Hanna Lindfors

Hanna Lindfors is a doctoral researcher at Linnaeus University, affiliated with the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and the Department of Swedish Language. Since 2020, she has been working on the project Language Processing: Domain-General or Domain-Specific? ERP Studies of Verbal and Visual Language Processing in Children with Typical and Atypical Language Development, funded by the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Memorial Fund. Her research bridges educational linguistics and cognitive neuroscience, focusing on how children process verbal and visual narratives, particularly those with developmental language disorder (DLD).

• Education: Master of Science in Speech and Language Pathology (2011), Faculty of Medicine, Lund University
• Research Affiliations:
  • Linnaeus University Language Processing Lab (LiLa Lab)
  • Center for Educational Linguistics
  • Collaboration with researchers in linguistics, neuroscience, and education

Lindfors employs ERP (electrophysiological) methods to study semantic processing in children, comparing typical and atypical development. Her work investigates the interplay between verbal narratives and visual narratives, aiming to clarify whether language processing mechanisms are domain-general (shared with other cognitive domains) or domain-specific. This research has implications for educational practices and interventions for children with DLD or bilingual backgrounds.

Her publications highlight trends in cross-modal language processing, ERP signatures in child cognition, and educational linguistics. Key collaborations involve researchers like Kristina Hansson, Niall Cohn, and Annika Andersson. She is also part of the Nordic Research Network for Educational Linguistics (NordEdLing), promoting this field in Nordic countries.

• Key Research Themes:
  • Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)
  • Child Language Acquisition
  • Bilingual Education
  • ERP in Educational Linguistics
  • Visual and Verbal Narrative Processing
  • Domain-General Cognitive Mechanisms