Katherine Marie Trice, M.A.

PhD Student, Psychology Department

Language Acquisition and Brain Lab (QLAB)

Northeastern University Psychology Department

Biography

Katherine Trice is a PhD student in Northeastern University’s Psychology Department. Her research interests focus on the cognitive and neural mechanisms underpinning language learning, in both typical and atypical development. Katherine has extensive neuroimaging experience in both MRI and EEG settings, and has implemented online behavioral metrics such as eye-tracking. She works with a wide variety of populations, including autistic and neurotypical children and adults as well as Deaf adults.

Interests

Human Development
Language Learning
Autism
Cognitive Neuroscience

Education

PhD in Psychology, Anticipated May 2026
Northeastern University
Bachelor of Arts degree in Linguistics, Minor in American Sign Language, 2020
University of Rochester
TEFL/TESOL Basic Certification, 2019
BridgeTEFL

Skills

Technical

MRI/fMRI

Familiar with Fitlins, QSIPrep, pyAFQ, CONN, SPM12. Can analyze structural connectivity, fMRI, and MVPA.

EEG

Familiar with EEGLAB, HAPPE, ERPLAB. Can analyze event-related potential, frequency power and oscillations, and micro-states.

Programming Skills

Proficient in Python Programming and R, familiar with Bash, Matlab, and Web Design.

Reproducibility

Familiar with use and implementation of OSF, GitHub, BIDS, Docker, Pre-Registration, and other similar systems.

General

Project Management

Lead teams of motivated research assistants (5-7 per team) and implement projects from design to analysis.

Science Communication

Have presented talks at peer reviewed conferences, written grant proposals, and prepared manuscripts for publications.

Teaching

Experience teaching small classes, lab classes, lectures, and workshops.

Mentorship

Supervise award-winning undergraduates on independent projects.

Projects

Brain, Language, and Autism Study (BLAST)

How do different modalities and domains of statistical learning skills grow and change across development in different populations, and what brain systems and connectivities underpin this? In this collection of projects, we use online statistical learning in the MRI to tease apart the developmental time-course of statistical learning in neurotypical individuals and determine how it differs in autistic children. We critically examine hypotheses of invariance, change, and domain-general vs language-specific mechanisms in statistical learning, and chart out the neural underpinnings of behavioral differences and connections to language development across our groups. Major contributions: Explore the neural development of statistical learning in neurotypical children and adults using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques, particularly MVPA; delineate how variations in structural connectivity in autistic and neurotypical children relate to statistical learning outcomes

Learning Second Sign Language Operation (LESSO)

What cognitive mechanisms may underpin implicit sign language learning in hearing, Deaf, and CODA adults? Here, we study everything from motor learning to working memory, statistical learning to vocabulary mapping, to determine the factors that most significantly modulate one’s ability to extract and map novel signs from context. Major contributions: Supervise assessment programming, piloting, and refining, created full project pipeline; lead recruitment and administration, particularly of more challenging populations such as Deaf individuals and CODAs.

Mentalization in Development (MIND)

How does the need to make pragmatic inferences to map words impact novel word meaning memory? In this collection of projects, we examine how the cognitive and neural basis of theory of mind modulate word learning outcomes in neurotypical and autistic adults and children, and how and why this may differ between individuals and groups. Major contributions: Empirically demonstrate stronger retention of pragmatically inferred over directly mapped words in neurotypical adults, older typically developing children, and a sub-group of autistic children, and a lack of it in younger typically developing children and a subgroup of autistic children; explore a significant modulating effect of theory of mind skills via both behavioral correlations and priming; conceptualize, design, program, and pilot neuro-imaging extensions of this project in neurotypical and autistic adults using fMRI (BOLD activation, MVPA, and functional connectivity) and EEG (pseudo-hyperscanning)

Publications

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Dionysia Saratsli, Katherine Marie Trice, Anna Papafragou, Zhenghan Qi (2023). Pragmatics and social cognition in learning and remembering words. Pragmatics and social cognition in learning and remembering words.

DOI Pre-Print