SIOW Serene

Serene /səˈriːn/
adjective
calm, peaceful, and untroubled; tranquil.萧 [xiāo] 思 [sī] 玲 [líng]

Lecturer @ Sunway University, Malaysia
Research on bilingual vocabulary development and early cognition
Swing dancer, fiction writer, makes friends using homemade brownies

Education

PhD / DPhil in Experimental Psychology: 2023
University of OxfordMSc in Human Cognitive Neuropsychology: 2018
The University of EdinburghPsychology and Linguistics (MA Hons): 2017
The University of Edinburgh

Research Employment

Lecturer: 2026-present
Sunway University, MYResearch Fellow: 2024-2026
National University of Singapore; Nanyang Technological University, SGPostdoctoral Fellow: 2022-2024
National University of Singapore, SGGraduate Research Assistant: 2019-2022
University of Oxford, UK

Selected Publications

COGNATES AND TRANSLATION EQUIVALENTS
Siow, S., Lepadatu, I., Gillen, N. A., & Plunkett, K. (2025). Bilingual Toddlers’ Vocabulary Growth Interacts with Existing Knowledge and Cross-Linguistic Similarity. Journal of Child Language, 1-28. open accessBILINGUAL VOCABULARY SIZE
Siow, S., Gillen, N. A., Lepădatu, I., & Plunkett, K. (2023). Double it up: Vocabulary size comparisons between UK bilingual and monolingual toddlers. Infancy, 28(6). open accessPREDICTORS OF WORD ACQUISITION ORDER
Siow, S., & Plunkett, K. (2021). Exploring the variable effects of frequency and semantic diversity as predictors for a word's ease of acquisition in different word classes. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 43. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/83t6n1rq pdfREMOTE DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH
Gillen, N. A., Siow, S., Lepadatu, I., Sucevic, J., Plunkett, K., & Duta, M. (2021, May 4). Tapping into the potential of remote developmental research: introducing the OxfordBabylab app. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/kxhmw pdf

PHD THESIS
How Bilingual Language Experience Shapes the Infant Lexicon: Implications for Word Learning and Lexical Access ORA depositSupervisors: Prof Kim Plunkett, Dr Janette Chow (University of Oxford)

Teaching

CO-INSTRUCTOR
Developmental Psychology | 2026
Sunway University, MYDevelopmental Psychology | 2025; 2026
Nanyang Technological University, SGSELECTED GUEST LECTURES
Mapping the Bilingual Lexicon: An Introduction to Corpus Analysis using CHILDES | 2026
in Language Acquisition: National Chung Cheng University, TWCode-switching | 2024
in Topics in the Psychology of Language: National University of Singapore, SGOverview of Child Language Acquisition | 2024
in How to Get Humans and Machines to Talk to Each Other: National University of Singapore, SGSELECTED WORKSHOPS
Getting Started with Data Visualisation and Analysis in R | 2026
Sunway University, MYIntroduction to R and R Markdown | 2024
National University of Singapore, SGUsing tidyverse for questionnaire data in R | 2021
University of Oxford, UK

Science Communication

Current Projects

English dominance in vocabulary outcomes among bilingual toddlers in Singapore
- Singapore Communicative Development Inventories (18-24 months old)Bilingual language exposure and academic outcomes
- Parent report questionnaires and examination scores

Past Projects

Seeing is believing? Polysemy of perception verbs for belief
- Online game-like computerised 2AFC task (4-6 years old)Are there patterns in the language input to help learners differentiate factive and non-factive verbs?
- Corpus analysis (child-ambient speech corpora)Are learners differentiate factive and non-factive verbs based on patterns in the language input?
- Human simulation paradigm with nonce word sentences (adults)

Collaborative project
Funded by ESRC grant to Prof Kim Plunkett and Prof Nuria Sebastian-Galles
Link to project website