Professor Andrea Krott

Supervisor Details

Contact Details

School of Psychology, University of Birmingham

Scientific Background

Research Interests

My research focusses heavily on the psychological and cognitive impacts of human language experience, with a primary emphasis on bilingualism and multilingualism. Moving beyond my foundational work in early child language acquisition and word representation, my more recent research investigates how regular navigation between multiple languages actively shapes human cognition. By evaluating how active use and language proficiency modulate the brain's executive networks across the lifespan, my studies explore the impacts of the delicate balance of individual differences in bilingual environments and development. This includes exploring how the lifelong task of linguistic switching enhances crucial cognitive abilities.

My research delves not only into neural benefits of bilingualism in adults, but also into impacts on social communication, developmental milestones, and mental health. I am interested in developmental social cognition milestones for "Theory of Mind" and perspective-taking capabilities. Furthermore, my work with longitudinal datasets highlights how foreign language immersion in school can stimulate overall creativity and social competence, while cross-sectional data suggests that early bilingual exposure acts as a strong protective barrier against behavioural and psychological mental health problems in childhood and adolescence.

Research Groups

Centre for Human Brain Health

Language and Cognition at Birmingham

Supervision Style

In three words or phrases: supportive, guiding, inclusive.

Provision of Training

I prefer to take responsibility for your theoretical and technical training at first, but support and expect more independence in later parts of the project.

Progression Monitoring and Management

I generally meet with my PhD students on a weekly basis, especially during idea generation, methodological planning and analysis stages of the project. During writing and testing phases, this is likely less frequent (e.g., once a month). During the meetings, we set short-term (weekly) and longer-term aims. We adjust these aims collaboratively while we go along.

Communication

The (weekly) meetings are the main form of communication, but I am happy to communicate about urgent issues in between (either in person in form of spontaneous chats or by email). I might send emails during evenings and weekends, but do not expect my team to do the same. I value being informed about any issues in the life of my students if these are affecting the students' progress, while respecting privacy (meaning students can share as much or as little as they feel comfortable with).

Meetings

PhD Students can expect scheduled meetings with me at least once per fortnight. These meetings will be a mixture of face-to-face and via video chat or telephone. I am usually contactable for an instant response on every working day.

Work Patterns

Certain tasks in my lab need to occur at set times, and students need to be able to commit to a rota/timetable shared with other members of the team.

Notice Period for Feedback

I need at least 1 week's notice to provide feedback on written work of up to 5,000 words.

MIBTP Project Details

Primary supervisor for:

Language Experience and Early Brain Network Development for Attention

See the PhD Opportunities section to see if this project is currently open for applications via MIBTP.

Please Note: The main page lists projects via BBSRC Research Theme(s) quoted and then relevant Topic(s).

Language Experience and Early Brain Network Development for Attention

Secondary Supervisor(s): Dr Barbara Pomiechowska

University of Registration: University of Birmingham

BBSRC Research Themes:

Understanding the Rules of Life (Neuroscience and Behaviour)

Project Outline

The first two years of life are marked by rapid changes in brain organisation. During this period, infants develop increasingly flexible and controlled forms of attention, supported by the maturation of cortical attention networks. Early language experience may contribute to variation in attentional brain development and associated behaviour. More than 60% of the world’s child population grows up with more than one language (UNESCO, 2024). Infants raised in bilingual environments must process input from two languages. Recent evidence suggests that bilingual infants are faster than monolingual infants in adapting attention to changing environmental contingencies in a rule-switching task at 9 months (Arredondo et al., 2022). At the same time, neuroimaging evidence indicates differences in the organisation of attentional orienting brain networks (Comishen et al., 2019). But it is unknown how these changes are related and how they develop over the first two years of life.

This project will use neuroimaging and eye tracking to investigate how language experience relates to the development of attention networks in monolingual and bilingual infants between 9 and 14 months. Infants will complete rule-switching paradigms assessing attentional orienting and the ability to update predictions when features in the environment change. Resting-state neural activity will be recorded using optically pumped magnetometer magnetoencephalography (=OPM-MEG), which offers a novel, non-invasive method for measuring neural activity with high temporal resolution.

The study will provide new insights into how functional attention networks reorganise during infancy. (1) characterise developmental changes in attention-network in infancy; (2) determine whether monolingual and bilingual infants show distinct trajectories of network development; and (3) test whether variation in network organisation predicts attentional flexibility.

Adapting to Other Minds: Bilingual Experience and Social Communication in the Ageing Brain

See the PhD Opportunities section to see if this project is currently open for applications via MIBTP.

Please Note: The main page lists projects via BBSRC Research Theme(s) quoted and then relevant Topic(s).

Adapting to Other Minds: Bilingual Experience and Social Communication in the Ageing Brain

Secondary Supervisor(s): Professor Tamara Swaab

University of Registration: University of Birmingham

BBSRC Research Themes:

Understanding the Rules of Life (Neuroscience and Behaviour)

Project Outline

Identifying the neural mechanisms that support the maintenance of cognitive and communicative abilities in later life is a key challenge for research on healthy ageing. Importantly, successful communication depends not only on understanding language, but on understanding the intentions and knowledge of people. Listeners continually form expectations about what a speaker is likely to say based on who that person is, what they know, what they believe and which language they use. These social inferences draw on Theory of Mind (ToM): the ability to represent another person’s knowledge, perspective and intentions. While ToM abilities tend to decline with age, substantial individual differences are observed (Otsuka et al., 2024). An important question therefore is how individual experiences shape the neural mechanisms underlying ToM and successful communication. Bilingualism is a widespread lifelong experience with a prevalence of over 50% of the world’s population (UNESCO, 2024). Bilingual communication provides a particularly rich test case because speakers must represent their interlocutors' language knowledge and adapt communication accordingly. Accordingly, bilingualism has been found to shape the neural systems supporting social cognition and communication. In particular, earlier onset of bilingualism leads to structural brain changes and better ToM in older adults (Li et al., 2024). This project will therefore asks how different aspects of bilingual experience (e.g., age of second language acquisition, history of language usage and switching) leads to neural adaptations that underlie language comprehension and how this is mediated by ToM abilities and neural mechanisms. fMRI will identify the brain networks supporting ToM, speaker knowledge and socially guided language interpretation. EEG will reveal when information about a speaker’s knowledge begins to influence language processing and when expectations are revised.

Co-supervisor on a project with Professor Tamara Swaab.