Mercedes Spencer is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She earned her PhD in Psychology from the Florida State University and completed her postdoctoral training in the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University. Her work uses a variety of approaches (e.g., latent variable structural equation modeling, meta-analysis) to investigate children’s language and literacy development and answer questions related to the prediction and classification of reading disorders and associated cognitive profiles and developmental trajectories. Specifically, she is interested in the contribution of executive function and attention skills to this process and aims to identify potential early indicators of reading comprehension difficulties to better predict and prevent future reading comprehension problems in children.
Scholarly Work
- A Model-Based Meta-Analytic Examination of Specific Reading Comprehension Deficit: How Prevalent Is It and Does the Simple View of Reading Account for It
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8483584/ - Considering the Role of Executive Function in Reading Comprehension: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7518696/ - Specific Reading Comprehension Disability: Major Problem, Myth, or Misnomer?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4134909/
Awards
- 2021, Society for the Scientific Study of Reading: Rebecca L. Sandak Young Investigator Award
- 2020, International Dyslexia Association: Early Career Award for Contributions to Research
Courses
- CSD 304: Statistics in Communication Sciences and Disorders
- CSD 404: Experimental Design and Statistics in Communication Sciences and Disorders