Rain Bosworth Headshot

Rain Bosworth

Associate Professor

Department of Liberal Studies
National Technical Institute for the Deaf
rain.bosworth@rit.edu
Office Location
LBJ-2257

Rain Bosworth

Associate Professor

Department of Liberal Studies
National Technical Institute for the Deaf

Bio

Rain Bosworth Bio video

Video Bio

Dr. Rain Bosworth is an associate professor in Department of Liberal Studies at RIT/NTID.  She is a deaf experimental psychologist, studying development of perception and language in infants and children at the newly-founded Perception, Language and Attention in Youth (PLAY) Lab. For her doctoral degree at the University of California, San Diego, she studied visual motion processing and attention in deaf adults, to better understand how deafness and sign language experience impact perceptual abilities. She is currently investigating visual and tactile exploratory behaviors in infants, children and adults to address questions about how we learn and process sign language.  She has also studied how easily visual abilities are recovered in children who were treated for congenital eye disorders. Together, these lines of research reveal how early sensory input shapes perception, cognition, and language processing.  Dr. Bosworth teaches Intro to Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Biopsychology, and Research Methods.

Her video bio can be viewed here.  

More information on how parents can enroll in her Exploratory Behaviors Museum Study at the Strong Museum of Play can be found here. 

I am currently recruiting a postdoctoral fellow and graduate students for the new RIT Cognitive Science program. 

rain.bosworth@rit.edu
Personal Links
Personal Website
ORCID
Curriculum Vitae
Google Scholar
Twitter
Areas of Expertise
Eyetracking
Visual Perception
Infant Vision
Developmental Psychology

Select Scholarship

Journal Paper
Bosworth, Rain G, So-One Hwang, and David Corina. "Visual attention for linguistic and non-linguistic body actions in non-signing and native signing children." Frontiers in Psychology 9. (2022): 951057. Print.
Bosworth, Rain G. and Adam Stone. "Rapid development of perceptual gaze control in hearing native signing Infants and children." Developmental Science e13086. (2021): 1-17. Web.
Bosworth, Rain G., et al. "Automaticity of lexical access in deaf and hearing bilinguals: Cross-linguistic evidence from the color Stroop task across five languages." Cognition. (2021): 1-22. Web.
Bosworth, Rain G., Adam Stone, and So-One Hwang. "Effects of Video Reversal on Gaze Patterns during Signed Narrative Comprehension." Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 25. 3 (2020): enaa007. Web.
Bosworth, Rain G., Charles E. Wright, and Karen R. Dobkins. "Analysis of the visual spatiotemporal properties of American Sign Language." Vision Research 164. (2019): 34-43. Web.
Stone, Adam and Rain G. Bosworth. "Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm." Journal of Visualized Experiments 147. (2019): e59581. Web.
Stone, Adam, Laura-Ann Petitto, and Rain Bosworth. "Visual sonority modulates infants’ attraction to sign language." Language Learning and Development 14. 2 (2018): 130-148. Print.
Invited Keynote/Presentation
Bosworth, Rain G. "Plasticity in a language-ready brain: complementary evidence from developmental deafness, blindness, and varied language experience across modalities." Society for Neurobiology of Language. Society for Neurobiology of Language. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 6 Oct. 2022. Conference Presentation.
Published Conference Proceedings
Bosworth, Rain G., et al. "Automaticity of Visual Word & Sign Processing in Deaf Bilinguals: Evidence from the Stroop Task." Proceedings of the Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research. Ed. Annika Herrmann, et al. Hamburg, Germany: TISLR, 2019. Web.
Peer Reviewed/Juried Poster Presentation or Conference Paper
Marin, Andrew, Karen R. Dobkins, and Rain G. Bosworth. "Development of Face Discrimination in Infancy: An Eye Tracking Study." Proceedings of the Vision Science Society. Ed. VSS. St. Pete Beach, Florida: https://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2750376.
Stone, Adam and Rain G. Bosworth. "Where do the eyes look during sign-watching? The impact of early language experience on babies’ and children’s eye gaze behavior for signed narratives." Proceedings of the International Conference on Sign Language Acquisition. Ed. ICSLA. Istanbul, Turkey: n.p..
Tyler, Sarah C., Rain G. Bosworth, and Karen R. Dobkins. "Development of temporal order attention in children 6-36 months old." Proceedings of the Society for Research in Child Development. Ed. SRCD. Austin, Texas: n.p..

Currently Teaching

LEAD-351
Introduction to Quantitative Research
3 Credits
This course will introduce students to quantitative methods used within the social sciences to answer research questions. Students will learn how to conduct culturally appropriate research with deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) individuals and Deaf communities and organizations. Students will learn about how to define and measure variables of interest, design surveys and other types of research studies, analyze the data collected, report outcomes, manage data safely, and conduct ethically responsible and culturally authentic research.
NDLS-285
Undergraduate Research: Liberal Studies
1 - 4 Credits
This course is a faculty-directed student research project at the undergraduate level. The research will entail an in-depth study in the discipline that could be considered of an original nature. Enrollment in this course requires permission from the Department Chair and completion of the NTID Undergraduate Research Contract.
PSYC-226
Developmental Psychology
3 Credits
This course explores the process of human development, from conception through adolescence and continuing through later adulthood. The developmental approach integrates across many areas of psychology, including perception, cognition, social and emotional development, personality, morality, human factors, and neuroscience. Topics will include such things as infant brain plasticity, the development of identity in adolescence, and memory changes in adulthood. In addition, experimental methods of developmental research will be introduced and practiced, including issues specific to studying children and adults.
PSYC-550
Undergraduate Research Experience
0 Credits
Practicum open to psychology students. Gives the student first-hand experience in the field of psychology working on research that matches the student's career objectives. Students are closely supervised by a faculty member, developing relevant skills and learning how to do research first-hand. May count for the equivalent of the psychology co-op experience with prior approval and sufficient time commitment. (3rd or 4th year status). Prerequisites PSYC-101, -250, -251. Credit 0 (F, S, Su)
PSYC-752
Thesis Proposal
3 Credits
The Thesis courses will vary widely but will fulfill the work plan agreed by the student and the adviser. The guiding principles of the Thesis Proposal course are to initiate thesis research including selecting a thesis advisor, choosing and defining a topic, surveying relevant research literature, and planning the research. To complete the course, the student will successfully submit and defend a thesis proposal, which is a detailed and complete plan of the thesis research. The thesis proposal should include exhaustive review of relevant literature, statement of the student's thesis, formulation of hypotheses, operational definitions of independent and dependent variables, and a detailed procedure for carrying out the research. The proposal may also include a section on anticipated results with a detailed plan for analysis of data.
PSYC-753
Thesis
3 Credits
The Thesis courses will vary widely but will fulfill the work plan agreed by the student and the thesis adviser. The guiding principle of the Thesis course is to complete the thesis research proposed in Thesis Proposal. The Thesis course consists of carrying out the thesis research, including collection and analysis of data, and completion and public defense of the thesis document for partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree.
PSYC-790
Continuation Of Thesis
0 Credits
Restricted to gpsa graduate program only. Must have permission of department to register for this course.
PSYC-798
Advanced Research in Psychology
3 Credits
Practicum open to MSc Experimental Psychology students. This course gives the student first-hand experience in the field of Psychology. The experience may involve a specific research project or other relevant professional development projects independent of the student’s thesis research. Students are closely supervised by a faculty member and will develop skills and gain experience in relevant advanced research and professional development in Experimental Psychology.

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