Post-Doctoral Research Associate
Ph.D. in Psychological and Brain Sciences, 2019, Washington University in St. Louis
M.A. in Psychological and Brain Sciences, 2017, Washington University in St. Louis
B.A. in Psychology, 2013, Carleton College
E-Mail: mfarrythorn@wisc.edu
Current Projects
I am working with Mark Seidenberg on projects intended to help people outside the field of psychology understand the existing research on how reading works and how children learn to read. These projects include a study guide for Mark’s book Language at the Speed of Sight, a multimedia glossary, and many others to come.
Past Research
Working with Dr. Rebecca Treiman at Washington University in St. Louis I researched how children acquire knowledge that is critical for learning to read. For my master’s thesis I analyzed the everyday conversations children and their parents have about letters using a longitudinal sample of conversation transcripts. I examined how they talked about letters, what materials they used to discuss letters, and the words they spelled. My dissertation research focused on what pre-readers know about what part of a book is read and whether they think there is a difference between the activity of reading and the ability to read.
Publications
Farry-Thorn, M., Treiman, R., & Robins, S. (2020). Letter teaching in parent–child conversations. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 53, 161-170.
