Mr Marco Cangini
(he/him)

BSc, MSc, PhD in progress

Research student

I am a PhD student based in the Early Learning and Neurodevelopment (ELAN) Lab at the Cardiff University Centre for Human Developmental Science (CUCHDS). My research aims to advance our understanding of infant adaptations to bilingual environments, i.e., to ascertain how, why, and when these early adaptations emerge. To this purpose, I will be measuring dynamic infant-environment interactions, and integrating data from across levels (brain, cognition, behaviour, environment).

To meet the growing demand for bilingual speakers, and in many cases to maintain culture and identity, initiatives have been set up to promote bilingualism in the community (e.g., by the Welsh government). It is hoped that these initiatives will provide long-term socioeconomic and cultural benefits.
My current research aims to advance our understanding of infant adaptations to diverse environments (e.g., bilingual vs. monolingual environments), and to uncover the effects that widespread bilingualism has on children’s development.
Evidence is mounting that just being exposed to a bilingual environment can affect an infant’s development. However, the causes of these effects (e.g., greater novelty preference, faster and more frequent visual attention switching) are unknown.
To ascertain how, why, and when early adaptations to bilingual environments emerge, I will be measuring the complexity of each infant’s environment, and combining it with multilevel naturalistic (e.g., using head-mounted cameras to “step into the shoes” of the infants and measure their visual experiences) and experimental (e.g., neuroimaging) data.
For further information, visit the Early Learning and Neurodevelopment (ELAN) Lab and Cardiff Babylab webpages.

In 2024, I received a PhD studentship for a UKRI-funded project based in the ELAN lab at CUCHDS, where I will be investigating infant adaptations to bilingual environments.
Between 2022 and 2024, I interned in the Literacy and Deafness Development Research (LADDER) Lab and extended my MSc dissertation.
In 2022, I completed my MSc in Language Sciences (Neuroscience, Language and Communication) at University College London (UCL). My dissertation explored the relationship between the home literacy environment and emergent literacy skills in preschool deaf and hearing children.
In 2019, I graduated in Foreign Languages and Cultures at the University of Urbino, with a dissertation on linguistic relativity and the language-thought relationship.