips” 2016 “More limitations to monolingualism: Bilinguals outperform monolinguals in implicit word learning.” “The development of cross-accent word identification in monolingual and bilingual infants” “Bilingual and L2 learners’ cross-situational learning of minimal pair words” “Media Strategy Sharing Workshop” 2013 “Learning words in a new language: Orthography doesn’t always help.” 2012 “Development of phonologically specified word forms” 2009 “Using Tobii eyetrackers”

SUPERVISION Current Students Ph.D. J. Bazouni (30%) T. Whyte (20%) Completed Students Master S. Alispahic (50%) Honours V. Chappel (40%; 2017) I. Melrose (100%; 2016) N. Traynor (50%; 2016) TEACHING EXPERIENCE WESTERN SYDNEY UNIVERSITY, AUSTRALIA Course Development/Coordination 2016–2017 Learning and Processing Human Language, Master of Research Lecture 2017 Typological language processing, ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language Summer School Cognitive Science, Master of Research 2016–present Learning and Processing Human Language, Master of Research 2015 Research methods in L1 acquisition, ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language Summer School 2011 Psychology of Language, School of Social Sciences and Psychology Tutorial 2013 Analytical Reading and Writing, School of Humanities and Communication Arts 2012 History of the English Language, School of Humanities and Communication Arts Cognitive Processes, School of Social Sciences and Psychology Bilingualism and Biculturalism, School of Humanities and Communication Arts 2011 Psychology of Language, School of Social Sciences and Psychology

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Perception, School of Social Sciences and Psychology 2009–2012 Human Behaviour, School of Social Sciences and Psychology TRINITY COLLEGE, HARTFORD, CT, UNITED STATES Teaching Assistant 2006 Learning and Memory, Psychology

SERVICE Professional 2017 Conference abstract reviewer, Cognitive Development Society Session chair, Workshop on the Developing Lexicon Journal manuscript reviewer, Language and Speech 2016–present Review Editor, Frontiers in Psychology, Language Sciences Scientific Review Committee member, INTERSPEECH Administrator, NSW BabyLab Circle Journal manuscript reviewer, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Journal manuscript reviewer, Language Learning and Development 2016 Session chair, Australasian Int’l Conference on Speech Science and Technology Publicity Officer, Speech Science and Technology Conference Planning Committee Conference paper reviewer, Int’l Conf. on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing 2015 Journal manuscript reviewer, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition Journal manuscript reviewer, Developmental Science Journal manuscript reviewer, Infancy Book chapter reviewer, Individual Differences in Speech Production and Perception 2013 Grant reviewer, National Science Foundation Departmental/University 2018–present Language and Education Policy group 2015–2017 Higher Degree Research Committee member 2010 Coordinator of weekly laboratory meetings

COMMUNITY OUTREACH Community Talks 2017 “Benefits of bilingualism in infants” Amigoss Preschool, Sydney, Australia 2016 “Language development in bilingual infants” Penrith Library, Sydney, Australia 2015 “Language learning in the first year of life” Pregnancy, Babies and Children’s Expo, Sydney, Australia Expositions 2013–2016 The Essential Baby and Toddler Show, Sydney, Australia Pregnancy, Babies and Children’s Expo, Sydney, Australia MEDIA COVERAGE 2017 Radio interview based on media release “Shh! Baby is listening!” C91.3 (2UE), Breakfast show, 27 June 2017 Newspaper article “Study on infants a first” Bankstown Canterbury Torch, Sydney, 28 June 2017

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Newspaper article “Bubs can hear accents: study” Parramatta Advertiser, Sydney, 28 June 2017 2016 Live radio interview based on media release “Bite your tongue, baby is listening!” ABC Newcastle, Drive with Paul Bevan, 14 October 2016 Live radio interview based on media release “Bite your tongue, baby is listening!” 2GB 873AM, 14 October 2016 Live radio interview based on media release “Bilinguals do it better.” 2SER, Breakfast Show, 7 September 2016 Live radio interview based on media release “Bilinguals do it better.” 2GB 873AM, 22 August 2016 2014 Interviewed for television segment “Can babies struggle with Australian English?” Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), World News. 12 December 2014 Interviewed for radio segment “Babies baffled by Australian vowel sounds.” Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), PM. 12 December 2014

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS/AFFILIATIONS Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association International Congress on Infant Studies International Speech Communication Association

REFERENCES Prof. Rochelle Newman, Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland Phone: +1 301 405 4226 Email: [email protected] A/Prof. Paola Escudero, The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University Phone: +61 2 9772 6493 Email: [email protected] Prof. Catherine Best, The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University Phone: +61 2 9772 6760 Email: [email protected]

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