{{short description|Language scientist}} {{Infobox academic | name = Rachel Mayberry | image = Rachel Mayberry BUCLD 2019.jpg | caption = Mayberry at the Boston University Conference on Language Development, 2019 | citizenship = | workplaces = {{Plainlist| * McGill University * University of California, San Diego }} | alma_mater = {{Plainlist| * Drake University (BA) * Washington University in St. Louis (MS) * McGill University (PhD) }} | awards = | spouse = |discipline=Communication scientist|sub_discipline=Language acquisition|main_interests=Sign language acquisition}}
'''Rachel I. Mayberry''' is a language scientist known for her research on the effects of age of acquisition on sign language acquisition among deaf individuals – research that has provided evidence for a critical period in first language acquisition.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2000-02/MU-Itac-1802100.php|title=Is there a critical period for sign language?|website=EurekAlert!|language=en|access-date=2019-05-20}}</ref> She is Professor of Linguistics at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and director of the Multimodal Language Lab.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://grammar.ucsd.edu/mayberrylab/RachelMayberry.html|title=Mayberry Bio & Research|website=grammar.ucsd.edu|access-date=2019-05-09}}</ref><ref name=":2" />
Mayberry received the Research Leadership Award from the McGill University School of Communication Sciences and Disorders in 2019 for "her distinguished career as a leader in research and research training in communication sciences and disorders."<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.mcgill.ca/scsd/about/honours-awards/alumni-awards/scsd-distinguished-alumni-awards/research-leadership-award|title=Research Leadership Award|website=School of Communication Sciences and Disorders|language=en|access-date=2019-05-09}}</ref>
Mayberry co-edited the book ''Language Acquisition by Eye'' (with Charlene Chamberlain and Jill Morford).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Language acquisition by eye|date=2000|publisher=Lawrence Erlbaum Associates|others=Chamberlain, Charlene., Morford, Jill Patterson, 1963-, Mayberry, Rachel I.|isbn=978-0585114811|location=Mahwah, N.J.|oclc=44956721}}</ref>
== Biography == Mayberry received her B.A. degree in English at Drake University<ref name=":0" /> and her Masters of Science in Speech and Hearing Science at Washington University in St. Louis in 1973.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.mcgill.ca/scsd/files/scsd/rm.brochure_rm.pdf|title=Distinguished Alumni Award, McGill University}}</ref> She attended graduate school at McGill University where she obtained her Ph.D. in 1979 in Communication Sciences & Disorders.<ref name=":3" /> Her dissertation was titled ''Facial Expression and Redundancy in American Sign Language.''<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Semiotic Sphere|last=Sebeok, Thomas A.|date=1986|publisher=Springer US|others=Umiker-Sebeok, Jean.|isbn=9781475702057|location=Boston, MA|oclc=853260539}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis|url=https://bac-lac.on.worldcat.org/oclc/15889993 |title=Facial expression and redundancy in American Sign Language |year=1981 |publisher=National Library of Canada |access-date=2019-05-18|last1=Mayberry |first1=Rachel I. }}</ref>
Mayberry held faculty and research positions at Northwestern University and at the University of Chicago before joining the faculty of the McGill School of Communication Sciences and Disorders in 1989.<ref name=":1" /> She served as Director of McGill School of Communication Sciences and Disorders from 1997–2002 before moving to the UCSD in 2005.
Over the years, Mayberry has secured multiple research grants from various agencies including the National Science Foundation,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1650581|title=NSF Award Search: Award#1650581 - Doctoral Dissertation Research: Investigating the Interplay between Language and Cognition in American Sign Language Referential Cohesion|website=www.nsf.gov|access-date=2019-05-09}}</ref> the National Institutes of Health,<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://carta.anthropogeny.org/users/rachel-mayberry|title=Rachel Mayberry {{!}} Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA)|website=carta.anthropogeny.org|language=en|access-date=2019-05-09}}</ref> and the Kavli Foundation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://kibm.ucsd.edu/research/award-recipients|title=Innovative Research Grants (IRG) Award Recipients {{!}} Kavli Institute for Brain & Mind|website=kibm.ucsd.edu|access-date=2019-05-18}}</ref> These awards have supported her work establishing a critical period for first-language acquisition among deaf individuals learning American Sign Language at varying ages,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://grantome.com/search|title=Grantome: Search|website=Grantome|language=en|access-date=2019-05-18}}</ref> and her work on the initial period of sign language acquisition among deaf individuals who use home sign, a system of language-like gestures used by deaf individuals who lack access to an established sign language.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mayberry|first=Rachel|title=RAPID: Language Emergence from Inception|journal=Grantome|url=http://grantome.com/grant/NSF/BCS-1724718|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cheng, Qi & Mayberry, Rachel I.|date=2019|title=Acquiring a first language in adolescence: the case of basic word order in American Sign Language|journal=Journal of Child Language|language=en|volume=46|issue=2|pages=214–240|doi=10.1017/S0305000918000417|issn=0305-0009|pmc=6370511|pmid=30326985}}</ref>
== Research == Mayberry's research program has focused on effects of varying age of exposure to language among deaf individuals, with a focus on the acquisition of American Sign Language as a first language by individuals of different ages. She has studied how age of acquisition affects sign language development by comparing native signers (deaf individuals who grew up learning sign language) with late signers (deaf people who acquired sign language after early childhood). She found that deaf individuals who did not acquire sign language at a young age had difficulties acquiring its grammatical and morphological features and showed differences in sign language processing as compared to native signers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Mayberry|first1=Rachel I.|last2=Eichen|first2=Ellen B.|date=1991|title=The long-lasting advantage of learning sign language in childhood: Another look at the critical period for language acquisition|journal=Journal of Memory and Language|language=en|volume=30|issue=4|pages=486–512|doi=10.1016/0749-596X(91)90018-F}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Mayberry|first1=Rachel I.|last2=Fischer|first2=Susan D.|date=1989|title=Looking through phonological shape to lexical meaning: The bottleneck of non-native sign language processing|journal=Memory & Cognition|language=en|volume=17|issue=6|pages=740–754|doi=10.3758/BF03202635|pmid=2811671 |issn=0090-502X|doi-access=free}}</ref> Late signers also performed worse than native signers in learning English as a second language.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mayberry|first=Rachel I.|date=2007|title=When timing is everything: Age of first-language acquisition effects on second-language learning|journal=Applied Psycholinguistics|language=en|volume=28|issue=3|pages=537–549|doi=10.1017/S0142716407070294|issn=1469-1817|doi-access=free}}</ref>
Mayberry's lab has used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study how age of acquisition affects the functional organization of language in the brain.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Mayberry|first1=Rachel I.|last2=Chen|first2=Jen-Kai|last3=Witcher|first3=Pamela|last4=Klein|first4=Denise|date=2011|title=Age of acquisition effects on the functional organization of language in the adult brain|journal=Brain and Language|language=en|volume=119|issue=1|pages=16–29|doi=10.1016/j.bandl.2011.05.007|pmid=21705060|s2cid=18930728 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Mayberry|first1=Rachel I.|last2=Davenport|first2=Tristan|last3=Roth|first3=Austin|last4=Halgren|first4=Eric|date=2018|title=Neurolinguistic processing when the brain matures without language|journal=Cortex|language=en|volume=99|pages=390–403|doi=10.1016/j.cortex.2017.12.011|pmc=5806214|pmid=29406150}}</ref> In 2018, her research group received the Best Poster Presentation Award from the open-access journal ''languages'' for their work on "The neural basis of syntactic processing in American Sign Language: An fMRI study."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hdls.unm.edu/conference/Best%20Poster%20Presentation%20Award.html|title=Best Poster Presentation Award :: High Desert Linguistics Society {{!}} The University of New Mexico|website=hdls.unm.edu|access-date=2019-05-09}}</ref>
== Representative publications ==
* Mayberry, R. I. (1993). First-language acquisition after childhood differs from second-language acquisition: The case of American Sign Language. ''Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research'', ''36''(6), 1258–1270. *Mayberry, R. I., & Eichen, E. B. (1991). The long-lasting advantage of learning sign language in childhood: Another look at the critical period for language acquisition. ''Journal of Memory and Language'', ''30''(4), 486–512. *Mayberry, R. I., & Kluender, R. (2018). Rethinking the critical period for language: New insights into an old question from American Sign Language. ''Bilingualism: Language and Cognition'', ''21''(5), 886–905. *Mayberry, R. I., & Lock, E. (2003). Age constraints on first versus second language acquisition: Evidence for linguistic plasticity and epigenesis. ''Brain and language'', ''87''(3), 369–384. *Mayberry, R. I., Lock, E., & Kazmi, H. (2002). Development: Linguistic ability and early language exposure. ''Nature'', ''417''(6884), 38.
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* [http://grammar.ucsd.edu/mayberrylab/RachelMayberry.html Faculty Home Page]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayberry, Rachel}} Category:Living people Category:American women scientists Category:University of California, San Diego faculty Category:McGill University alumni Category:Washington University in St. Louis alumni Category:Drake University alumni Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:American health professionals Category:Women linguists