معرفی
Barbara Landau is the Dick and Lydia Todd Professor of Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins University (since 2001). She previously served as Vice Provost for Faculty (2011-2014) and Director of the Science of Learning Institute (2013-2018). Her research focuses on the interplay between language and spatial cognition, studying typical and atypical development through experimental psychology, linguistic analysis, and brain imaging.
- PhD in Cognitive Science, University of Pennsylvania
Landau investigates the cognitive primitives underlying early development, including how children learn spatial language (e.g., prepositions), how spatial impairments affect word learning in Williams syndrome, and how language and spatial cognition interact. Her work spans typical development, congenital blindness, Williams syndrome, and post-stroke spatial representation. She leads the Language and Cognition Lab, part of the JHU Vision Sciences Group (Cognitive Science, Psychological and Brain Sciences, Neuroscience).
Her research has been featured in Time, New York Times, NPR, and The New Yorker, with a focus exhibit at the Walters Art Museum (2011). She received the Guggenheim Fellowship (2009), William James Fellow Award (2018), and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
- Cognitive Science Society Fellow
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow
- American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow
Landau’s lab collaborates with University of Pennsylvania researchers (John Trueswell, Lila Gleitman) on NSF-funded projects connecting symmetry to linguistic/perceptual development. She trains students like Zihan Wang (2023 Glushko Award) and Rennie Pasquinelli (Science of Learning Fellow). Her studies involve participants aged 18 months to 18 years, including Williams syndrome individuals.
