01 / Discourse & reference
Discourse reference processing
Referential form, discourse prominence, and memory access in comprehension, including cross-linguistic variation and the repeated name penalty.
Explore this area →Research
The lab investigates discourse processing and its relationship to memory, spatial cognition, attention, and social inference. Current projects address referential representation, the neural bases of reference processing, multitasking, anthropomorphism, and pragmatic interpretation.
02 / Attention & communication
Attention, memory & communication
Resource competition during conversation, interference with concurrent visuomotor tasks, and sustained attention in complex multitasking.
Explore this area →03 / Language & AI
Language, anthropomorphism & AI
Effects of grammatical agency and linguistic style on anthropomorphic inference, animacy perception, and responsibility attribution.
Explore this area →04 / Pragmatics & social inference
Pragmatics & social inference
Common ground, perspective-taking, nonliteral interpretation, and the contribution of contextual information to discourse comprehension.
Explore this area →Earlier lines of inquiry
Our past research includes language and memory in Alzheimer’s disease and aging, and questions about human reasoning and domain specialization.
Explore past research →