معرفی
Dr. Polly O’Rourke serves as the Director of Research Development at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies. Previously, she held roles as an Assistant and Associate Research Scientist at the Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL) and its successor, the Applied Research Lab for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS). Her research focuses on interdisciplinary areas such as psycholinguistics, cognitive neuroscience, and second language acquisition, with a particular emphasis on neurostimulation’s role in enhancing language learning and cognitive performance. She earned her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Arizona in 2007.
Her work explores how non-invasive neurostimulation techniques, like transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation, can improve second-language vocabulary acquisition, mitigate fatigue, and enhance focus. She also investigates the cognitive underpinnings of language processing, including working memory’s role in verbal learning and the neural mechanisms underlying semantic representation in tonal languages.
Dr. O’Rourke has contributed to frameworks addressing AI integration into human teams and has published extensively on topics ranging from aphasia therapy outcomes to the design of spatial integration tasks using emoji-based stimuli. Her research bridges applied linguistics, neuroscience, and educational technology, emphasizing practical applications for learning and rehabilitation.
