Bolger, Donald

My primary focus has been on how the brain learns to read, the sources of reading failure, and the role of experience and instruction in learning to acquire reading and vocabulary. In the course of studying reading in English, questions arose regarding how different languages and the writing systems impact the way learning occurs and the underlying neurobiology. Thus, a branch of my research has investigated reading across different languages and writing systems such as Chinese and Korean which diverge from English in both the spoken and written forms. As my research on reading impairments advanced, I began to inquire about the roots of learning difficulties stemming from our ability to control attention and to maintain and monitor information, components known as Executive Functioning and Working Memory (WM). Given the fundamental role these abilities play in learning, if they could be enhanced, then such effects should transfer to skills such as reading, mathematics, and fluid reasoning. This inquiry seeded a major line of research over the past five years and has grown to include the acquisition of foreign languages. Lastly, as my lab grew to investigate disordered brain development, we engaged growing debate about how the differential wiring in the brains of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) produce failures in language comprehension particularly when it comes to emotional content. In sum, I have engaged in a variety of investigations that stem from a basic query about the fundamental nature of learning and learning impairment in the brain and how to improve the instruction or environmental context to ensure successful achievement.