BIOGRAPHY

Debi was one of the first graduates of the Department of Psychology at Essex, before gaining her PhD at the University of London. She was a Research Associate at Goldsmiths College, University of London, before joining the Psychology Department as a lecturer in 2000. Her PhD fieldwork was carried out with a remote hunter-gatherer tribe in Papua New Guinea and post-doctoral projects include a longitudinal study with the nomadic Himba people of northern Namibia.

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

Linguistic and cultural relativity. My main area of research concerns the relationship between language and thought, with a particular interest in cross-cultural differences in categorisation. Recent research programmes have examined Categorical Perception and the influence of language on perceptual categories, such as colour, shape and facial expression. I am currently studying the development of children?s categorisation abilities and its relationship to language development. Other paradigms have examined the effect of language loss on the categorisation abilities of a visually anomic patient and the effects of verbal interference on categorisation performance in normal adults.

The language and thought debate

Science line: The world through language

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Roberson, D., Kikutani, Döge, P, Whitaker, L. & Majid, A. (2012) Shades of emotion: What the addition of sunglasses or masks to faces reveals about the development of facial expression processing. Cognition, 125, 195-206.

Hanley, J.R. & Roberson, D. (2011) Categorical perception effects reflect differences in typicality on within-category trials. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18, 355-363. DOI 10.3758/s13423-010-0043-z

Ramos, S. & Roberson, D. (2010) What constrains grammatical gender effects on semantic judgements? Evidence from Portuguese. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 23, Issue 1, 102. (download pdf)

This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of 'Informaworld' for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Cognitive Psychology, Volume 23 Issue 1, February 2011. doi:10.1080/20445911.2011.466795.

Roberson, D., Damjanovic, L. & Kikutani, M. (2010) Show and tell: The role of language in categorizing facial expressions of emotion. Emotion Review, 2, 255-260.

Kikutani, M., Roberson, D., & Hanley, J.R.  (2010). Categorical perception for unfamiliar faces: effect of covert and overt face learning.  Psychological Science, 21, 865-871.

Damjanovic, L., Roberson, D., Athanasopoulos, P., Kasai, C. & Dyson, M. (2010) Searching for happiness across cultures. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 10, 85-107.

Roberson, D., & Hanley, J.R. (2010). Relatively speaking: An account of the relationship between language and thought in the color domain. In B.C. Malt & P. Wolff (Eds.), Words and the mind: How words capture human experience (pp. 183-198). New York: Oxford University Press. Download.pdf

Roberson, D. (2009) Color in mind, culture and language. In: Schaller, M., Norenzayan, A., Heine, S.H., Yamagishi, T. & Kameda, T. (Eds.) Evolution, Culture and the Human Mind, pp. 167-184. Hove: Psychology Press.

Roberson, D. & Hanley, J.R. (2009). Only half right: Comment on Regier & Kay. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13, 500.

Roberson, D. & Hanley, J.R. (2009) Relatively speaking: what is therelationship between language and thought in the color domain? Glimpse, 2, 3, 68-77. (link to paper)

Roberson, D., Hanley, J.R., & Pak, H.S. (2009) Thresholds for colour discrimination in English and Korean speakers. Cognition, 482-487. link to paper

Pak, H.S. & Roberson, D. (2009) Unique Hue Judgment in Different Languages:   A Comparison of Korean and English. Journal of Cognitive Science, 10, 21- 40.

Roberson, D. & Pak, H.S. (2009) Categorical Perception of Color is Restricted to the Right Visual Field in Korean Speakers Who Maintain Central Fixation. Journal of Cognitive Science, 10, 41- 51.

Agrillo, C. & Roberson, D. (2009) Colour language and colour cognition: Brown and Lenneberg revisited. Visual Cognition, 17, 412-430.

Davidoff, J., Goldstein, J. & Roberson, D. (2009) Nature vs. nurture: The simple contrast. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 102, 246-250. (download.pdf)

Goldstein, J., Davidoff, J. & Roberson, D. (2009) Knowing color terms enhances recognition: Further evidence from English and Himba. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 102, 219-238. (download.pdf)

Hanley, J.R. & Roberson, D. (2008). Do infants see colors differently? Scientific American Mind and Brain, May 2008. (link to paper)

Kikutani, M., Roberson, D. & Hanley, J.R. (2008) What's in the name? Categorical Perception of unfamiliar faces can occur through labelling. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15, 787-794. (download.pdf)

Heaton, P., Ludlow, A. & Roberson, D. (2008) When less is more: poor discrimination but good colour memory in Autism. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 2, 147-156.

Roberson, D., Pak, H.S. & Hanley, J.R. (2008) Categorical perception of colour in the left and right visual field is verbally mediated: Evidence from Korean. Cognition, 107, 752-762. (link to paper)

Roberson, D. & Hanley, J.R. (2007) Color categories vary with language after all. Current Biology, 17, 605-606.

Roberson, D., Damjanovic, L. & Pilling, M (2007) Categorical Perception of Facial Expressions: Evidence for a 'Category Adjustment' model. Memory & Cognition, 35, 1814-1829.(download.pdf)

O'Hanlon, C.G. & Roberson, D. (2007) What constrains children's learning of novel shape terms? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 97, 138-148. (download.pdf)

Jameson, K. A., Bimler, D., Dedrick, D. & Roberson, D. (2007). Considering the Prevalence of the Stimulus Error in Color Naming Research. Journal of Cognition & Culture, 7, 119-142. (download.pdf)

Roberson, D., Davidoff, J., Davies, I.R.L. & Shapiro, L. R. (2006) Colour Categories and Category Acquisition in Himba and English. In N. Pitchford & C. Bingham (Eds.) Progress in Colour Studies, 159-172. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (download.pdf)

O'Hanlon, C.G. & Roberson, D. (2006) Learning in Context: Linguistic and attentional constraints on children's color term learning. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 94, 275-300. (download pdf)

Roberson, D., Davies, I.R.L., Corbett, G. & Vandervyver, M. (2005) Freesorting of colors across cultures: Are there universal grounds for grouping? Journal of Cognition and Culture, 5, 349-386.(download.pdf)

Roberson, D., & O’Hanlon, C. (2005) How culture might constrain colour categories. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 28, 505-506. (download.pdf)

Roberson, D., Davidoff, J., Davies, I. & Shapiro, L. (2005) Colour categories in Himba: Evidence for the cultural relativity hypothesis. Cognitive Psychology, 50, 378-411. (download.pdf)

Roberson, D., Davidoff, J., Davies, I.R.L. & Shapiro, L. R. (2004) The Development of Color Categories in Two languages: a longitudinal study. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 554-571.(download.pdf)

Davidoff, J. & Roberson, D. (2004) Preserved thematic and impaired taxonomic categorisation: A case study. Language & Cognitive Processes, 19, 137-174.(download.pdf)

Roberson, D. (2005) Color categories are culturally diverse in cognition as well as in language. Cross-Cultural Research, 39, 56-71.(Color download.pdf)

Roberson, D., Davies I. & Davidoff, J. (2002) Colour categories are not universal: Replications and new evidence . In B. Saunders & J. van Brakel (Eds.) Theories, technologies, instrumentalities of color: Anthropological and historical perspectives. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America Inc.(download.pdf)

Roberson, D., Davidoff, J. & Shapiro, L. (2002) Squaring the circle: The cultural relativity of good shape. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 2, 29-53.(download.pdf)

Davidoff, J. & Roberson, D. (2002) Development of animal recognition: A difference between parts and wholes. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 81, 217-234.

Roberts, M.J. & Roberson, D. (2001) Predicting strategy use for the compass point directions task: Spatial versus verbal ability across the lifespan. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive/Current Psychology of Cognition, 20, 3-18.

Roberson, D. & Davidoff, J. (2000) The categorical perception of colours and facial expressions: The effect of verbal interference. Memory & Cognition, 28, 977-986.

Roberson, D., Davies I. & Davidoff, J. (2000) Colour categories are not universal: Replications and new evidence from a Stone-age culture. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , 129, 369-398. (download.pdf)

Roberson, D., Davidoff, J. & Braisby, N. (1999) Similarity and categorisation: Neuropsychological evidence for a dissociation in explicit categorisation tasks. Cognition 71, 1-42.

Davidoff, J., Davies, I. & Roberson, D. (1999) Colour categories in a stone-age tribe, Nature, 402, 604-604.

Davidoff, J., Davies, I. & Roberson, D. (1999) Colour categories of a stone-age tribe. Nature 398, 203-204. (download.pdf)

Davidoff, J. & Roberson, D. (1999) Similarity and categorization: Neuropsychological evidence for dissociations in categorization tasks. Brain and Language 69, 296-298.