Dr. Phoebe Gaston is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Languages at McMaster University. She received her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Maryland and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Connecticut.
Dr. Gaston specializes in psycholinguistics and the cognitive neuroscience of language. Her research is focused on word recognition, lexical representation, syntactic structure-building, and the neural and cognitive mechanisms for top-down context effects in language comprehension. She uses behavioural, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging data as well as computational modelling approaches.
One of her most recent research directions has been the evaluation and further development of predictive coding models for speech recognition. Typically, this type of modeling stops at the level of the wordform, but Dr. Gaston’s goal is extension to handle sentence-level contextual information. She is also developing new behavioral and electrophysiological paradigms for efficiently and effectively testing model predictions, and exploring potential utility for hearing aid interventions. Dr. Gaston is also working on a novel project that investigates changes in the auditory word recognition process as it occurs across different listening contexts, and what this can tell us about the hierarchy of linguistic information represented in the brain.
Expandable List
Email: gastonp@mcmaster.ca
Website: phoebegaston.com
Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics & Languages, McMaster University
Crinnion, A.M., Luthra, S., Gaston, P., & Magnuson, J. (2024). Resolving competing predictions in speech: how qualitatively different cues and cue reliability contribute to phoneme identification. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics.
Magnuson, J., Crinnion, A.M., Luthra, S., Gaston, P., & Grubb, S. (2024). Contra assertions, feedback improves word recognition: How feedback and lateral inhibition sharpen signals over noise. Cognition, 242, 1056610.
Brodbeck, C., Das, P., Gillis, M., Kulasingham, J., Bhattasali, S., Gaston, P., Resnik, P., & Simon, J.Z. (2023). Eelbrain: A Python toolkit for time-continuous analysis with temporal response functions. eLife 12:e85012.
Gaston, P.*, Brodbeck, C.*, Phillips, C., & Lau, E. (2023). Auditory word comprehension is less incremental in isolated words. Neurobiology of Language, 4(1), 29-52. (* denotes equal contribution)
Magnuson, J., Grubb, S., Crinnion, A.M., Luthra, S., & Gaston, P. (2022). How feedback in interactive activation improves perception. Proceedings of the 44th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
Gaston, P., Stockall, L., Van Wagenen, S. & Marantz, A. (2021). Memory for affixes in a long-lag priming paradigm. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 6(1).
Phillips, C., Gaston, P., Huang, N. & Muller, H. (2021). Theories all the way down: Remarks on “theoretical” and “experimental” linguistics. Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Syntax.
Gaston, P., Lau, E., & Phillips, C. (2019). Syntactic category does not inhibit lexical competition. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on the Mental Lexicon 2018.
Matchin, W., Liao, C., Gaston, P., & Lau, E. (2019). Same words, different structures: An fMRI investigation of argument relations and the angular gyrus. Neuropsychologia, 125, 116-128.
Gaston, P., Huang, N., & Phillips, C. (2017). The logic of syntactic priming and acceptability judgments. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 40, E289.
Gaston, P. & Marantz, A. (2017). The time course of contextual cohort effects in auditory processing of category-ambiguous words: MEG evidence for a single “clash” as noun or verb. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 33:4, 402-423.
Meyer, L., Henry, M. J., Schmuck, N., Gaston, P., & Friederici, A. D. (2016). Linguistic bias modulates interpretation of speech via neural delta-band oscillations. Cerebral Cortex, 27(9), 4293-4302.
Meyer, L., Grigutsch, M., Schmuck, N., Gaston, P., & Friederici, A. D. (2015). Frontal–posterior theta oscillations reflect memory retrieval during sentence comprehension. Cortex, 71, 205-21
Crinnion, A.M., Magnuson, J.M., Myers, E., & Gaston, P. (2023, November). Predictability effects on auditory word recognition in a novel priming paradigm. Oral presentation at the sixty fourth annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society.
Crinnion, A.M., Gaston, P., & Myers, E. (2022, November). Examining individual differences in semantic and acoustic cue use. Poster presentation at the sixty third annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society.
Crinnion, A.M., Magnuson, J., Myers, E., & Gaston, P. (2022, October). Predictability effects on auditory word recognition with a pre-primed semantic priming task. Poster presentation at the fourteenth annual meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language.
Magnuson, J., Grubb, S., Crinnion, A.M., Luthra, S., & Gaston, P. (2022, July). How feedback in interactive activation improves perception. Poster presentation at the 44th annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Toronto.
Crinnion, A.M., Luthra, S., Gaston, P., & Magnuson, J. (2021, November). Resolving competing predictions in speech perception. Oral presentation at the Psychonomic Society 2021 Annual Meeting.
Brodbeck, C., Luthra, S., Gaston, P., & Magnuson, J. (2021, July). Discovering computational principles in models and brains. Poster presentation at the 43rd annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
Gaston, P. & Lau, E. (2020, October). Syntactic vs. lexical prediction in posterior temporal lobe. Poster presentation at the twelfth annual meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language.
Gaston, P., Brodbeck, C., Phillips, C., & Lau, E. (2020, October). Cohort entropy and phoneme surprisal during auditory single-word recognition: a temporal response function analysis. Poster presentation at the twelfth annual meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language.
Gaston, P., Lau, E., & Phillips, C. (2019, June). Facilitation vs. inhibition as mechanisms for syntactic constraints on word recognition. Oral presentation at Psycholinguistics in Iceland – Parsing and Prediction (PIPP), Reykjavik, Iceland.
Gaston, P., Lau, E., & Phillips, C. (2019, March). Facilitation vs. inhibition as mechanisms for syntactic constraints on word recognition. Poster presentation at the 32nd annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference, Boulder, CO, USA.
Gaston, P., Lau, E., & Phillips, C. (2019, January). How syntactic context affects comprehension: facilitation vs. inhibition. Oral presentation at the Linguistic Society of America 2019 Annual Meeting, New York, NY, USA.
Muller, H., Gaston, P., Dickerson, B., Liter, A., Durvasula, K., Hirzel, M., Hitczenko, K., Kandel, M., Lyskawa, P., Nelligan, J., Papillon, M., & Perkins, L. (2019, January). Gender bias in representation and publishing rates across subfields. Oral presentation at the Linguistic Society of America 2019 Annual Meeting, New York, NY, USA.
Gaston P., Lau, E., & Phillips, C. (2018, September). Syntactic category facilitates rather than inhibits lexical competition. Poster presentation at the 11th International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Gaston, P., Lau, E., & Phillips, C. (2018, March). Modeling cross-method conflicts in the timing of context effects on the cohort. Poster presentation at the 31st annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference, Davis, CA, USA.
Gaston, P., Liao, C., Matchin, W., & Lau, E. (2017, November). Investigating task-modulated syntactic prediction with MEG. Poster presentation at the ninth annual Society for the Neurobiology of Language Conference, Baltimore.
Matchin W., Liao C., Gaston P., & Lau E. (2017, March). An fMRI investigation of argument structure and syntactic selection. Poster presentation at the 24th annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco.
Gaston, P., Gwilliams, L., & Marantz, A. (2015, October). The time course of cohort restriction in syntactic context: MEG evidence for a single auditory word-form. Poster presentation at the seventh annual Society for the Neurobiology of Language Conference, Chicago.
Meyer, L., Grigutsch, M., Henry, M., Schmuck, N., Gaston, P., & Friederici, A. (2015, October). Delta-band oscillatory phase predicts formation of syntactic phrases: electroencephalography evidence from attachment ambiguities. Poster presentation at the seventh annual Society for the Neurobiology of Language Conference, Chicago.
Oseki, Y., Gwilliams, L., Blanco-Elorrieta, E., Gaston, P., Marantz A., & Pylkkänen, L. (2015, October). Neural Dynamics of Morphological and Phrasal Composition. Poster presentation at the seventh annual Society for the Neurobiology of Language Conference, Chicago.
Linzen, T., Gaston, P., Gwilliams, L., & Marantz, A. (2014, August). Competition and prediction in the auditory processing of morphologically complex words. Poster presentation at the sixth annual Society for the Neurobiology of Language Conference, Amsterdam.
Meyer, L., Grigutsch, M., Schmuck, N., Gaston, P., & Friederici, A. D. (2014, August). Memory retrieval during pronoun processing relies on coherent theta oscillations between frontal and posterior cortex. Poster presentation at the sixth annual Society for the Neurobiology of Language Conference, Amsterdam.
Meyer, L., Grigutsch, M., Schmuck, N., Gaston, P., & Friederici, A. (2014, April). Frontal-posterior theta coherence subserves memory retrieval during language comprehension. Poster presentation at the 21st annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Boston.
Arredondo, M. M., Gaston, P., Ip, K. I, & Kovelman, I. (2012, October). Location, location, location—Where are we in the brain? Poster presented at the second biennial Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) Conference, London.