Vidi grant for Sanne Moorman

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded Vidi grants to seven researchers from the University of Groningen, including Dr Sanne Moorman. With the grants, each researcher will further develop an innovative line of research and build or expand their own research group. Each Vidi grant is worth a maximum of EUR 850,000.

Vidi is part of the NWO Talent Programme and is aimed at talented researchers who have several years of research experience after obtaining their PhD.

Zebra finches learning their song from video screens?

Dr Sanne Moorman

In our digital society, we engage more with screens than ever. Yet, live interactions lead to better learning outcomes, including in speech acquisition. In this project, researchers test whether this happens because learners are more attentive when they are involved in live interactions. Birdsong learning in zebra finches has many parallels with human speech acquisition. In zebra finches, attention will be measured when learning from a live bird or a video screen, by observing behavioral and physiological parameters, measuring and altering neuronal activity, and comparing song learning outcomes. Thereby, this project will identify how attention affects vocal learning outcomes.

Moorman is an assistant professor in the Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences. Her research focuses on auditory-vocal learning and memory, including how the brain learns, stores and adapts vocal behaviour.