How the mind, brain, and body encode and use structure that exists in time and space remains one of the deep mysteries of cognitive science. My research aims to elucidate this problem by studying what is known as "statistical" or "implicit" learning, along three interconnected research strands:
1) First, I aim to clarify the nature of the cognitive and neural systems devoted to implicit statistical learning. I am particularly interested in understanding how statistical learning is manifested across the sense modalities and motor systems, as well as specifying the ways in which these subsystems interact with one another.
2) Second, I investigate the role that statistical learning plays in higher cognitive processes, such as language processing and working memory. Statistical learning stands at the intersection of numerous research areas within cognitive science and therefore can serve to elucidate common mechanisms involved across cognitive domains.
3) Third, I explore statistical learning within a developmental and comparative perspective, in both typical and atypical populations. Studying the interconnected relationship between statistical learning, cognition, and language throughout development -- including in cases where there is an absence of sensory or linguistic experience early on -- provides a richer understanding than studying adults alone. Furthermore, by understanding the abilities and the limitations that non-human species have for processing statistical information, we can begin to see the origins, as well as the unique aspects, of such capabilities in humans.
Chris graduated with a B.S.E from Duke University in 1994, majoring in biomedical and electrical engineering. After a three-year stint as a project engineer, Chris pursued graduate work in cognitive psychology, earning a master's degree at Southern Illinois in 2001 and a PhD at Cornell University in 2005. His graduate work was supervised by Morten Christiansen.
Chris's main research interests lie in the area of implicit/statistical sequence learning, that is, the process through which organisms learn structured information from the environment. He is particularly interested in how such learning is constrained by the sense modality which is used to perceive the information, as well as how these learning abilities contribute to language processing and other fundamental cognitive processes.
Chris currently is an NIH postdoctoral research fellow in David Pisoni's Speech Research Lab at Indiana University, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Here, Chris is exploring links between learning, memory, and language, in both normal-hearing adults and children as well as deaf children with cochlear implants.
Conway, C.M. & Pisoni, D.B. (in press). Neurocognitive basis of implicit learning of sequential structure and its relation to language processing. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Pisoni, D.B., Conway, C.M., Kronenberger, W., Horn, D.L., Karpicke, J., & Henning, S. (in press). Efficacy and effectiveness of cochlear implants in deaf children. In M. Marschark & P. Hauser (Eds.), Deaf cognition: Foundations and outcomes. New York: Oxford University Press.
Conway, C.M., Karpicke, J., & Pisoni, D.B. (2007). Contribution of implicit sequence learning to spoken language processing: Some preliminary findings with hearing adults. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 12, 317-334.
Christiansen, M.H., Conway, C.M., & Onnis, L. (2007). Neural responses to structural incongruencies in language and statistical learning point to similar underlying mechanisms. In D.S. McNamara & J.G. Trafton (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 173-178). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Conway, C.M. & Pisoni, D.B. (2007). Links between implicit learning of sequential patterns and spoken language processing. In D.S. McNamara & J.G. Trafton (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 191-196). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Conway, C.M., Goldstone, R.L., & Christiansen, M.H. (2007). Spatial constraints on statistical learning of multi-element scenes. In D.S. McNamara & J.G. Trafton (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 185-190). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Conway, C.M. & Christiansen, M.H. (2006). Statistical learning within and between modalities: Pitting abstract against stimulus-specific representations. Psychological Science, 17, 905-912.
Conway, C.M., & Christiansen, M.H. (2005a). Modality-constrained statistical learning of tactile, visual, and auditory sequences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 31, 24-39.
Conway, C.M. & Christiansen, M.H. (2005b). Statistical learning within and across modalities: Abstract versus stimulus-specific representations. In: Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 488-493). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Christiansen, M.H., Conway, C.M., & Curtin, S. (2005). Multiple-cue integration in language acquisition: A connectionist model of speech segmentation and rule-like behavior. In J.W. Minett & W.S.-Y. Wang (Eds.), Language acquisition, change and emergence: Essay in evolutionary linguistics (pp. 205-249). Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press.
Conway, C.M., Ellefson, M.R., & Christiansen, M.H. (2003). When less is less and when less is more: Starting small with staged input. In Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 810-815). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Christiansen, M.H., Conway, C.M., & Ellefson, M.R. (2003). Raising the bar for connectionist modeling of cognitive developmental disorders. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25, 752-753. [Commentary]
Conway, C.M., & Christiansen, M.H. (2002). Sequential learning by touch, vision, and audition. In Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 220-225). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Conway, C.M., & Christiansen, M.H. (2001). Sequential learning in non-human primates. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5, 529-546.
Christiansen, M.H., Ellefson, M.R., Dale, R.A.C., & Conway, C.M. (2001). The role of sequential learning in language evolution: Computational and experimental studies. In A. Cangelosi & D. Parisi (Eds.) Simulating the evolution of language (pp.165-187). London: Springer-Verlag.
Christiansen, M.H., Conway, C.M., & Curtin, S. (2000). A connectionist single-mechanism account of rule-like behavior in infancy. In Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 83-88). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.