Melissa Baese-Berk

I was okay until the Ozzy fact and now I’m a mess.

Just discovered today my baseball obsessed kid will not be allowed to be a Paw Patrol fan because they have some sort of Aaron Judge/Yankees propaganda which he discovered today. This clearly cannot stand in our house.

Haven’t done great research, but I’m pretty sure he has championed easier name changes and easier birth certificate changes and has mandated that Illinois insurance coverage has to include gender affirming care. I can dig some more if that’s helpful for you!

Yeah, Pritzker isn’t my dream politician by a long shot but he’s been MUCH better as governor and adversary to the current administration than I’d guessed he would be.

For sure! That happens twice at my journal. I screen everything as editor in chief and then the associate editors also can (and should!) desk reject if they think the paper shouldn’t go out

The nicest thing you can do if asked to review a paper to say yes (and do the review). But a very very close second is to say no as quickly as possible and to suggest another person or two who might say yes.

The impact of segmental familiarity on incidental suprasegmental category learning Previous research on tone category learning has suggested that the learners' familiarity with the segmental composition of tokens can impact learning. However,

A new paper from the lab! My former student, Jonathan Wright, led this project.

Tone learning! Implicit learning! Segmental familiarity! Demonstrating that middle-aged and older adults can learn language stuff too! This paper has it all!

doi.org/10.1121/10.0...

I often make a typo “beset” when typing “best”, which adds some real flavor to the signature.

Three players in Cubs history have hit three home runs in a single game vs. the Cardinals.

Each of them accomplished this feat on Independence Day 🤯

◽️ Hank Leiber — July 4, 1939
◽️ Moises Alou — July 4, 2003
◽️ Michael Busch — July 4, 2025

H/T JesseRogersESPN/X

In the span of, like, 6 minutes, Pete Crow-Armstrong made a fantastic diving catch and then hit an absolute tank 452 feet

just an unbelievable player

Toddler (2;6) is quite sports obsessed and picks up random terminology (home run, line drive, base hit, free throw, dunk, etc). But he clearly only partly understands. Today he insisted that he needed to “shoot a three pointer” which he believes to mean “count to three and then throw the basketball”

I have no horse in the race for the NBA playoffs, but watching Tyrese Haliburton win all the games in the last few seconds is pretty amazing.

I was unprepared for the outsized role that bubbles would play in my life as a parent of a toddler.

My kid (2;7) can turn anything into a baseball and bat. Dust mop and toy ball? ✅ Carrot and bigger carrot? ✅ Spoon and bottle of salad dressing? Unfortunately also ✅

Learning new speech sounds in remote and in-person protocols: Benefits, drawbacks, and considerations for future research In-laboratory training of novel speech sounds has provided significant insight into how adult language learners learn new sounds. However, this training is often costly in terms of time in lab for participants and for experimenters. Therefore, understanding whether such paradigms can be conducted successfully in a remote setting has been of great interest to the field. In this study, we present data from participants in both in-lab and remote protocols for a two-day language learning paradigm. We compare both the results of learning across the two paradigms and the logistical aspects of conducting this research. We demonstrate that both paradigms result in learning; however, while data collection is much faster for remote protocols, there are significant trade offs to consider in terms of individual performance and attrition within this population, among other concerns. We discuss these concerns from a methodological standpoint, and explore how comparisons of training modality can be informative not only for choosing appropriate methodology but also for developing a deeper understanding of acquisition of novel speech sounds.

New article in Laboratory Phonology / @labphon.bsky.social > “Learning new speech sounds in remote and in-person protocols: Benefits, drawbacks, and considerations for future research” by Melissa Baese-Berk (‪@m2b2.bsky.social‬), Santiago Jaramillo and Cecelia Staggs: doi.org/10.16995/lab...

I’m quoted in this article!

Pete Crow-Armstrong is so good at baseball.

Learning new speech sounds in remote and in-person protocols: Benefits, drawbacks, and considerations for future research In-laboratory training of novel speech sounds has provided significant insight into how adult language learners learn new sounds. However, this training is often costly in terms of time in lab for par...

New in #LabPhon: How well do adult language learners acquire new sound contrasts, in remote vs. in-laboratory environments? Results show that both paradigms result in learning, but there are trade-offs in both protocol types. @m2b2.bsky.social @spplab.bsky.social #openaccess doi.org/10.16995/lab...

Yes. This specific flavor is new for me too!

I've taken to explicitly asking people I'm giving feedback to "what is most helpful for you?" in terms of feedback and explicitly tell others what I want (including, for example, "I think the voice I'm presenting here is coherent/strong/appropriate, and want your advice on clarity not than style."

Cuts to NSF will mean there are literally fewer jobs, fewer fun exhibits for kids to learn about things, and we, as a country and as a society will know fewer things. Knowledge should not be a partisan value and funding for the NSF and NIH should not be in question.

In 2024, the NSF budget was ~0.1% of the total spending of the government. The proposed budget currently being debated cuts that by more than half. I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say that cuts to NSF are not about money or saving taxpayers.

The NSF funded this research through a grant, which has resulted in the world knowing NEW things. It created (at least) 5 jobs for real people in real American communities. It allowed us to create exhibits for kids in a local science museum.

This is just one piece of a larger project investigating the neural mechanisms that allow us to learn language. We're combining neuron-level studies with mice with human behavioral studies. And want to know how we get to do this research? Through the National Science Foundation!

Because if we want to know how people learn and how we can help them learn more effectively, we should look at learning across different types of situations and different populations.

But, there are some drawbacks. Participants in the remote condition perform less well. Maybe they're not paying attention as much as folks in the lab? Maybe they're not as used to educational settings and practicing this type of learning daily? Who knows! But this is important for us to understand!

Learning new speech sounds in remote and in-person protocols: Benefits, drawbacks, and considerations for future research In-laboratory training of novel speech sounds has provided significant insight into how adult language learners learn new sounds. However, this training is often costly in terms of time in lab for par...

Conducting training remotely is WAY easier. We collected data in two days instead of two months. That's a big deal for expediting scientific discovery! And when we collect data remotely, we can recruit from a more diverse population that is more representative of the real world.

Learning new speech sounds in remote and in-person protocols: Benefits, drawbacks, and considerations for future research In-laboratory training of novel speech sounds has provided significant insight into how adult language learners learn new sounds. However, this training is often costly in terms of time in lab for par...

New paper! (Plus a story about science funding) We compared training paradigms conducted in-lab or remote to see how people learn in the two different situations. We show that people learn in both situations, but there are interesting tradeoffs. (Long thread)
www.journal-labphon.org/article/id/1...

Rafael Devers jumps and shouts in celebration as he turns down the first base line and flips his bat several feet above his head at Fenway Park. The Fenway crowd stands and cheers behind him.

FRAME IT.

Trying not to scream while watching on my phone in the toddler’s bedroom.