Elizabeth Buchanan-Worster

Dr. Elizabeth Buchanan-Worster is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (MRC CBU) and affiliated Academic Staff member of Cambridge Language Sciences, an interdisciplinary research center at the University of Cambridge. Her work bridges cognitive neuroscience and developmental linguistics to investigate children's speech perception mechanisms and their impact on literacy acquisition.

She completed her PhD at University College London in 2019 under the supervision of Professor Mairéad MacSweeney and Professor Charles Hulme. Her doctoral research established critical connections between visual speech processing, phonological awareness, and reading development in diverse pediatric populations.

Her research portfolio centers on:

• Developmental trajectories of speech perception in deaf and hearing children
• Multisensory integration (auditory-visual) during language acquisition
• Cognitive foundations of reading development
• Educational implications for children with language disorders

Methodologically, she combines eyetracking for real-time processing analysis, structural equation modeling for developmental pathway mapping, and experimental training studies to evaluate intervention efficacy. Her work directly informs educational policies regarding language support systems.

No scientific awards are documented in the available information.

As a Postdoctoral Researcher, she collaborates with Dr. Matt Davis on active projects within the MRC CBU's cognitive neuroscience framework. While not a primary supervisor, she contributes to the Cambridge Language Sciences network that facilitates cross-school research training through its Interdisciplinary Programme. Current work focuses on speech perception mechanisms in developmental contexts with potential applications for educational interventions.

She operates within the MRC CBU's research ecosystem while leveraging Cambridge Language Sciences' interdisciplinary infrastructure, which connects over 400 researchers across five university schools to address complex language science challenges from cognitive, social, and clinical perspectives.