Aims of the Lab The aim of our research lab is to explore the basis of cognitive variability - that is, what makes individuals more or less able. We are interested in how cognitive abilities increase as children grow older, in how individuals of the same age can vary in their levels of intelligence, and in how cognitive abilities can be compromised in developmental disorders such as autism and Down syndrome. Our research is funded by the UK Medical Research Council, the British Academy, and the European Commission.

In the post-genomic age, there is increasing interest in the link between genes and behaviour, as well as the impact of environmental influence. Twin study research indicates that genes can explain up to half the variation between individuals in their intelligence or personality traits. Genes have been strongly implicated in causing developmental disorders. However, the link between genes (which express proteins within cells) and people's behaviour is very indirect. Our goal is to establish a cognitive level explanations of cognitive variability. A theory at this level can ultimately serve as a way to connect genes and behaviour. One day, we hope to answer the question: What computational property does your brain have more of if you're intelligent?

We have three principal methods for pursuing this research: (1) We have a strong emphasis on building neurocomputational models of development. This allows us to explore in detail the computational parameters that can allow learning systems to acquire a more or less sophisticated understanding of their environment. Our work thus far has explored language and cognitive development in infants and children, intelligence and individual variability, and approaches to capturing deficits in disorders including Williams syndrome, Specific Language Impairment (SLI), and developmental dyslexia. (2) We collect behavioural data to help us understand in more detail what is different about the cognitive systems of individuals with various levels of ability. This includes individuals at the upper and lower ends of normal variation, and individuals with developmental disorders. For the typically developing population, we are interested in understanding the link between intelligence and cognitive development. Is intelligence like having a little bit of extra cognitive development, so that less intelligent children will reach the same level of ability at a slightly later age? Or is intelligence something qualitatively different to development, so that more or less intelligent children think slightly differently whatever their ages? With regard to developmental disorders, our current focus is on language development, face processing, and visuospatial cognition in children with disorders including Williams syndrome, Down syndrome, autism, and SLI. (3) In collaborative work with the Functional Imaging Laboratory at UCL, we are using brain-imaging techniques to explore how neural processes alter across development, and how these patterns differ in developmental disorders, thus far concentrating on language. The brain-imaging work includes both structural and functional studies, and focuses on typical development and on Specific Language Impairment.

A central theme of our research is that the effects of genes and environments must be viewed from a developmental perspective. Whatever parameters produce more or less effective cognitive systems (be they mutated genes or different environments), these serve as constraints that shape the developmental processes. Both in our empirical and computational work, we therefore focus on developmental trajectories. In this perspective, we have been particularly influenced by the work of (among others), Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Elizabeth Bates, Mark Johnson, Jeffrey Elman, Jay McClelland, David Rumelhart, Mark Seidenberg, Kim Plunkett, Virginia Marchman, David Plaut, Barbara Finlay, and Dorothy Bishop, and are much indebted to these researchers.

Schedule of Lab Meetings and Seminars

Information on seminar schedules for lab members can be found here.

PhD Studentships available for October 2010

Three studentships are available in the lab under the Bloomsbury Colleges PhD studentships scheme for PhDs commencing October 2010. These studentships involve dual supervision between researchers at Birkbeck and the neighbouring Institute of Education. For studentship (1), the Birkbeck-based supervisor will be Dr. Angelica Ronald. For studentship (2), it will be Dr. Thomas. For studentship (3), it will be Prof. Karmiloff-Smith and Dr. Thomas. The project titles and links to relevant application details are: (1) Exploring Cognitive and Genetic Explanations for the Overlap Between Autism and Other Mental Health Problems in Adolescence. (2) Development of Word Naming and Knowing in Children Aged 3-7: A Behavioural and Computational Study. (3) The Development of Problem-Solving Abilities in Typical and Atypical Development. The closing date for applications is 1st March 2010.

Lab members

Dr. Dagmara Annaz
Dr. Frank Baughman
Dr. Michael Dash
Tessa Dekker
Roberto Filippi
Neil Forrester
Themis Karaminis
Prof. Annette Karmiloff-Smith
Victoria Knowland
Dr. Fabrizio Pizzioli
Dr. Harry Purser
Dr. Martin Redington
Dr. Fiona Richardson
Alan Richomme
Dr. Angelica Ronald
Dr. Michael Thomas
Sam Wass

Lab publications

Submitted publications and publications under revision (please do not cite without permission)

Thomas, M. S. C., Ronald, A., & Forrester, N. A. (submitted). Modelling the mechanisms underlying population variability across development: Simulating genetic and environmental effects on cognition Manuscript submitted for publication. Click here for PDF version (5.6mb)

Karaminis, T. N., & Thomas, M. S. C. (submitted). Simulating developmental patterns in the cross-linguistic acquisition of inflectional morphology. Manuscript submitted for publication. Click here for PDF version (235k)

Karaminis, T. N., & Thomas, M. S. C. (submitted). Connectionism. Manuscript submitted for publication. Click here for PDF version (173k)

Karaminis, T. N., & Thomas, M. S. C. (submitted). Connectionist theories of learning. Manuscript submitted for publication. Click here for PDF version (173k)

Thomas, M. S. C., Purser, H. R. M., & Mareschal, D. (submitted). The mystery of thought: demystified by context-dependent categorisation? Manuscript submitted for publication. Click here for PDF version (211K)

Thomas, M. S. C., Richardson, F. M., Forrester, N. A., & Baughman, F. D. (submitted). Modelling individual variability in cognitive development. Manuscript submitted for publication. Click here for PDF version (337K)

Purser, H. R. M., Thomas, M. S. C., Snoxall, S., Mareschal, D., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (submitted). Definitions versus categorisation: Assessing the development of lexico-semantic knowledge in Williams syndrome. Manuscript submitted for publication. Click here for PDF version (188K)

Thomas, M. S. C. (submitted). Language acquisition in developmental disorders. To appear in: M. Kail & M. Hickmann (Eds.), Language acquisition across linguistic and cognitive systems. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Click here for PDF version (202K)

Recent presentations

Forrester, G. S., Thomas, M. S. C., Annaz, D., & Mareschal, D. (2009). Limb lateralization and the evolution of communication. Poster presented at 1st Workshop on Cognition and Evolution (CogEvo), 11-13 June 2009, Rovereto, Italy. Click here for PDF version (6073K)

Thomas, M. S. C., Ronald, A., & Forrester, N. A. (2009). A simulated twin study exploring the heritability of past tense acquisition in a population of neural network models. Poster presented at Society for Research in Child Development, April 2-4 2009, Denver, USA. Click here for PDF version (950K)

Recent publications

Thomas, M. S. C., van Duuren, M., Purser, H., Mareschal, D., Ansari, D., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (in press). The development of metaphorical language comprehension in typical development and in Williams syndrome. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. Click here for PDF version (789k)

Thomas, M. S. C., Karminis, T. N., & Knowland, V. P. (in press). What is typical language development? Language Learning & Development. Click here for PDF version (84k). This article is a commentary accompanying this study.

Thomas, M. S. C. & Knowland, V. (2009). Sensitive periods in brain development: Implications for education policy. European Psychiatric Review. Click here for PDF of uncorrected proof (99K)

Richardson, F. M., Thomas, M. S. C., Filippi, R., Harth, H. & Price, C. J. (2009). Contrasting effects of vocabulary knowledge on temporal and parietal brain structure across lifespan. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. Click here for PDF version of uncorrected proof (710K)

Purser, H. R. M., Thomas, M. S. C., Snoxall, S., & Mareschal, D. (2009). The development of similarity: testing the prediction of a computational model of metaphor comprehension. Language and Cognitive Processes. Click here for PDF version of uncorrected proof (489K)

Richardson, F. M., Thomas, M. S. C., & Price, C. J. (2009). Neuronal activation for semantically reversible sentences. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. Click here for PDF of final draft (986K)

Annaz, D., Remington, A., Milne, E., Coleman, M., Campbell, R., Thomas, M. S. C., & Swettenham, J. (in press). Atypical development of motion processing trajectories in children with autism. Developmental Science. Click here for PDF version (609K)

Thomas, M. S. C., Purser, H. R. M., & Richardson, F. M. (in press). Modularity and developmental disorders. In: P. D. Zelazo (Ed), Oxford Handbook of Developmental Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Click here for PDF version (307K)

Westermann, G., Thomas, M. S. C., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (in press). Neuroconstructivism. In: U. Goswami (Ed.), Blackwell Handbook of Child Development (2nd Edition). Oxford: Blackwells. Click here for PDF version (269K)

Richardson, F. M., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2009). Language development in genetic disorders. In: E. Bavin (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Child Language, (pp. 459-471). Cambridge University Press. Click here for PDF of proof version (96K)

Annaz, D., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Johnson, M. H., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2009). A cross-syndrome study of the development of holistic face recognition in children with autism, Down syndrome and Williams syndrome. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 102, 456-486. Click here for PDF version (340K). Colour versions of some of the figures can be found here.

Thomas, M. S. C., Annaz, D., Ansari, D., Serif, G., Jarrold, C., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2009). Using developmental trajectories to understand developmental disorders. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 52, 336-358. Click here for PDF version (837K). A worksheet outlining how trajectory analyses can be carried out with SPSS accompanies this paper and can be found here: Trajectory Analysis Worksheet.

Spencer, J., Thomas, M. S. C., & McClelland, J. L. (2009). Toward a new unified theory of development: Connectionism and dynamical systems theory re-considered. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Thomas, M. S. C., McClelland, J. L., Richardson, F. M., Schapiro, A. C., & Baughman, F. (2009). Dynamical and connectionist approaches to development: Toward a future of mutually beneficial co-evolution. In J. Spencer, M. S. C. Thomas, & J. L. McClelland (Eds). Toward a new unified theory of development: Connectionism and dynamical systems theory re-considered. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Click here for PDF version (178K).

Thomas, M.S.C. (2009). Competition as a mechanism for producing sensitive periods in connectionist models of development. In J. Mayor, N. Ruh & K. Plunkett (Eds.), Progress in Neural Processing 18: Proceedings of the Eleventh Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop. Singapore: World Scientific. Click here for PDF version (180K).

Annaz, D., Van Herwegen, J., Thomas, M. S. C., Fishman, R., Karmiloff-Smith, A., & Runbland, G. (2008). The comprehension of metaphor and metonymy in children with Williams syndrome. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, iFirst Article, 1-17. Click here for PDF version (410K)

Thomas, M. S. C. (2008). L'acquisition du langage dans les pathologies du diveloppement [Language development in developmental disorders]. In M. Kail, M. Fayol, & M. Hickmann, L'apprentissage des langues, (pp. 451-475). Paris: CNRS Editions. Click here for English version (107K), click here for French version (445K)

Richardson, F. & Thomas, M. S. C. (2008). Critical periods and catastrophic interference in self-organising feature maps. Developmental Science, 11(3), 371-389. Click here for PDF version (490K)

Thomas, M. S. C. & Johnson, M. H. (2008). New advances in understanding sensitive periods in brain development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17(1), 1-5. Click here for PDF version (125K)

Sirois, S., Spratling, M., Thomas, M. S. C., Westermann, G., Mareschal, D., & Johnson, M. H. (2008). Precis of Neuroconstructivism: How the Brain Constructs Cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31, 321-356. Target article, commentaries, and response. Click here for PDF version (850K)

Thomas, M. S. C., Westermann, G., Mareschal, D., Johnson, M. H., Sirois, S., & Spratling, M. (2008). Studying development in the 21st Century. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31, 345-356. Click here for PDF version (850K)

Thomas, M. S. C., & McClelland, J. L. (2008). Connectionist models of cognition. In R. Sun (Ed.), Cambridge handbook of computational cognitive modelling (pp. 23-58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Click here for PDF version (282K)

Thomas, M. S. C. (2008). Ageing, plasticity, and cognitive reserve in connectionist networks. In B. C. Love, K. McRae, & V. M. Sloutsky (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2089-2094). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. Click here for PDF version (460K)

Baughman, F. D. & Thomas, M. S. C. (2008). Specific impairments in cognitive development: A dynamical systems approach. In B. C. Love, K. McRae, & V. M. Sloutsky (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1819-1824). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. Click here for PDF version (1231K)

Annaz, D., Karmiloff-Smith, A. & Thomas, M. S. C. (2008). The importance of tracing developmental trajectories for clinical child neuropsychology. In J. Reed & J. Warner Rogers (Eds.), Child neuropsychology: Concepts, theory and practice, (pp. 7-18). Oxford: : Wiley-Blackwell. Click here for pdf (87k)

Westermann, G., Mareschal, D., Johnson, M. H., Sirois, S., Spratling, M. W., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2007). Neuroconstructivism. Developmental Science, 10:1, 75-83. Click here for PDF version (189K)

Mareschal, D., Johnson, M., Sirios, S., Spratling, M., Thomas, M. S. C., & Westermann, G. (2007). Neuroconstructivism: How the brain constructs cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Excerpts (chapter proofs): Neuroconstructivism and developmental disorders. Neuroconstructivism, reading, and developmental dyslexia.

Mareschal, D. & Thomas M. S. C. (2007) Computational modeling in developmental psychology. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation (Special Issue on Autonomous Mental Development), 11(2), 137-150. Click here for PDF version (622K)

Mareschal, D & Thomas, MSC (2006). How computational models help explain the origins of reasoning. IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine. IEEE. Click here for PDF version (404K)

Thomas, M. S. C. (2006). Williams syndrome: Fractionations all the way down? Cortex, 42, 1053-1057. Click here for PDF version (69K)

Richardson, F.M., Baughman, F.D., Forrester, N. A., & Thomas, M.S.C. (2006). Computational Modeling of Variability in the Balance Scale Task. Proceedings of the 7^th International Conference of Cognitive Modeling. Click here for PDF version (131K)

Richardson, F. M., Forrester, N. A., Baughman, F. D., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2006). Computational Modeling of Variability in the Conservation Task. In Proceedings of The 28^th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (p. 2010-2015), July 26-29, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Click here for PDF version (191K)

Thomas, M. S. C., Forrester, N. A., & Richardson, F. M. (2006). What is modularity good for? In Proceedings of The 28^th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (p. 2240-2245), July 26-29, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Click here for PDF version (125K)

Thomas, M. S. C. & Johnson, M. H. (2006). The computational modelling of sensitive periods. Developmental Psychobiology, 48(4), 337-344. Click here for PDF version (201K)

Thomas, M. S. C., Dockrell, J. E., Messer, D., Parmigiani, C., Ansari, D., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2006). Speeded naming, frequency and the development of the lexicon in Williams syndrome. Language and Cognitive Processes, 21(6), 721-759. Click here for PDF version of uncorrected proofs (477K)

Richardson, F., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2006). The benefits of computational modelling for the study of developmental disorders: Extending the Triesch et al. model to ADHD. Developmental Science, 9(2), 151-155. Click here for PDF version (132K)

Thomas, M. S. C. (2005). Characterising compensation. Cortex, 41(3), 434-442. [Reprinted in: D. V. M. Bishop, M. A. Eckert & C. M. Leonard (2005) The Neurobiology of Developmental disorders. Milan, Italy: Masson.] Click here for PDF version (193K). Click here for target paper(289k)

Thomas, M. S. C., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2005). Can developmental disorders reveal the component parts of the human language faculty? Language Learning and Development, 1(1), 65-92. Click here for PDF version (111k)

Thomas, M. S. C. (2005). Plotting the causes of developmental disorders. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 9, Issue 10, 465-466. Click here for PDF version (17K)

Thomas, M. S. C. (2005). Constraints on language development: Insights from developmental disorders. To appear in: P. Fletcher & J. Miller (Eds.) Language Disorders and Developmental Theory. John Benjamins. Click here for PDF version of uncorrected proofs (no references) (166k), Click here for version with full book references (444k)

Thomas, M. S. C., & Richardson, F. (2005). Atypical representational change: Conditions for the emergence of atypical modularity. In M. Johnson & Y. Munakata (Eds.) Attention and Performance XXI (p.315-347). Click here for B&W PDF version (264k) and here for colour versions of the diagrams (250k)

Abreu, A. M., French, R. M., Annaz, D., Thomas, M. S. C., & de Schonen, S. (2005). A visual conflict hypothesis for global-local visual deficits in Williams syndrome: Simulations and data. Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Stresa, Italy, 21 July 2005. Click here for PDF version (265k)

Karmiloff-Smith, A. & Thomas, M. S. C. (2005). Les troubles du developpement viennent-ils confirmer les arguments de la psychologie evolutionniste? Une approche neuro-constructiviste. Revue Francaise de Pedagogie, 152, 11-19. Click here for (fuzzy) PDF version (4700k).

Thomas, M. S. C. & Redington, M. (2004). Modelling atypical syntax processing. In W. Sakas (Ed.), Proceedings of the First Workshop on Psycho-computational models of human language acquisition at the 20th International Conference on Computational Linguistics . Pp. 85-92. Click here for PDF version (90k)

Thomas, M. S. C. (2004). From scientific research to intervention in Williams syndrome. Williams Syndrome Foundation UK Magazine. Click here for PDF version (4465k)

Karmiloff-Smith, A., Thomas, M. S. C., Annaz, D., Humphreys, K., Ewing, S., Grice, S., Brace, N., Van Duuren, M., Pike, G., & Campbell, R. (2004). Exploring the Williams syndrome face processing debate: The importance of building developmental trajectories. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 45:7, 1258-1274. Click here for PDF version (191k)

Thomas, M. S. C. (2004). The state of connectionism in 2004. Parallaxis, 8, 43-61. Click here for html version

Karmiloff-Smith, A. & Thomas, M. S. C. (2003). What can developmental disorders tell us about the neurocomputational constraints that shape development? The case of Williams syndrome. Development and Psychopathology 15, 969-990. Click here for PDF of final draft (122k)

Thomas, M. S. C. (2003). Limits on plasticity. Journal of Cognition and Development, 4(1), 95-121. Click here for PDF version of uncorrected proof (114k)

Ansari, D., Donlan, C., Thomas, M. S. C., Ewing, S., Peen, T., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2003). How children with Williams syndrome understand why counting counts. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 85, 50-62. Abstract

Thomas, M. S. C. (2002). Development as a cause in developmental disorders. Computational Intelligence, 18(1), 50-54.

Karmiloff-Smith, A., Scerif, G., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2002). Different approaches to relating genotype to phenotype in developmental disorders. Developmental Psychobiology, 40, 311-322. Click here for PDF version of final draft (82k)

Thomas, M. S. C., Grant, J., Barham, Z., Gsodl, M., Laing, E., Lakusta, L., Tyler, L. K., Grice, S., Paterson, S. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2001). Past tense formation in Williams syndrome. Language and Cognitive Processes, 16 (2/3), 143-176. Word document (305k).

Thomas, M. S. C. (2004). How do simple connectionist networks achieve a shift from "featural" to "correlational" processing in categorisation? Infancy, 5(2), 199-207. This article is accepted for publication in Infancy Journal and is copyrighted by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. The following PDF is for personal use and readers must contact LEA for permission to reprint or use the material in any form. Click here for PDF version (89k) - Supporting material for the Infancy article (simple models and analysis)

Thomas, M. S. C. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2003). Modelling language acquisition in atypical phenotypes. Psychological Review, Vol. 110, No.4, 647-682. Click here for PDF of final draft (316k) Click here for PDF version (11,831k)

Thomas, M. S. C. (2003). Multiple causality in developmental disorders: Methodological implications from computational modelling. Developmental Science, 6 (5), 537-556. Click here for PDF of uncorrected proofs (648k)

Thomas, M. S. C. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2003). Connectionist models of development, developmental disorders and individual differences. In R. J. Sternberg, J. Lautrey, & T. Lubart (Eds.), Models of Intelligence: International Perspectives, (p. 133-150). American Psychological Association. Click here for PDF version (72k)

Thomas, M. S. C. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2002). Are developmental disorders like cases of adult brain damage? Implications from connectionist modelling. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 25, No. 6, 727-788. Click here for PDF version (1162k)

Thomas, M. S. C. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2002). Residual Normality: Friend or Foe? Behavioural and Brain Sciences. See above for download.

Thomas, M. S. C. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2002). Modelling typical and atypical cognitive development. In U. Goswami (Ed.), Handbook of Childhood Development (pp. 575-599). Blackwells Publishers. Click here for PDF version (104k)

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