Taeko Wydell
Head of Psychology Department, Professor of Cognitive Neurospychology / Neuroscience
Psychology
Brunel University
Uxbridge, UB8 3PH
United Kingdom
Biography
Qualifications
- PhD Psychology (London)
- BA (Hons) Psychology (Middlesex)
Personal Biography
Having completed my ESRC funded PhD in 1991 as a mature student, I worked on my research as a MRC Post-Doc Research Fellow at UCL until 1994. In 1994 I was the first psychologist to be awarded a four-year (1994-1998) Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship at UCL. While I was at UCL, I taught Intercalated Medical Students who completed their BSc in Psychology within a year. I was then offered a lectureship at Brunel, and was appointed as professor in 2004. I was an EU Invited Scientist to Helsinki University of Technology (2000-2003) conducting MEG research. I have several international collaborations (e.g. Australia, China, Finland, France, Japan, etc).
Research
Research Overview
My research theme is the universality and language specificity of language/literacy processing. I focus on the cognitive and neural processes involved in reading/writing/ speaking/listening in different language user (English, Finnish, Spanish, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, etc.). I use both normal children/adults as well as language/reading impaired children/adults (e.g., dyslexia & SLI – specific language impairment) as participants, employing both behavioural and neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG, MEG, TMS) methods.
Co-Director, Centre for Cognition and Neuroimaging (CCNI)
Current Projects
JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science)
A PDP simulation model of the Hypothesis of granularity and Transparency (Wydell’s Hypothesis postulated in 1999)
£25,000
April 2010 – March 2013
Taeko Wydell (CI) & Mutsuo Ijuin (TMIG) (PI)
Recently Completed Projects
ESRC
Using rotated text to investigate cross cultural differences in reading
£100,000
January 2010 – September 2011
Taeko Wydell (CI) & Patricia Riddell (Reading) (PI)
British Academy
£138,000
Cross-cultural and linguistic study of reading processes including dyslexia in France, UK and Japan. (This project includes both behavioural and neuroimaging (fMRI) studies
January 2010 – April 2011
Taeko Wydell (PI)
Royal Society
Word and picture naming in English: a MEG study
£5,000 (International Outgoing Travel Award)
April – May 2009
Taeko Wydell (PI)
NTT Communication Science Laboratories
The Cognitive processes involved in Kanji word reading (Projet-1) & behavioural dissociation and neural unity (Project-II)
£20,000
January 2009 – March 2010
Taeko Wydell (PI)
JSPS
A case study of Japanese-English bilingual girl with SLI
£50,000
March 2008 – April 2009
Taeko Wydell (CI) & Akira Uno (Tsukuba) (PI)
JSPS
The relationship between reading/writing skills and phonological/visuo-spatial processing abilities among Japanese primary school children (Project-1) and among junior-high school children (Project-II)
£150,000
April 2006 – March 2009
Taeko Wydell (CI) & Akira Uno (Tsukuba) (PI)
Science Academy of China
The visual magnocellular system and reading in Chinese: an ERP study
April 2008 – March 2009
Taeko Wydell (CI) & H-I Bi (PI)
ESRC
Cross script length effects in Serbian, Japanese Hiragana and Katakana
£100,000
November 2007 – December 2008
Taeko Wydell (CI) & Cathy Russell (RH) (PI)
PhD Supervision
Solomon Mangvwat: The relationship between cognitive development and literacy development in English among Nigerian ESL children; May 2011 – May 2014 (Overseas)
Lisa Kuhn: Perception/identification of emotion in tons/pictures among children and adults: a cross linguistic study between English and German speakers; October 2011 – September 2014 (ESRC studentship)
Teaching
Undergraduate Programmes
Module convenor
- Biological Psychology
Module contributor
- Sole lecturer of above
Postgraduate Programmes
Module contributor
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Speech Perception/Production
- Reading & Writing
- Neuroscientific Methodology (MEG)
Administration
- Head of Department, Psychology
- Departmental REF Representative
External Activity
- External Examiner to BSc in Psychology, Southampton University
- External Examiner to MSc Nuroscience Language and Communication, UCL
- Honorary Member of the ICN (Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience), UCL
- Visiting Professor to the University of Tsukuba, Japan, 2005 -
- BPS Chartered Psychologist
- BPS Associate Fellow
- SSSR – Voting Member
- JDRA (Japan Dyslexia Research Association) linked with the IDA (International Dyslexia Association) – Executive member
- JCNPS (Japanese Cognitive Neuropsychology Society – Executive member
Publications
Publications
Journal Papers
(2013) Akashi, N., Uno, A., Haruhara, N., Kaneko, M., Wydell, TN., Awaya, N., Kozuka, J. and Goto, T., Characteristics of kanji word reading in japanese children with developmental dyslexia -using screening test of reading and writing for japanese primary school children (STRAW)-, Japan Journal of Logopedics and Phoniatrics 54 (1) : 1- 7
(2013) Erritty, P. and Wydell, TN., Are lay people good at recognising the symptoms of schizophrenia?, PLoS One 8 (1) : e52913- Download publication
(2012) Sambai, A., Uno, A., Kurokawa, S., Haruhara, N., Kaneko, M., Awaya, N., Kozuka, J., Goto, T., Tsutamori, E., Nakagawa, K. and Wydell, TN., An investigation into kana reading development in normal and dyslexic Japanese children using length and lexicality effects, Brain and Development 34 (6) : 520- 528
(2011) Imura, J., Haruhara, N., Uno, A., Kaneko, M., Wydell, TN., Awaya, N., Goto, T., Kozuka, J. and Shinya, N., Error analysis of writing to dictation of kanji words in japanese children with developmental dyslexia and normally developed children -using Screening Test of Reading and Writing for Japanese Primary School Children (STRAW)-, Japan Journal of Logopedics and Phoniatrics 52 (2) : 165- 172
(2010) Wang, J-J., Bi, H-Y., Gao, L-Q. and Wydell, TN., The visual magnocellular pathway in Chinese-speaking children with developmental dyslexia, Neuropsychologia 48 (12) : 3627- 3633
(2010) Suzuzki, K., Uno, A., Haruhara, N., Kaneko, M., Wydell, TN., Awaya, N., Kozuka, J. and Goto, T., Characteristics of Hiragana and Katakana writing in children with developmental dyslexia, evaluated by the Screening Test of Reading and Writing for Japanese primary school children (STRAW), The Japan Journal of Logopedics and Phoniatrics 51 (1) : 1- 11
(2009) Uno, A., Wydell, TN., Haruhara, N., Kaneko, M. and Shinya, N., Relationship between reading/writing skills and cognitive abilities among Japanese primary-school children: normal readers versus poor readers (dyslexics), Reading and Writing 22 (7) : 755- 789
(2009) Shapiro, LR., Hurry, J., Masterson, J., Wydell, TN. and Doctor, E., Classroom implications of recent research into literacy development: from predictors to assessment, Dyslexia 15 (1) : 1- 22
(2009) Uno, A., Wydell, TN., Kato, M., Itoh, K. and Yoshino, F., Cognitive neuropsychological and regional cerebral blood flow study of a Japanese-English bilingual girl with specific language impairment (SLI), Cortex 45 (2) : 154- 163
(2009) Rastle, K., Havelka, J., Wydell, TN., Coltheart, M. and Besner, D., The cross-script length effect: further evidence challenging PDP models of reading aloud, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 35 (1) : 238- 246
(2005) Nakamura, K., Oga, T., Okada, T., Sadato, N., Takayama, Y., Wydell, T., Yonekura, Y. and Fukuyama, H., Hemispheric asymmetry emerges at distinct parts of the occipitotemporal cortex for objects, logograms and phonograms: A functional MRI study, NeuroImage 28 (3) : 521- 528
(2003) Wydell, TN., Vuorinen, T., Helenius, P. and Salmelin, R., Neural correlates of letter-string length and lexicality during reading in a regular orthography, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 15 (7) : 1052- 1062
(2003) Wydell, TN. and Kondo, T., Phonological deficit and the reliance on orthographic approximation for reading: a follow-up study on an English-Japanese bilingual with monolingual dyslexia, Journal of Research in Reading 26 (1) : 33- 48
(2003) Shibahara, N., Zorzi, M., Hill, MP., Wydell, T. and Butterworth, B., Semantic effects in word naming: evidence from English and Japanese Kanji, The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A 56 (2) : 263- 286
(2003) Richardson, JTE. and Wydell, TN., The representation and attainment of students with dyslexia in UK higher education, Reading and Writing 16 (5) : 475- 503
(2000) Wydell, TN. and Shinkai, T., Kanji character-sond consistency effects in Japanese surface and phonological dyslexic patients (Abstract), International Journal of Psychology 35 (3-4) : 88- 180
(1999) Wydell, TN. and Butterworth, B., A case study of an English-Japanese bilingual with monolingual dyslexia, Cognition 70 (3) : 273- 305
(1998) Wydell, TN., What matters in kanji word naming: consistency, regularity, or On/Kun-reading difference?, Reading and Writing 10 (3-5) : 359- 373
(1996) Patterson, K., Suzuki, T. and Wydell, TN., Interpreting a case of Japanese phonological alexia: The key is in phonology, COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY 13 (6) : 803- 822
(1996) Kazui, H., Tanabe, H., Ikeda, M., Hashimoto, M., Yamada, N., Okuda, J. and Wydell, TN., Retrograde amnesia during transient global amnesia, Neurocase 2 (2) : 127- 133
(1995) Wydell, TN., Butterworth, B. and Patterson, K., The inconsistency of consistency effects in reading: the case of Japanese Kanji, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 21 (5) : 1155- 1168
(1993) Wydell, TN., Patterson, KE. and Humphreys, GW., Phonologically mediated access to meaning for Kanji: is a rows still a rose in Japanese Kanji?, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 19 (3) : 491- 514
Book Chapters
(2012) WYDELL, TN., Cross-Cultural/Linguistic Differences in the Prevalence of Developmental Dyslexia and the Hypothesis of Granularity and Transparency. In: Wydell, TN. ed. Dyslexia: A comprehensive and International approach. Croatia : INTECH Open Science/Open Minds 1- 14
(2010) Wydell, TN., Relationship between reading and phonological awareness (PA) skills amongst Japanese primary and junior high school children: normal vs. poor readers (dyslexics). In: Rifkin, C. ed. Language Learning and Dyslexia: Symposium Proceedings, 15th February 2008. The School of Oriental and African Studies,External Services Division
