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RESEARCH
As a researcher, I am interested in the broad question of whether and in which ways language modality (visual-spatial versus auditory-vocal) shapes human communication, cognition and language development. More specifically, I am interested in language processing, use and learning not only in typical situations, but also atypical situations (e.g., late language exposure and its effects on language development, language development with non-native language input) and at different domains such as comprehension, production, visual attention (i.e., eye-tracking studies).
In my Ph.D. dissertation , I investigated how modality of language (signed versus spoken) modulates the expression of spatial relations between the entities and influences the course of spatial language acquisition for signing and speaking children.
Upon completion of my Ph.D. studies, I was awarded with a 2-year post-doctoral research funding by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, Co-funded Brain Circulation Scheme, 2015-2017), which enabled me to continue my scholarly work at Prof Aylin Küntay’s Language and Communication Development Lab at Koç University in Turkey. This research has led to the online adaptation of MacArthur-Bates Communication Development Inventory (CDI) for Turkish Sign Language (TİD), which is the first of its kind for this language. The outcomes of this project have also initiated the creation of the cartoon series (Elfeneri), which aims to teach early vocabulary items to 2-5-year-old deaf children in TID. This series, for which I serve as the head of advisory board, is funded by Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT).
Additionally, the outcomes of the TID-CDI research have facilitated a recent collaboration with ProWise, funded by UvA Responsible Digital Transformations (200,000 Euros, 2023-2025). As a co-Principal Investigator on this project, alongside Prof. Floris Roelofsen from the Faculty of Science and Dr. Abe Hofman from the Faculty of Education, I supervise a postdoctoral researcher who is developing language games (GebarenZee, as part of TaalZee) in Dutch Sign Language (NGT) to teach frequently used vocabulary items and syntactic structures to hearing children in the Netherlands.
Currently, I am working on a NWO (OC-XS, 2023-2024) project on the vocabulary development of Deaf children who acquire TID at around 8-9 years of age. Together with Prof. Floris Roelofsen (Faculty of Science/UvA), I supervise a PhD project on an educational application called ZINinNGT. This app, available on Google Play and the App Store, aims to teach NGT to hearing parents of Deaf and Hard of Hearing children through high-quality video recordings and signing avatars
PUBLICATIONS
- Sümer, B., & Özyürek, A. (under review). Action bias in describing object locations by signing children.
- Ünal, E., Kırbaşoğlu, K., Karadöller, D., Sümer, B., & Özyürek, A. (under review). Gesture reduces mapping difficulties in the development of spatial language depending on the complexity of spatial relations.
- Karadöller*, D. Z., Sümer*, B., & Özyürek, A. (2024). First-language acquisition in a multimodal language framework: Insights from speech, gesture, and sign. First Language. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/01427237241290678.
- Laing, C. & Sümer, B. (2024). Iconicity in Language Development. In P. Perniss, O. Fischer, and K. Akita (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Iconicity.
- Ritmeester, J., Sümer, B., Boonstra, M., de Meulder, M., van der Aa, B., & Roelofsen, R. (2024). ZINinNGT: A mobile tool to aid hearing parents learning Dutch Sign Language. Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, 82, pp. 1-5.
- Karadöller, Z. D., Sümer, B., Ünal, E., & Özyürek, A. (2024). Sign advantage: Both children and adults’ spatial expressions in sign are more informative than those in speech and gestures combined. Journal of Child Language, 51(4), 876-902. doi:10.1017/S0305000922000642.
- Karadöller, D. Z., Sümer, B., Ünal, E., & Özyürek, A. (2023). Late sign language exposure does not modulate the relation between spatial language and spatial memory in deaf children and adults. Memory & Cognition. Advance online publication. doi:10.3758/s13421-022-01281-7
- Sümer, B., & Özyürek, A. (2022). Cross-modal investigation of event component omissions in language development: A comparison of signing and speaking children. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 37(8), 1023-1039. doi:10.1080/23273798.2022.2042336.
- Sümer, B., & Özyürek, A. (2022). Language use in deaf children with early-signing versus late-signing deaf parents. Frontiers in Communication, 6: 804900. doi:10.3389/fcomm.2021.804900.
- Gür, C. & Sümer, B. (2022). Learning to Introduce Referents in Narration is Resilient to the Effects of Late Sign Language Exposure. Sign Language Linguistics, 252, 205-234.
- Kan, U., Gökgöz, K., Sümer, B.., Tamyürek, E., & Özyürek, A. (2022). Emergence of negation in a Turkish homesign system: Insights from the family context. In A. Ravignani, R. Asano, D. Valente, F. Ferretti, S. Hartmann, M. Hayashi, Y. Jadoul, M. Martins, Y. Oseki, E. D. Rodrigues, O. Vasileva, & S. Wacewicz (Eds.), The evolution of language: Proceedings of the Joint Conference on Language Evolution (JCoLE) (pp. 387-389). Nijmegen: Joint Conference on Language Evolution (JCoLE).
- Karadöller, D. Z., Sümer, B., & Özyürek, A. (2021). Effects and non-effects of late language exposure on spatial language development: Evidence from deaf adults and children. Language Learning and Development, 17(1), 1-25. doi:10.1080/15475441.2020.1823846
- Karadöller, D. Z., Sümer, B., Ünal, E., & Özyürek, A. (2021). Spatial language use predicts spatial memory of children: Evidence from sign, speech, and speech-plus-gesture. In T. Fitch, C. Lamm, H. Leder, & K. Teßmar-Raible (Eds.), Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2021) (pp. 672-678). Vienna: Cognitive Science Society.
- Sümer, B. & Özyürek, A. (2020). No effects of modality in signing and speaking children’s acquisition of locative spatial relations. Journal of Child Language, 47(6), 1101-1131. doi:10.1017/S0305000919000928.
- Manhardt, F., Özyürek, A., Sümer, B., Mulder, K., Karadöller, Z. D., & Brouwer, S. (2020). Iconicity in spatial language guides visual attention: A comparison between signers’ and speakers’ eye gaze during message preparation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 46(9). doi:10.1037/xlm0000843
- Sümer, B., Perniss, P. M., & Özyürek, A. (2017). A first study on expression of spatial viewpoint in deaf children acquiring a sign language: The case of Turkish Sign Language. In N. Ketrez, A. Küntay, A. Özyürek, & Ş. Özçalışkan (Eds.), Cognitive and Environmental Contributions to Language Development: Essays in Honor of Ayhan Aksu-Koç (pp. 223-240). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Sümer, B., Grabitz, C., & Küntay, A. (2017). Early produced signs are iconic: Evidence from Turkish Sign Language. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2017) (pp. 3273-3278). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Ortega, G., Sümer, B., & Özyürek, A. (2017). Type of iconicity matters in the vocabulary development of signing children. Developmental Psychology, 53(1), 89-99, doi:10.1037/dev0000161.
- Karadöller, D. Z., Sümer, B., & Özyürek, A. (2017). Effects of delayed language exposure on spatial language acquisition by signing children and adults. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2017) (pp. 2372-2376). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Sümer, B., Perniss, P. M., & Özyürek, A. (2016). Viewpoint preferences in signing children's spatial descriptions. In J. Scott & D. Waughtal (Eds.), Proceedings of the 40th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD 40) (pp. 360-374). Boston: Cascadilla Press.
- Sümer, B. (2016). Scene-setting and reference introduction in sign and spoken languages: What does modality tell us? In N. Ketrez & B. Haznedar (Eds.), Trends in language acquisition research: The acquisition of Turkish in childhood (pp. 193-220). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Sümer, B. & Özyürek, A. (2016). İşitme Engelli Çocukların Dil Edinimi [Sign language acquisition by deaf children]. In C. Aydin, T. Göksun, A. Küntay, & D. Tahiroğlu (Eds.), Aklın Çocuk Hali: Zihin Gelişimi Araştırmaları [Research on Cognitive Development] (pp. 365-388). İstanbul: Koç University Press.
- Sümer, B., Zwitserlood, I., Perniss, P., & Özyürek, A. (2016). Yer Bildiren İfadelerin Türkçe ve Türk İşaret Dili’nde (TİD) Çocuklar Tarafından Edinimi [The acqusition of spatial relations by children in Turkish and Turkish Sign Language (TİD)]. In E. Arik (Ed.), Ellerle Konuşmak: Türk İşaret Dili Araştırmaları [Speaking with hands: Studies on Turkish Sign Language] (pp. 157-182). İstanbul: Koç University Press.
- Sümer, B., Zwitserlood, I., Perniss, P., & Özyürek, A. (2016). Yer Bildiren İfadelerin Türkçe ve Türk İşaret Dili’nde (TİD) Çocuklar Tarafından Edinimi [The acqusition of spatial relations by children in Turkish and Turkish Sign Language (TİD)]. In E. Arik (Ed.), Ellerle Konuşmak: Türk İşaret Dili Araştırmaları [Speaking with hands: Studies on Turkish Sign Language] (pp. 157-182). İstanbul: Koç University Press.
- Sümer, B. (2015). Acquisition of spatial language by signing and speaking children: A comparison of Turkish Sign Language (TİD) and Turkish (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation). Radboud University, Nijmegen / The Netherlands.
- Sümer, B., Zwitserlood, I., Perniss, P. M., & Özyürek, A. (2014). Learning to express "Left-Right" & "Front-Behind" in a sign versus spoken language. In P. Bello, M. Guarini, M. McShane, & B. Scassellati (Eds.), Proceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2014) (pp. 1550-1555). Austin, Tx: Cognitive Science Society.
- Ortega, G., Sümer, B., & Özyürek, A. (2014). Type of iconicity matters: Bias for action-based signs in sign language acquisition. In P. Bello, M. Guarini, M. McShane, & B. Scassellati (Eds.), Proceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2014) (pp. 1114-1119). Austin, Tx: Cognitive Science Society.
- Sümer, B., Zwitserlood, I., Perniss, P. M., & Özyürek, A. (2013). Acquisition of locative expressions in children learning Turkish Sign Language (TİD) and Turkish. In E. Arik (Ed.), Current directions in Turkish Sign Language research (pp. 243-272). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- Sümer, B., Zwitserlood, I., Perniss, P. M., & Özyürek, A. (2012). Development of locative expressions by Turkish deaf and hearing children: Are there modality effects? In A. K. Biller, E. Y. Chung, & A. E. Kimball (Eds.), Proceedings of the 36th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Volume 2 (pp. 568-580). Boston: Cascadilla Press.
- Sümer, B., Karadöller, D. Z., & Özyürek, A. (2024). First Language Acquisition in a Multimodal Language Framework: Insights from Speech, Gesture, and Sign. First Language.