-
13Contrast and entailment: Abstract logical relations constrain how 2- and 3-year-old children interpret unknown numbersCognition 183 (C): 192-207. 2019.Do children understand how different numbers are related before they associate them with specific cardinalities? We explored how children rely on two abstract relations – contrast and entailment – to reason about the meanings of ‘unknown’ number words. Previous studies argue that, because children give variable amounts when asked to give an unknown number, all unknown numbers begin with an existential meaning akin to some. In Experiment 1, we tested an alternative hypothesis, that because number…Read more
-
30Infants’ representations of others’ goals: Representing approach over avoidanceCognition 136 (C): 204-214. 2015.
-
1062Problems and mysteries of the many languages of thoughtCognitive Science 46 (12). 2022.“What is the structure of thought?” is as central a question as any in cognitive science. A classic answer to this question has appealed to a Language of Thought (LoT). We point to emerging research from disparate branches of the field that supports the LoT hypothesis, but also uncovers diversity in LoTs across cognitive systems, stages of development, and species. Our letter formulates open research questions for cognitive science concerning the varieties of rules and representations that under…Read more
-
20Properties of LoTs: The footprints or the bear itself?Behavioral and Brain Sciences 46. 2023.There are two ways to understand any proposed properties of language-of-thoughts (LoTs): As diagnostic or constitutive. We argue that this choice is critical. If candidate properties are diagnostic, their homeostatic clustering requires explanation via an underlying homeostatic mechanism. If constitutive, there is no clustering, only the properties themselves. Whether deep neural networks (DNNs) are alternatives to LoTs or potential implementations turn on this choice.
-
7Conflict paradigms cannot reveal competenceBehavioral and Brain Sciences 46. 2023.De Neys is right to criticize the exclusivity assumption in dual-process theories, but he misses the original sin underlying this assumption, which his working model continues to share. Conflict paradigms, in which experimenters measure how one cognitive process interferes (or does not interfere) with another, license few inferences about how the interfered-with process works on its own.
-
35Polysemy does not exist, at least not in the relevant senseMind and Language 39 (2): 179-200. 2024.Based on the existence of polysemy (e.g., lunch can refer to both food and events), it is argued that central tenets of externalist semantics and Fodorian concept atomism, an externalist theory on which words lack semantic structure, are unsound. We evaluate the premise that these arguments rely on—that polysemous words have separate, finer‐grained senses. We survey the evidence across psychology and linguistics and argue that it shows that polysemy does not exist, at least not in this “sense”. …Read more
-
Brown UniversityAssistant Professor
Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
1 more
Developmental Psychology |
Psycholinguistics |
Semantics |
Philosophy of Mind |
Philosophy of Language |
Philosophy of Cognitive Science |