Barbara Landau

Barbara Landau is Dick and Lydia Todd Professor and Chair of the Cognitive Science Department at Johns Hopkins University. She specializes in language learning, spatial representation, and the relationships between these foundational systems of human knowledge. She is also an authority on language development in individuals with Williams Syndrome.^[1] She received a B.A. in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, an Ed.M. in educational psychology from Rutgers University in 1977, and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1982. She has worked at Columbia University, the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Delaware before accepting her current position at Johns Hopkins University.^[2]

Selected publications

Williams Syndrome

• O'Hearn, K., Courtney, S., Street, W., & Landau, B. (2008) Working memory impairment in people with Williams syndrome: Effects of delay, task and stimuli. Brain and Cognition.
• Landau, B., & Hoffman, J.E. (2007) Explaining selective spatial breakdown in Williams syndrome: Four principles of normal development and why they matter. In J. Plumert and J. Spencer (Eds.), The emerging spatial mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• O'Hearn, K. & Landau, B. (2007) Mathematical skill in individuals with Williams syndrome: Evidence from a standardized mathematics battery. Brain and Cognition, 64, 238-246.
• Landau, B., Hoffman, J.E., & Kurz, N. (2006) Object recognition with severe spatial deficits in Williams syndrome: Sparing and breakdown. Cognition., 1-28.
• Reiss, J., Hoffman, J.E., & Landau, B. (2005) Motion processing specialization in Williams sundrome. Vision Research, 45, 3379-3390.
• O'Hearn, K., Landau, B., & Hoffman, J.E. (2005) Multiple object tracking in people with Williams syndrome and in normally developing children. Psychological Science. 16 (11), 905-912.
• Landau, B. and Hoffman, J.E. (2005) Parallels between spatial cognition and spatial language: Evidence from Williams syndrome. Journal of Memory and Language. 53 (2) 163-185.
• Georgopoulos, M-A., Georgopoulos, A. P., Kurz, N. & Landau, B. (2004). Figure copying in Williams syndrome and normal subjects. Experimental Brain Research, 157(2), 137-146.
• Hoffman, J. E., Landau, B., & Pagani, B. (2003). Spatial breakdown in spatial construction: Evidence from eye fixations in children with Williams syndrome. Cognitive Psychology, 46(3), 260-301.
• Jordan, H., Reiss, J. E., Hoffman, J. E., & Landau, B. (2002). Intact perception of biological motion in the face of profound spatial deficits: Williams syndrome. Psychological Science, 13(2), 162-167.
• Lakusta, L. & Landau, B. (2005). Starting at the end: The importance of goals in spatial language. Cognition, 96(1), 1-33.
• Landau, B. (2002). Spatial cognition. In V. Ramachandran(Ed.), Encyclopedia of the human brain. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
• Landau, B., Hoffman, J. E., Reiss, J. E., Dilks, D., Lakusta, L., & Chunyo, G. (2004). Specialization, breakdown, and sparing in spatial cognition: Lessons from Williams syndrome. To appear in C. Morris, H. Lenhoff, & P. Wang, Eds., Williams-Beuren syndrome: Research and clinical perspectives. Baltimore, MD: JHU Press.
• Landau, B., & Zukowski, A. (2003). Objects, motions, and paths: Spatial language in children with Williams syndrome. Developmental Neuropsychology, 23(1-2), Special Issue: Williams syndrome, 105-137.

Language learning and cognition

• Dessalegn, B. & Landau, B. (2008) More than meets the eye: The role of language in binding visual properties. Psychological Science, 19 (2), 189-195.
• Landau, B., Hoffman, J.E., Reiss, J.E., Dilks, D., Lakusta, L., and Chunyo, G. (2005). Specialization, breakdown, and sparing in spatial cognition: Lessons from Williams syndrome. In C. Morris, H. Lenhoff, & P. Wang (Eds.), Williams-Beuren syndrome: Research and Clinical Perspectives. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.
• Lakusta, L. and Landau, B. (2005) Starting at the end: The importance of goals in spatial language. Cognition. 96 (1) 1-33.
• Landau, B. and Hoffman, J.E. (2005) Parallels between spatial cognition and spatial language: Evidence from Williams syndrome. Journal of Memory and Language. 53 (2) 163-185.
• Munnich, E. & Landau, B. (2003) The effect of spatial language on spatial representations: Setting some boundaries. In D. Gentner. & S. Goldin-Meadow (Eds.) Language in mind: Advances in the study of language and thought. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Landau, B. (2002) Early experience and cognitive organization. In L. Nadel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. Nature Publishing Group, England: Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
• Munnich, E., Landau, B., & Dosher, B. (2001) Spatial language and spatial representation: A cross-llinguistic comparison. Cognition, 81, 171-207.
• Landau, B. (2000) Language and space. In B. Landau, J. Sabini, J. Jonides, and E. Newport (Eds.), Perception, cognition, and language: Essays in honor of Henry and Lila Gleitman. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
• Wright, C. E., & Landau, B. (1998). Language and Action: Current challenges to cognitive theory. In J. Hochberg & J. E. Cutting (Eds.), Handbook of perception and cognition. Perception and cognition at century's end: History, philosophy, theory. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
• Landau, B. (1998) Nativist perspectives on the acquisition of knowledge. In W. Bechtel & G. Graham (Eds.), A companion to cognitive science. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
• Gleitman, L. R., & Landau, B. (Eds.) (1994). Acquisition of the lexicon. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Landau, B. (1986) Early map use as an unlearned ability. Cognition, 22, 201-223.
• Landau, B., & Gleitman, L. R. (1985). Language and experience: Evidence from the blind child. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Landau, B., Spelke, E. & Gleitman, H. (1984) Spatial knowledge in a young blind child. Cognition, 16, 225-160.
• Landau, B., Gleitman, H. & Spelke, E. (1981) Spatial knowledge and geometric representation in a child blind from birth. Science, 213, 1275-1278.

References

External links

• Barbara Landau's Faculty Profile
• CV
• Language and Cognition Lab