Staff profile

About Me

I obtained my undergraduate degree in Japanese and Mandarin from the University of Tasmania in 2008, and my Master's degree in Applied Linguistics from Nanjing Normal University in 2013. I completed my DPhil in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford in 2018, where I researched how infants learn colour words and what that means for their colour perception. From there I moved to the University of East Anglia as a postdoc, working on early visual working memory with Professor John Spencer. My research at Durham focuses on the interplay between early cognition and word learning in infants, looking particularly at the links between cognition, environmental factors and early word learning.

I also carry out work in metascience and am an advocate of Open Scholarship, developing pipelines and software for researchers to use.

• Developmental cognitive neuroscience
• Early word learning
• Infant development

• 2024: Associate Editor at Journal of Child Language:
• 2023: Software Sustainability Institute Fellow:
• 2022: Topic Editor at Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS):

Conference Paper

• Forbes, S. H., & Plunkett, K. (2017). Early Colour Word Learning in British Infants.

Journal Article

• Wijeakumar, S., Forbes, S. H., Magnotta, V. A., Deoni, S., Jackson, K., Singh, V. P., …Spencer, J. P. (2023). Stunting in infancy is associated with atypical activation of working memory and attention networks. Nature Human Behaviour, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01725-3
• Forbes, S. H., & Plunkett, K. (2023). Colour perception changes with basic colour word comprehension. Developmental Science, https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13406
• Fibla, L., Forbes, S. H., McCarthy, J., Mee, K., Magnotta, V., Deoni, S., …Spencer, J. P. (2023). Language exposure and brain myelination in early development. Journal of Neuroscience, https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.1034-22.2023
• Bakopoulou, M., Lorenz, M. G., Forbes, S. H., Tremlin, R., Bates, J., & Samuelson, L. K. (2023). Vocabulary and automatic attention: The relation between novel words and gaze dynamics in noun generalization. Developmental Science, https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13399
• Spencer, J. P., Forbes, S. H., Naylor, S., Singh, V. P., Jackson, K., Deoni, S., …Kumar, A. (2023). Poor air quality is associated with impaired visual cognition in the first two years of life: A longitudinal investigation. eLife, 12, Article e83876. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.83876
• Forbes, S. H., Aneja, P., & Guest, O. (2022). The myth of normative development. Infant and Child Development, https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2393
• Visser, I., Bergmann, C., Byers-Heinlein, K., Dal Ben, R., Duch, W., Forbes, S., …Zettersten, M. (2022). Improving the generalizability of infant psychological research: The ManyBabies model. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 45, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x21000455
• Abdelwahab, A. G. S., Forbes, S., Cattani, A., Goslin, J., & Floccia, C. (2021). An Adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates CDI in 17 Arabic Dialects for Children Aged 8 to 30 Months. Language Learning and Development, 17(4), https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2021.1916502
• Forbes, S. H., & Plunkett, K. (2021). The development of contour processing abilities in the second year. Developmental Psychology, 57(5), https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001021
• Forbes, S. H., Wijeakumar, S., Eggebrecht, A. T., Magnotta, V. A., & Spencer, J. P. (2021). Processing pipeline for image reconstructed fNIRS analysis using both MRI templates and individual anatomy. Neurophotonics, 8(02), Article 025010. https://doi.org/10.1117/1.nph.8.2.025010
• Defenderfer, J., Forbes, S., Wijeakumar, S., Hedrick, M., Plyler, P., & Buss, A. T. (2021). Frontotemporal activation differs between perception of simulated cochlear implant speech and speech in background noise: An image-based fNIRS study. NeuroImage, 240, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118385
• Forbes, S. H., & Plunkett, K. (2020). Linguistic and Cultural Variation in Early Color Word Learning. Child Development, 91(1), https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13164
• Forbes, S. H. (2020). PupillometryR: An R package for preparing and analysing pupillometry data. The Journal of Open Source Software, 5(50), https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.02285
• Delgado Reyes, L., Wijeakumar, S., Magnotta, V. A., Forbes, S. H., & Spencer, J. P. (2020). The functional brain networks that underlie visual working memory in the first two years of life. NeuroImage, 219, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116971
• Forbes, S. H., & Plunkett, K. (2019). The role of colour labels in mediating toddler visual attention. Cognition, 186, 159-170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.01.008
• Forbes, S. H., & Plunkett, K. (2019). Infants show early comprehension of basic color words. Developmental Psychology, 55(2), 240-249. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000609
• Liang, D., Song, Y., & Forbes, S. H. (2015). 汉英儿童故事讲述任务中完成体使用的对比研究