Professor Andrea Krott MA, PhD

Professor Andrea Krott

School of Psychology
Professor of Psychology of Language
Deputy Head of School

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 4903
Email
a.krott@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
School of Psychology
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Andrea Krott studies the psychology of human language. Her early research investigated how we store and represent language rules and words in our minds and how children acquire those rules and words. More recently, she has investigated language as an ability that interacts with other cognitive abilities. She is interested in how general cognitive abilities such as attention and cognitive flexibility affect language acquisition and language processing. And vice versa, she has been studying how language experience, especially bilingualism, affects cognitive and socio-communicative abilities.

Qualifications

  • M.A., University of Trier (Germany)
  • Ph.D., University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands)

Teaching

Module lead on Research Methods and Skills in Psychology - masters level module

Contribution to Language and Communication - UG level 2 module

Postgraduate supervision

Andrea Krott is a psycholinguist who is interested in language acquisition and brain responses to language processing. Many of her studies, carried out in various languages, have focused on how adults and children understand and produce compound words (eg, ‘baby bottle’). Her current research concerns children’s word learning and language-related brain responses (EEG) in adults.

With regard to adult language processing, Dr Krott often uses EEG to better understand the neural processes that underlie language comprehension or production. One of her projects, funded by the Wellcome Trust, focused on a language-related EEG effect, the left anterior negativity (LANs), and its occurrence during the processing of morphologically complex words. Currently she is investigating neural correlates of language production. In another recent collaborative project Dr Krott is exploring language assessment tools for bilingual children. Dr Krott is interested to hear from doctoral researchers who would like to work in any of her research areas.

My current research interest are 

  • word learning in infancy and early childhood 
  • the relationship of cognitive abilities and word learning 
  • cognitive and socio-communicative advantages in bilingualism
  • the bilingual brain 
  • effects of bilingual neural and cognitive changes on language processing

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you are interested in pursuing a postgraduate degree (masters or PhD) in any of these or related research areas.

Have a look also at my lab webpage https://andreakrott.com

Publications

Highlight publications

DeLuca, V, Segaert, K, Mazaheri, A & Krott, A 2020, 'Understanding bilingual brain function and structure changes? U bet! A unified bilingual experience trajectory model', Journal of Neurolinguistics, vol. 56, 100930. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2020.100930

Zuniga Montanez, CC, Kita, S, Aussems, S & Krott, A 2021, 'Beyond the Shape of Things: Infants Can Be Taught to Generalize Nouns by Objects’ Functions', Psychological Science, vol. 32, no. 7, pp. 1073-1085. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797621993107

Markiewicz, R, Mazaheri, A & Krott, A 2022, 'Bilingualism can cause enhanced conflict monitoring and occasional delayed responses in a flanker task', European Journal of Neuroscience, pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15863

Floccia, C, Sambrook, T, Delle Luche, C, Kwok, R, Goslin, J, White, L, Cattani, A, Sullivan, E, Abbot-Smith, K, Krott, A, Mills, D, Rowland, C, Gervain, J & Plunkett, K 2018, 'Vocabulary of 2-year-olds learning English and an additional language: norms and effects of linguistic distance', Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, vol. 83, no. 1, pp. 1-135. https://doi.org/10.1111/mono.v83.1

Poarch, G & Krott, A 2019, 'A bilingual advantage? An appeal for a change in perspective and recommendations for future research', Behavioral Sciences, vol. 9, no. 9, 95. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs9090095

Recent publications

Article

Agostini, V, Apperly, I & Krott, A 2024, 'Greater sensitivity to communication partners’ perspectives in children learning a second language at school', Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

Zuniga Montanez, CC & Krott, A 2024, 'Late Talkers can generalise trained labels by object shape similarities, but not unfamiliar labels', Journal of Child Language. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000924000163

DeLuca, V, Voits, T, Ni, J, Carter, F, Foyzul, R, Mazaheri, A, Krott, A & Segaert, K 2024, 'Mapping individual aspects of bilingual experience to adaptations in brain structure', Cerebral Cortex, vol. 34, no. 2, bhae029. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhae029

Carter, F, DeLuca, V, Segaert, K, Mazaheri, A & Krott, A 2023, 'Functional neural architecture of cognitive control mediates the relationship between individual differences in bilingual experience and behaviour', NeuroImage, vol. 273, 120085. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120085

Snape, S & Krott, A 2022, 'The challenge of relational referents in early word extensions: Evidence from noun-noun compounds.', Journal of Child Language, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 131-163. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000920000793

Tarighat, S & Krott, A 2021, 'Bilingualism enhances reported perspective taking in men, but not in women', Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 12, 679524. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.679524

Fritz, I, Kita, S, Littlemore, J & Krott, A 2021, 'Multimodal language processing: How preceding discourse constrains gesture interpretation and affects gesture integration when gestures do not synchronise with semantic affiliates.', Journal of Memory and Language, vol. 117, 104191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2020.104191

Goranova, J, Olson, A & Krott, A 2021, 'What about lexical competition? Exploring the locus of lexical retrieval deficits in adults with developmental dyslexia', Neuropsychology, vol. 35, no. 8, pp. 822-846. https://doi.org/10.1037/neu0000767

Krott, A, Medaglia, M & Porcaro, C 2019, 'Early and late effects of semantic distractors on electroencephalographic responses during overt picture naming', Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 10, no. MAR, 696. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00696

Fritz, I, Kita, S, Littlemore, J & Krott, A 2019, 'Information packaging in speech shapes information packaging in gesture: The role of speech planning units in the coordination of speech-gesture production.', Journal of Memory and Language, vol. 104, pp. 56-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2018.09.002

Zhou, B & Krott, A 2018, 'Bilingualism enhances attentional control in non-verbal conflict tasks – evidence from ex-Gaussian analyses', Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 162–180. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728916000869

Snape, S, Krott, A & McCleery, JP 2018, 'Do children with Autism Spectrum Disorder benefit from structural alignment when constructing categories?', Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, pp. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3551-8

Snape, S & Krott, A 2018, 'The benefit of simultaneously encountered exemplars and of exemplar variability to verb learning', Journal of Child Language. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000918000119

Snape, S & Krott, A 2017, 'The role of inhibition in moving beyond perceptually focused noun extensions', First Language, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 95-108. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142723717737195

Digital or Visual Products

Cattani, A, Krott, A, Dennis, I & Floccia, C, WinG: Words in Game Test, 2019, Digital or Visual Products, Stass Publications, St Mabyn, United Kingdom. <http://www.stasspublications.co.uk/CatalogueRetrieve.aspx?ProductID=9832676&A=SearchResult&SearchID=2238576&ObjectID=9832676&ObjectType=27>

View all publications in research portal