Anna Di Betta

Dr Anna Di Betta PhD

Senior Lecturer In Psychology


Summary

Anna is part of the teaching team for several modules, mainly in the fields of Biological and Cognitive Psychology. She is also module leader for Cognitive Psychology, Biopsychology and Developmental Disorders of Reading and Language.

About

Anna joined the Department of Psychology at SHU in January 2012. Before then, she had worked as a Lecturer at the University of Sheffield and at Derby University. She is teaching areas mainly included Cognitive Psychology, Biological Psychology and Research Methods. Anna delivers lectures in the areas of Cognitive Psychology (language and memory) and Biological Psychology. 

After her Medical Degree and Specialisation which she completed at the Catholic University, Rome, Italy, she completed a PhD in Cognitive Psychology which focused on the acquisition of new words in adult developmental dysgraphia. She then held post-doc positions at Aston University and at the University of York. During this latter experience, she was involved in studies that looked at the cognitive and neural changes induced by the acquisition of novel spoken words in adults. 

While at Derby University, Anna held a consultancy contract with the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement. She delivered training workshops about human fallibility in the context of cognitive and social theories to NHS trust employees.

Specialist areas of interest

Cognitive Psychology, Biological Psychology, L2 phonology perception and representation, Adaptation to foreign-accented speech by L2 listeners, Acquisition of novel spoken and written lexical representations in adults, Cognitive deficits underlying developmental disorders of reading and spelling, Attitude towards second-language speakers in Higher Education Institutions.

Teaching

Department of Psychology, Sociology and Politics

College of Social Sciences and Arts

Psychology

Cognitive Psychology (Level 7)

Biopsychology (Level 5)

Developmental Disorders of Reading and Language (Level 5)

Research

Anna completed a PhD in Cognitive Psychology focused on the acquisition of new words in adult developmental dysgraphia.

Publications

Journal articles

Weber, A., Di betta, A., & McQueen, J.M. (2014). Treack or trit: adaptation to genuine and arbitrary foreign accents by monolingual and bilingual listeners. Journal of Phonetics, 46, 34-51. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2014.05.002

Romani, C., Tsouknida, E., Di Betta, A.M., & Olson, A. (2011). Reduced attentional capacity, but normal processing speed and shifting of attention in developmental dyslexia: Evidence from a serial task. Cortex, 47 (6), 715-733. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2010.05.008

Davis, M.H., Di Betta, A.M., Macdonald, M.J.E., & Gaskell, M.G. (2009). Learning and consolidation of novel spoken words. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21 (4), 803-820. http://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21059

Snoeren, N.D., Gaskell, M.G., & Di Betta, A.M. (2009). The perception of assimilation in newly learned novel words. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35 (2), 542-549. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0014509

Romani, C., Di Betta, A., Tsouknida, E., & Olson, A. (2008). Lexical and non-lexical processing in developmental dyslexia: A case for different resources and different impairments? Cognitive Neuropsychology, 25 (6), 798-830. http://doi.org/10.1080/02643290802347183

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