Naomi Havron

Naomi Havron is a post-doctoral researcher at the Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique (LSCP) at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. Her academic focus is on language acquisition and development, particularly the mechanisms young children use to learn syntax and vocabulary. She investigates syntactic adaptation, differences between children and adults in language processing, and the impact of family environment on language development. Her work employs behavioral experiments, eye-tracking, day-long recordings, and corpus studies.

Education

• PhD (2013-2016): Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Psychology. Dissertation: 'The Effect of Literacy on Language Learning and Processing.'
• MA (2010-2012): Tel Aviv University, Philosophy (Summa Cum Laude). Dissertation explored Wittgenstein's influence on Tomasello's language theory.
• BA (2005-2008): Haifa University, Psychology (Summa Cum Laude). Honors program with a thesis on language and empathy.

Research Interests

Dr. Havron's research explores how children adapt to linguistic input to learn syntax and vocabulary, emphasizing predictive coding mechanisms. She studies how environmental factors like family size and literacy influence language development. Her work bridges experimental methods (e.g., eye-tracking) with naturalistic approaches, such as analyzing language corpora and day-long recordings.

Awards and Fellowships

• 2017-2018: Victor Smorgon Post-doctoral Fellowship for Outstanding Women ($20,000).
• 2016-2017: Social Science and Humanities Post-doctoral Fellowship (€22,500) from the French Embassy.
• 2009: Prize for exceptional paper from Bar-Illan University (Linguistic Philosophy).

Collaborations and Grants

Her collaborations include projects with Anne Christophe (ENS) on syntactic adaptation and predictive coding, and with Alejandrina Cristia on language exposure in large families. She has also worked with international teams like the ManyBabies Consortium to study variability in infant language research.

Labs and Teams

She is affiliated with the LSCP at ENS, focusing on cognitive and psycholinguistic approaches to language development. Her work integrates interdisciplinary methods from psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience.