Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development
School of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX
Phone: +44 (0)20 7079 0766
Fax: +44 (0)20 7631 6587
Email: k.begus@bbk.ac.uk
Web: http://www.globalfnirs.org/6-katarina
Research Interests
I am interested in transmission of cultural knowledge between adults and infants, with the focus on the infant as an active participant in the selection of information to be learned. In my MSc project (supervised by Dr. Victoria Southgate), we have shown that infants selectively elicit information exchange by pointing to objects/events of interest, and they appear to do so with the motivation to obtain information from knowledgeable adults. With my PhD project I aim to explore: whether satisfying infants’ interests in fact leads to enhanced learning (as it does in adults); how are infants' interests and the amount of information they seek affected by their general cognitive abilities and their parents’ responsiveness; and what are the neural mechanisms underlying the relationship between interest and learning in infants.
My supervisors are: Dr. Victoria Southgate and Dr. Teodora Gliga.
Curriculum vitae
PhD, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, University of London, (October 2011 - present).
MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience, Birkbeck College and UCL, University of London, (2009-2011).
Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, (2004-2009).
Publications
Begus, K., Gliga, T., & Southgate, V. (2014). Infants learn what they want to learn: Responding to infant pointing leads to superior learning. PLoS One.
Begus, K., Lloyd-Fox, S., Halliday, D., Papademetriou, M., Darboe, M.K., Prentice, A.M., S. E. Moore, S.E. and Elwell, C.E. (in press). Using fNIRS to Study Working Memory of Infants in Rural Africa. Proceedings of ISOTT 2014.
Begus, K., & Southgate, V. (2012). Infant pointing serves an interrogative function. Developmental Science, 15(5), 611-617.
Southgate, V., Begus, K., Lloyd-Fox, S., di Gangi, V., & Hamilton, A. (2014). Goal representation in the infant brain. Neuroimage, 85, 294-301.
Southgate, V., & Begus, K. (2013). Motor activation during the observation of non-executable actions in infants. Psychological Science, 24(6), 828-835.
Nardini, M., Begus, K., & Mareschal, D. (2013). Multisensory uncertainty reduction for hand localization in children and adult. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.
Bedford, R., Nardini, M., Pellicano, E., Begus, K., Mareschal, D. (2011). Integration of disparity and texture cues to slant in adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Vision, 11(11), 440.
Presentations
Talks
Gliga, T., Begus, K. & Southgate, V. (November, 2014). Ontogeny of human curiosity: a few baby steps. Talk presented at First interdisciplinary symposium on Information-seeking, curiosity and attention (organised by P.Y. Oudeyer and J. Gottlieb), Inria, Bordeaux, France.
Begus, K., Gliga, T., & Southgate, V. (January, 2013). Infants learn through interrogative pointing. Talk presented in symposium, titled Perspectives on the motivation to point in young infants (chaired by K. J. Rohlfing), at the Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development, Budapest, Hungary.
Begus, K., Gliga, T., & Southgate, V. (June, 2012). Information seeking and learning by pointing. Talk presented in symposium, titled Communication and Information Transfer (chaired by A. Vouloumanos), at the 18th Biennial International Conference on Infant Studies (ICIS), Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Posters
Begus, K., Gliga T., & Southgate, V. Exploring theta band activity as a predictor of learning in infancy. Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies (ICIS), Berlin, Germany (July, 2014).
Begus, K., Lloyd-Fox, S., Halliday, D., Papademetriou, M., Everdell, N., Darboe, M. K., Prentice, A. M., Moore, S. E, & Elwell, C. E. Applying fNIRS to study the effects of nutrition on cognitive development in infants: A pilot study of working memory in infants in UK and rural Africa. Poster presented at International Society Oxygen Transport Tissues, London, UK (July 2014), and at fNIRS 2014 conference, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (November 2014).
Begus, K., Gliga T., & Southgate, V. Exploring the role of theta band oscillations in infants learning. Poster presented at the Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development, Hungary (January, 2014).
Begus, K., Gliga T., & Southgate, V. Infants Preparing to Learn – Increase in Theta Band Activation in Expectation of Novel Information. Poster presented at the Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development, Hungary (January, 2013).
Begus, K., Gliga, T., & Southgate, V. Pointing signals infants' readiness to learn. Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies (ICIS), Minneapolis, Minnesota (June, 2012), and Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development, Hungary (January, 2012).
Begus, K., & Southgate, V. Infant pointing serves an interrogative function. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Biennial Meeting, Montreal, Canada (March, 2011), and Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development, Hungary (January 2011).
Halliday, D., Lloyd-Fox, S., Begus, K., Maris, H., Papademetriou, M., Everdell, N., Darboe, M. K., Prentice, A. M., Moore, S. E, & Elwell, C. E. Brain Imaging of Cognitive Development in Rural Gambia: Studies from Birth to 24 Months of Age. Poster presented at Experimental Biology Conference, San Diego, USA (April, 2014).
Lloyd-Fox, S., Halliday, D., Begus, K., Maris, H, Papademetriou, M., Onsanyang, L., Drammeh, S., Darboe, M., Moore, S., Prentice, A. & Elwell, C. E. Neuroimaging infant development in Africa. Poster presented at CEU Conference on Cognitive Development, Budapest, Hungary (January, 2014).
Halliday, D. R. W., Lloyd-Fox, S., Begus, K., Maris, H., Papademetriou, M., Everdell, N., Darboe, M. K., Prentice, A., Moore, S. & Elwell, C. Brain Imaging and Behavioural Measures of Nutrition Related Cognitive Development in Rural Gambia: Studies form Birth to 24 months of age. Poster presented at Gates Grand Challenges Meeting, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (November, 2013).