Rebecca Marks, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher in the Brain, Education, and Mind (BEAM) Lab, directed by Dr. Joanna Christodoulou, as well as in the Gabrieli Lab at MIT. Rebecca’s research uses behavioral and neuroimaging (fMRI and fNIRS) methods to examine how children’s spoken language skills pave the way for successful reading development. She is particularly interested in the role of morphological awareness in learning to read among multilingual speakers and children with reading impairments. 

  • BA, Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
  • MS, Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
  • PhD, Education & Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 

Selected Publications

Marks, R. A., Eggleston, R. L., Sun, X., Yu, C.-L., Zhang, K., Nickerson, N., Hu, X.-S., & Kovelman, I. (2022). The neurobiological basis of morphological processing for typical and impaired readers. Annals of Dyslexia, 72, 361-383. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-021-00239-9
 
Marks, R. A., Norton, R., Mesite, L., Fox, A. B., & Christodoulou, J. A. (2022). Risk and resilience correlates of reading among adolescents with language-based learning disabilities during COVID-19. Reading & Writing. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-022-10361-8
 
Marks, R. A., Labotka, D., Sun, X., Nickerson, N., Zhang, K., Eggleston, R., Yu, C.-L., Uchikoshi, Y., Hoeft, F., & Kovelman, I. (2022). Morphological awareness and its role in early word reading in English monolinguals, Spanish-English, and Chinese-English simultaneous bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728922000517
 
Marks, R. A., Sun, X., McAlister López, E., Caruso, V., Nickerson, N., Hernandez, I., Satterfield, T., & Kovelman, I. (2022). Cross-linguistic transfer of morphological awareness and reading skill in Spanish-English simultaneous bilingual children. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 10, 3907-3923. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2022.2090226  
 
Marks, R. A., Satterfield, T., & Kovelman, I. (2022). Integrated multilingualism and bilingual reading development. In J. MacSwan (Ed.), Multilingual Perspectives on Translanguaging (pp. 201-223). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Wagley, N., Marks, R. A., Bedore, L. & Kovelman, I. (2022). Contributions of bilingual home environment and language proficiency to children’s Spanish-English reading outcomes. Child Development, 93(4), 881-899. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13748
 
Sun, X., Marks, R. A., Eggleston, R. L., Zhang, K., Yu, C.-L., Nickerson, N., Caruso, V., Chou, T.-L., Hu, X.-S., Tardif, T., Booth, J. R., Beltz, A. M., & Kovelman, I. (2022). Bilingual proficiency enhances neural network density: Sources of heterogeneity in children’s functional connectivity during English word processing. Neurobiology of Language, https://doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00092  
 
Li, H., Marks, R. A., Liu, L., Zhang, J., Zhong, H., Feng, X., Zhang, M., Yang, X., Liu, L., Meng, X., & Ding, G. (2021). The selective contributions of the right cerebellar lobules to print processing. Brain Structure & Function, 227, 963-977. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-021-02434-1 
 
Marks, R. A., Kovelman, I., Kepinska, O., Oliver, M., Xia, Z., Haft, S. L., Zekelman, L., Duong, P., Uchikoshi, Y., Hancock, R., & Hoeft, F. (2019). Spoken language processing predicts print-speech convergence in beginning readers. NeuroImage, 201, 116021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116021
 
Ip, K.†, Marks, R. A.†, Hsu, L.-S., Desai, N., Kuan, J. L., Tardif, T., & Kovelman, I. (2019). Morphological processing in Chinese engages left temporal regions. Brain and Language, 199, 104696. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2019.104696 
 
Kovelman, I., & Marks, R. A. (2019). Tracking qualitative changes in cognition and brain development through bilingualism. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 49, 255-257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2018.06.002   

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