Psychologist Terry Rew-Gottfried, promoted this year to the rank of full professor, has taught at Lawrence since 1986. His research interests include the perception of speech and sound, specifically the question of how acoustic characteristics of different languages differ with the context in which they are spoken, how speaking rates affect vowel identification, how native and non-native speakers of a language differ in their perception of speech sounds in that language, and the relationship of musical ability and second-language learning.
In line with that research, Rew-Gottfried and Adam Berman, '00, this year presented a paper on "Speaking rate and vowel identification: Comparison of native English and Spanish listeners" at the Graduate School of the City University of New York.
Rew-Gottfried has also worked with students on investigations of memory, including studies of eyewitness memory, recall of poetry and prose, and use of perceptual imagery in improving recall. He taught a Björklunden Seminar titled "Memory: Constructing Our Past and Shaping Our Future" in 1999.
Professor Rew-Gottfried regularly offers courses in such subjects as Cognitive Psychology, Psycholinguistics, Historical Origins of Psychology, Perception, and Psychology of Music; teaches in the Freshman Studies program; and is among the faculty advisors for the interdisciplinary programs in Cognitive Science and Linguistics. An early member of the Gender Studies steering committee, he has taught the interdisciplinary Gender Studies course four times.
He currently is working with Annie Staby, '02, a psychology and violin performance major, to investigate how ear training in music may be related to successful identification of Mandarin Chinese linguistic tones. This research was presented at a recent meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.
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