Loraine Obler facts for kids

Loraine Katherine Obler (born July 12, 1948) is an American scientist who studies language and the brain. She is a top expert in neurolinguistics, which is about how our brains handle language. She also studies multilingualism, which means speaking many languages. Dr. Obler is famous for helping us understand how our brains control the way we use language. Her work looks at how people learn and use more than one language, how language changes as we get older, and how brain conditions like Alzheimer's disease affect language. She also studies aphasia, a condition where people have trouble speaking or understanding language after a brain injury.

Dr. Obler is a special professor at the CUNY Graduate Center. There, she teaches about speech, language, and hearing sciences. She also works in the fields of linguistics and cognitive neuroscience.

Awards and Recognition

Dr. Obler has received many important awards for her work.

• In 1993, she was given an honorary degree from Stockholm University. This special award is called a Doctorate Honoris Causa.
• In 2011, she received another honorary degree from Turku University.
• She is also an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.
• She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), Division 44.
• In 2023, a book was published to honor her amazing career. It was called Advances in the Neurolinguistic Study of Multilingual and Monolingual Adults: In Honor of Professor Loraine K. Obler.

About Loraine Obler's Life

Early Life and Education

Loraine Obler finished high school in New York City in 1966. She then went to the University of Michigan. In 1969, she earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), in Studies in Religion.

She continued her studies at the University of Michigan.

• In 1970, she earned her first Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Linguistics.
• In 1973, she earned a second Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Near East Studies.
• In 1975, she earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics. Her Ph.D. paper was about how an old Arabic word changed over time.

Her Love for Languages

Dr. Obler has always loved learning languages.

• She grew up speaking mostly English.
• She learned to speak and understand Hebrew during trips to Israel.
• In high school, she studied French and could read it well.
• She also studied Spanish, German, and Chinese.
• She spent four years learning Arabic, focusing more on reading and writing.

Academic Career and Research

Dr. Obler has worked at many universities and research centers.

• She has a long history with the City University of New York (CUNY). She started as a professor and later became a Distinguished Professor.
• She has also worked at Boston University, Boston University School of Medicine, and the Harold Goodglass Aphasia Research Center.
• Other places include Emerson College and Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.
• She was a Senior Fulbright Specialist at Hadassah Academic College in Jerusalem. This role focused on language issues for people who speak many languages.

Dr. Obler's research has covered many interesting topics:

• How people understand language as they get older.
• How language works when someone is under stress.
• How people in immigrant communities learn to speak more than one language.
• Language difficulties in people with dementia.
• A condition called agrammatism, where people have trouble forming sentences.

She wrote an important book with Martin Albert called The Bilingual Brain: Neuropsychological and Neurolinguistic Aspects of Bilingualism. This book helped people understand how different languages are organized in the brain. It compared how first and second languages work together.

Dr. Obler has also helped edit several scientific books.

• Language and Communication in the Elderly shares ideas from experts about how to help older people with language issues.
• Bilingualism across the Lifespan: Aspects of Acquisition, Maturity and Loss includes papers about how language develops from childhood to old age. It also looks at how people learn and sometimes lose languages.

Her work has been supported by important groups like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation.

Books by Loraine Obler

• Menn, L., Obler, L. K., & Miceli, G. (Eds.). (1990). Agrammatic Aphasia: A Cross-language Narrative Sourcebook (Vol. 2). John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN: 978-90-272-2045-5
• Obler, L. K., & Fein, D. E. (1988). The Exceptional Brain: Neuropsychology of Talent and Special Abilities. Guilford Press.
• Obler, L. K., & Gjerlow, K. (1999). Language and the Brain. Cambridge University Press.

Lectures and Interviews

You can watch some of Loraine Obler's talks and interviews online:

• Loraine Obler lecture at the launch of the Centre for Research in Language Throughout the Lifespan
• Loraine Obler lecture at the CUNY Graduate Center & Hadassah Academic College
• Loraine Obler & Peggy Conner - Cognitive Underpinnings of Language-Learning in Polyglots
• Loraine Obler Pioneers of WoW Interview Series
• Loraine Obler Interview at MIC Stony Brook University