Dr. Elisabet Service is a Professor and the Graduate Program Chair in the Department of Linguistics and Languages at McMaster University. She co-directs the Language, Memory & Brain Lab with Dr. John Connolly. Their lab combines experimental behavioural methods and collaborative research studying brain responses with different methodologies (ERP, fMRI).
Dr. Service’s research incorporates three major elements: working memory, language and dyslexia. She started her research career in Helsinki, Finland, by investigating how working memory is involved in learning a second or foreign language. It turned out that phonological aspects of memory, i.e. the ability to form representations for how foreign words sound, were a powerful predictor for ease of language learning. As this type of memory is also critical in learning to read, Dr. Service expanded into research on the causes of dyslexia. Over the years, she has done basic research in the area of memory, but also applied working memory concepts and methods for studying morphological complexity in the mental lexicon, sentence processing, language acquisition, bilingualism, reading difficulty, and developmental language disorder (DLD). Dr. Service has mainly used memory tasks, but also EEG and MEG (magnetoencephalography) based measures in collaborative projects. She is still looking for the elementary cognitive building blocks that play a key role in language development, language learning and successful literacy, lately concentrating on representation of serial order in working memory.
Expandable List
Togo Salmon Hall, Room 505, McMaster University
1280 Main Street West
Email: eservic@mcmaster.ca
Office Phone: (905) 525-9140 x21352
Professor, Department of Linguistics and Languages, McMaster University
Chair, Graduate Program, Department of Linguistics and Languages, McMaster University
Co-Director, Language, Memory and Brain Lab, McMaster University
Adjunct Professor (Docent), Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki
Service, E. & Simard, D. (2022). How measures of working memory relate to L2 vocabulary. Wen, Z. & Schwieter, J. (Eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Working Memory and Language. pp. 529–549. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Service, E., DeBorba, E., Lopez-Cormier, A., Horzum, M., Pape, D. (2022) Short-term memory for auditory temporal patterns and meaningless sentences predicts learning of foreign word forms. Brain Sciences, 12: 549. 9pp.
Eranovic, J., Pape, D., Stroínska, M., Service, E., Matkovski, M. “Effects of Noise on Speech Perception and Spoken Word Comprehension”. 23rd Interspeech Conference, September 18–22, 2022, Incheon, Korea.
Rana, F. S., Pape, D., & Service, E.. (2022). “The effect of increasing acoustic and linguistic complexity on auditory processing: an EEG study.” Interspeech 2022, 18–12 September, 2022, Incheon, Korea.
Lahti-Nuuttila, P., Laasonen, M., Smolander, S., Kunnari, S., Arkkila, E., & Service, E. (2021). Language acquisition of early sequentially bilingual children is moderated by short-term memory for order in developmental language disorder: Findings from the HelSLI study. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 907–926.
Lahti-Nuuttila, P., Service, E., Smolander, S., Kunnari, S., Arkkila, E., Laasonen, M. (2021). Short-term memory for serial order moderates aspects of language acquisition in children with developmental language disorder: Findings from the HelSLI study. Frontiers in Psychology, section Language Sciences, 12:608069. 17pp.
Bartošová, J., Chapman, C., Kučerová, I., & Service, E. (2020). Making Semantic Commitments Can Be Delayed: Evidence From Aspectual Processing. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale. Advance online publication.
Ylinen, S., Nora, A. & Service, E. (2020) Better phonological short-term memory is linked to improved cortical memory representations for word forms and better word learning. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 14, 209.
Ho, A., Boshra, R., Schmidtke, D., Oralova, G., Moro, A. L., Service, E., & Connolly, J. F. (2019). Electrophysiological evidence for the integral nature of tone in Mandarin spoken word recognition. Neuropsychologia, 131, 325-332.
Service, E., & Maury, S. (2015). Differential recall of derived and inflected word forms in working memory: examining the role of morphological information in simple and complex working memory tasks. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 1–16.
Service, E., Yli-Kaitala, H., Maury, S., & Kim, J. Y. (2014). Adults’ and 8-Year-Olds’ Learning in a Foreign Word Repetition Task: Similar and Different. Language Learning, 64(2), 215–246.
Laasonen, M., Virsu, V., Oinonen, S., Sandbacka, M., Salakari, A., & Service, E. (2012). Phonological and sensory short-term memory are correlates and both affected in developmental dyslexia. Reading and Writing, 25(9), 2247–2273.
Service, E., Helenius, P., Maury, S., & Salmelin, R. (2007). Localization of syntactic and semantic brain responses using magnetoencephalography. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19(7), 1193–1205.
Salmelin, R., Service, E., Kiesilä, P., Uutela, K., & Salonen, O. (1996). Impaired visual word processing in dyslexia revealed with magnetoencephalography. Annals of Neurology, 40(2), 157–162.
Service, E. (1992). Phonology, Working Memory, and Foreign-language Learning. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 45(1), 21–50.
- Fiza Ahmad, MSc Student, Cognitive Science of Language Program, McMaster University
- Jordan Gallant, PhD Student, Cognitive Science of Language Program, McMaster University
- Troy Freiburger, MSc Student, Cognitive Science of Language Program, McMaster University
- Pekka Lahti-Nuuttila, PhD Student, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki
- Esther Vicente Manzanedo, PhD Student, ARiEAL International Visiting Scholar Program
- Bre-Anna Owusu, PhD Student, Neuroscience Graduate Program, McMaster University
- Jade Plym, PhD Student, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki
- Chelsea Whitwell, PhD Student, Cognitive Science of Language Program, McMaster University