College: St John's College
Email: mw738@cam.ac.uk
Supervisor: Prof Ianthi M. Tsimpli
Research Topic: Linguistic and Cognitive Effects of Contextual and Individual Linguistic Diversity: Multilingualism in South Africa and the United Kingdom
About
Mandy Wigdorowitz is a PhD candidate in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics at the University of Cambridge. She completed her MA at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa in Social and Psychological Research in 2016. She is researching the psycholinguistic and cognitive effects of language experience in multilinguals with a focus on language and interaction from linguistic, social, cognitive, and psychological perspectives. In addition to her doctoral research, she is a registered Research Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa and Associate Editor for the Journal of Open Humanities Data.
Research
Monolingualism, bilingualism, and multilingualism
Comprehension and cognition
Language profiling
Speech and language processing
Codeswitching
Statistical analysis
Scholarships/Prizes
Commonwealth Scholarship Commission and Cambridge Commonwealth, European & International Trust for PhD study
Awarded funding from the 2019 Travel Grant Award – Parsons Fund from St John’s College, University of Cambridge
Poster prize winner at the 2019 Cambridge Language Sciences Annual Symposium, University of Cambridge
Teaching
Supervisor for Language, Brain, and Society (Li3)
Publications
Cilibrasi, L., Adani, F., Schmidt, E., Pérez, A. I., Wigdorowitz, M., & Tsimpli, I. M. (Forthcoming). The role of number mismatch and exposure in the comprehension of relative clauses in bilingual children.
Wigdorowitz, M., Rajab, P., Hassem, T., & Titi, N. (2021). The Impact of COVID-19 on Psychometric Assessment across Industry and Academia in South Africa. African Journal of Psychological Assessment, 3, a38, DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/ajopa.v3i0.38
Wigdorowitz, M., Pérez, A. I., & Tsimpli, I. M. (2020). A holistic measure of contextual and individual linguistic diversity. International Journal of Multilingualism. DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2020.1835921
Wigdorowitz, M. (2020). A closer look at the Contextual Linguistic Profile Questionnaire (CLiP-Q). U-Lingua: The Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain’s Quarterly Magazine, 3, 18-19. https://issuu.com/u-lingua/docs/u-lingua_issue_3
Cockcroft, K., Wigdorowitz, M., Liversage, A. (2019). A multilingual advantage in the components of working memory. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 22(1), 15–29. doi:10.1017/S1366728917000475
Conference papers
2021
A holistic measure of sociolinguistic experience: Contextual and individual linguistic diversity in South Africa and the United Kingdom. International Test Commission’s 12th Conference on Tests and Testing. [Symposium: Innovations in assessment: Case studies from South Africa]
2020
The role of English as home or first language in reading comprehension and inferencing skills of South African university students. Cambridge Processing and Acquisition of Language Lab (CamPAL), online. [Invited speaker]
The Contextual Linguistic Profile Questionnaire: Demonstrating the need for contextual linguistic diversity in a holistic measure of language experience. Cambridge Language Sciences Symposium for Early-Career Researchers, online. [Invited speaker]
2019
A holistic measure of linguistic diversity: Contextual and individual linguistic diversity in South Africa and the United Kingdom. Canadian Linguistic Association Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada, with A. I. Pérez & I. M. Tsimpli. [poster]
Towards a holistic measure of linguistic diversity: Comparing South African and United Kingdom speakers on the CLiP-Q. 25th Annual South African Psychology Congress, Johannesburg, South Africa, with A. I. Pérez & I. M. Tsimpli.
Division for Research and Methodology Symposium – Africa's future researchers: Reflections on pursuing a PhD. 25th Annual South African Psychology Congress, Johannesburg, South Africa. [Chair and presenter]
2018
Division for Research and Methodology Roundtable: Research – Shaping the Psychologists’ career trajectory. 24th Annual Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) Conference, Johannesburg, South Africa. [Chair].
The relationship between personality types and burnout. International Test Commission (ITC) Conference, Montreal, Canada, with B. Morgan & N. Taylor.
2016
Evidence for a bi(multi)lingual advantage on working memory performance in South African university students. 10th International Test Commission Conference, Vancouver, Canada, with K. Cockcroft. [poster]
Beyond therapy: Career opportunities for emerging Psychologists. 22nd Annual Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) Conference, Johannesburg, South Africa. [invited panel discussant]
“It’s like a kind of medicine that keeps a person going”: Hope discourses of urban South African adults. 22nd Annual Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) Conference, Johannesburg, South Africa, with T. Guse.
2015
First and second language performance on the D-KEFS Colour Word Interference Test. UNISA Student Conference, Durban, South Africa. [poster]
Working memory, self-reported strategy use, and language proficiency in South African university students. 21st South African Psychology Congress, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Other activities and roles
Registered Research Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa
Associate Editor and Copyeditor for the Journal of Open Humanities Data
Guest Editor for the special collection ‘Humanities Data in the time of COVID-19’ for the Journal of Open Humanities Data
Data Champion for the University of Cambridge
Research affiliation with University of Johannesburg and Wits Neuroscience Research Lab (NeuRL)
