LILLIAN ANNE MAY

EDUCATION

• University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
  • Ph.D. Developmental Psychology, 2016
  • Committee: Janet F. Werker (supervisor), D. Geoffrey Hall, Andrew S. Baron, Todd Handy
  • Thesis: “Language as a Special Signal: Infants’ Neurological and Social Perception of Native Language, Non-Native Language, and Language-Like Stimuli”
• University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
  • M.A. Developmental Psychology, 2010
  • Committee: Janet F. Werker (supervisor), D. Geoffrey Hall, Susan A.J. Birch
  • Thesis: “What is a Word: Understanding Developmental Changes in the Sounds Infants Accept as Possible Labels”
• Pomona College, Claremont, CA, USA.
  • B.A. cum laude, 2006, Major in Psychology
  • Supervisor: Deborah M. Burke
  • Thesis: “Children’s Tip-of-the-Tongue Experiences: Implications for Phonological Representations”

POSITIONS

Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2017-current

• Psychology 102: Introduction to Developmental, Social, Personality, & Clinical Psychology
• Psychology 302: Infancy
• Psychology 315: Childhood and Adolescence
• Psychology 319: Applied Developmental Psychology

Lecturer, Department of Psychology & Vantage College, University of British Columbia, 2016-2017

• Psychology 101: Introduction to Biological and Cognitive Psychology (Vantage College)
• Psychology 102: Introduction to Developmental, Social, Personality, & Clinical Psychology (Vantage College)
• Psychology 319: Applied Developmental Psychology
• VANT148: Vantage College Projects
• VANT149: Multidisciplinary Research Project

Sessional Instructor, Columbia College (Vancouver, BC), 2015-2016

• Psychology 110: Introductory Psychology, Part 1
• Psychology 120: Introductory Psychology, Part 2

Sessional Instructor, University of British Columbia, 2013-2015

• Psychology 302: Infancy
• Psychology 315: Childhood and Adolescence
• Psychology 319: Applied Developmental Psychology

SERVICE

• UBC Psi Chi Faculty Supervisor, 2017-present
• UBC Psychology Department Sessional Advisor, 2017-present
• UBC Psychology Department Equity Committee, 2019-present
• UBC Vancouver International Scholars Selection Committee, 2017, 2018, 2020
• UBC Vantage College Capstone Conference Organizing Committee, 2017
• UBC Vantage College Arts Program Committee, 2016-2017
• UBC Psychology 302: Infancy Course Coordinator, 2014-2015
• Ad-hoc reviewer for PLoS One, Developmental Science, Neurophotonics

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Teaching of psychology
• Equity and inclusion in teaching
• Non-native language perception and learning
• Language and social cognition
• Conventionality of language
• Links between early speech perception and later language skills
• Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

PUBLICATIONS

• May, L., Baron, A.S., & Werker, J.F. (2019). Who can speak that language? Eleven-month-old infants have language-dependent expectations regarding speaker ethnicity. Developmental Psychobiology, 61(6), 859-873.
• May, L., Zamuner, T., & Werker, J.F. (2017). Phonological development in first languages. Routledge Handbook of Pronunciation.
• May, L., Gervain, J., Carreiras, M., & Werker, J.F. (2017). The specificity of the neural response to speech at birth. Developmental Science. 
• May, L. & Werker, J.F. (2014). Can a click be a word?: Infants’ learning of non-native words. Infancy, 19(3), 281-300.
• Molavi, B., May, L., Gervain, J., Carreiras, M., Werker, J.F., & Dumont, G.A. (2014) Analyzing the resting state functional connectivity in the human language system using near infrared spectroscopy. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience,7(921), doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00921
• May, L., Byers-Heinlein, K., Gervain, J., & Werker, J.F. (2011). Language and the newborn brain: Does prenatal language experience shape the neonate neural response to speech? Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences, 2(222), doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00222.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

• May, L., Gervain, J., Carreiras, M., & Werker, J.F. “Tuned for speech?: Neural activation to spoken and whistled language in young infants.” Presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Philadelphia, PA, March 2015.
• May, L., Gervain, J., Carreiras, M., & Werker, J.F. “The development of neural activation to native and non-native language.” Presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Berlin, Germany, July 2014.
• May, L. & Werker, J.F. “Languages and faces: Do 11mo infants associate unfamiliar language with unfamiliar others?” Presented at the Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, Seattle, WA, April 2013.
• May, L., Baron, A.S., & Werker, J.F. “Associating languages with faces: How infant face processing may differ when paired with familiar and unfamiliar language.” Presented at the SRCD Face Processing Pre-Conference, Seattle, WA, April 2013.
• May, L., Gervain, J., Carreiras, M., & Werker, J.F. “The specificity of the neural response to language at birth.” Presented at the fNIRS Meeting, London, UK., October 2012.
• May, L., Gervain, J., Carreiras, M., & Werker, J.F. “The neonate neural response to native, non-native, and whistled language.” Presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Minneapolis, MN, June 2012.
• May, L. & Werker, J.F. “The sounds of words: Do infants learn novel words containing unfamiliar language sounds?” Presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Minneapolis, MN, June 2012.
• May, L., Byers-Heinlein, K., Gervain, J. & Werker, J.F. “The left lateralization of language at birth: The native vs. a non-native language.” Presented at the Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development, Budapest, Hungary, January 2011.
• Osborne, G., May, L., & Burke, D. “The emotion stroop task: Do inhibition deficits impair older adults’ ability to ignore emotional words?” Presented at the Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta, GA, April 2006.

POSTERS

• May, L., Gervain, J., Carreiras, M., & Werker, J.F. “Developmental Changes in Neural Activation to Spoken Language and Whistled Surrogate Language across the First Year of Life.” Presented at the International Conference for Infant Studies, New Orleans, LA, May 2016.
• May, L., Baron, A.S., & Werker, J.F. “Infants’ expectations of speakers of native and non-native language.” Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Berlin, Germany, July 2014.
• May, L. & Werker, J.F. “You don’t sound like me, you must not look like me either: Do infants expect unfamiliar language to be associated with dissimilar others?” Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Minneapolis, MN, June 2012.
• May, L., Gervain, J., Carreiras, M., & Werker, J.F. “Neural specialization for speech at birth: Comparing native and non-native language.” Poster presented at the Neurobiology of Language Conference, Annapolis, MD, November 2011.
• May, L. & Werker, J.F. “Can a click be a word? Infants’ learning of unassimilable yet linguistic labels”. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, Montreal, PQ, March 2011.
• May, L. & Werker, J.F. “Word learning in the Switch task: The case of phonologically unassimilable non-native words.” Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Baltimore, MD, March 2010.
• May, L. & Manian, N. “Language use and comprehension in toddlers of depressed and well mothers.” Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Vancouver, BC, March, 2008.
• May, L. & Manian, N. “Language use and comprehension in toddlers of depressed and well mothers.” Poster presented at NIH Post-baccalaureate Research Festival, May 2007.
• Osborne, G., Burke, D., & May, L. “Do older adults show positive biases in processing emotional words?” Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Toronto, Canada, November 2005.