Personal Home Page - Olga Feher

Main research areas

The evolution of vocal communication

I study vocal communication in humans (language) and non-human animals (birdsong). I am interested in how vocal communication systems are learned, how they are used in interaction and how they evolve in the first place. My background is in birdsong evolution, but I have also done research in language evolution. I’m very interested in how the two compares. I have been involved in research comparing vocal learning in zebra finches and human babies, and we found that during the babbling phase, young birds and children build sequences in a similar way.

Fehér, O., Wang, H., Saar, S., Mitra, P. P., & Tchernichovski, O. (2009). De novo establishment of wild-type song culture in the zebra finch. Nature, 459(7246), 564–568. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07994

Lipkind, D., Marcus, G. F., Bemis, D. K., Sasahara, K., Jacoby, N., Takahasi, M., Suzuki, K., Feher, O., Ravbar, P., Okanoya, K., & Tchernichovski, O. (2013). Stepwise acquisition of vocal combinatorial capacity in songbirds and human infants. Nature, 498(7452), 104–108. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12173

 

Linguistic interaction

I am interested in the mechanisms of linguistic interaction in humans. I study how cognitive biases manifest when language is used in communication, and how this process impacts on long-term language change. I also investigate how linguistic interaction affects on joint action coordination and cooperation focusing on synchronization across different modalities (e. g. linguistic and conceptual).

Fehér, O., Wonnacott, E., & Smith, K. (2016). Structural priming in artificial languages and the regularisation of unpredictable variation. Journal of Memory and Language, 91, 158–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2016.06.002Link opens in a new window

Fehér, O., Ritt, N., & Smith, K. (2019). Asymmetric accommodation during interaction leads to the regularisation of linguistic variants. Journal of Memory and Language, 109, Article 104036. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2019.104036Link opens in a new window

Language learning

My first university degree is in teaching English as a foreign language, so language learning research is close to my heart. In this area, I study how interactivity and feedback (both the timing and the nature of feedback) influences learning outcomes.

Morales Izquierdo, S. & Feher, O. (2024). The role of interaction in online language learning. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 46. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8s93n323

Cousins, A., Smith, K. & Feher, O. (in prep). Interactive games improve implicit language learning in adults.

 

Cognitive processing and voluntary infertility

I am interested in larger societal issues and how they are influenced by personal traits and decisions. In collaboration with Prof. Gordon Brown, I study how cognitive thinking styles (analytical vs. holistic) might affect the decision to not have children (voluntary infertility). This is a timely topic because of the recent birthrate crisis in developed countries like South Korea, Japan and Western Europe. While several economic and social factors have been identified as potential sources of low fertility rates, we do not yet know whether cognitive thinking styles influence people's decisions to forego having children.