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Research Publications

For a list of select publications by topic, please also see our Research Appendix. Where unspecified, active links lead to manuscripts. For copies of draft manuscripts, please contact Michael at ramscar at stanford dot edu.

Drafting

-- Ramscar, M., Dye, M., & Yarlett, D. (2009) No representation without taxation: The costs and benefits of learning to conceptualize the environment. (Abstract, Summary)

-- Ramscar, M., Dye, M., & Yarlett., D. (2009) Language as Prediction. (Abstract, Summary)

-- Ramscar, M. (2009) Wittgenstein and the Psychological Utility of Concepts.

-- Arnon, I., & Ramscar, M. (2009) Granularity and the acquisition of grammatical gender: How order-of-acquisition affects what gets learned.

-- Muenke, H. & Ramscar, M. (2009) Learning to explore the world through its statistics: Infants' visual search in the A-not-B task. (Abstract)

-- Davidenko, N. & Ramscar, M. (2009) Facial Distinctiveness.

Under Review

-- Ramscar, M., & Dye, M. (2009) Expectation and error distribution in language learning: the curious absence of mouses in adult speech. Nature. (Abstract, Summary)

-- Ramscar, M., Dye, M., Witten, J., & Klein, J. (2008) Two Routes to Cognitive Flexibility: Learning and Reponse Conflict Resolution in the Dimensional Change Card Sort Task. Child Development. (Abstract)

-- Ramscar, M., Holmes, K., Dye, M., Kirkham, N., & Gitcho, N. (2008) The roles of cognitive control and language in the development of false belief understanding. Child Development. (Abstract)

-- Yarlett, D., & Ramscar, M. (2007) Language Learning Through Similarity-Based Generalization. Cognitive Science. (Abstract, Summary)

-- Ramscar, M. & Dye, M. (2007) Learning Language from the Input: Why innate constraints aren't needed in compounding. Journal of Experimental Psychology. (Abstract)

Published Journal Articles & Book Chapters

Language & Learning

-- Ramscar, M., Yarlett, D., Dye, M., Denny, K., & Thorpe, K. (in press) Feature-Label-Order Effects And Their Implications For Symbolic Learning. Cognitive Science.+Abstract

-- Thompson-Schill, S., Ramscar, M., & Chrysikou, M. (2009) Cognition without control: When a little frontal lobe goes a long way. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 8(5), 259-263. +Abstract

-- St. Clair, M., Monahan, P., & Ramscar, M. (2009) Relationships between Language Structure and Language Learning: The Suffixing Preference and Grammatical Categorization. Cognitive Science: 33(7), 1317-1329.

-- Ramscar, M. & Yarlett, D. (2007) Linguistic self-correction in the absence of feedback: A new approach to the logical problem of language acquisition. Cognitive Science: 31, 927-960

-- Ramscar, M. & Gitcho, N. (2007) Developmental change and the nature of learning in childhood. Trends In Cognitive Science: 11(7), 274-279 +Abstract

-- Ramscar, M. (2003) The past-tense debate: exocentric form versus the evidence. Trends in Cognitive Science: 7(3), 107-8.

-- Ramscar, M.(2002) The role of meaning in inflection: Why the past tense does not require a rule. Cognitive Psychology: 45(2), 45-94. +Abstract

Analogy, Metaphor & Conceptual Structure

-- Ramscar, M., Matlock, T., & Dye, M. (in press) Running down the clock: the role of expectation in our understanding of time and motion. Language and Cognitive Processes. +Abstract

-- Ramscar, M., Boroditsky, L., & Matlock, T. (2009) Time, motion, and meaning: The experiential basis of abstract thought. In Kelly S. Mix, Linda B. Smith, and Michael Gasser (eds.), The Spatial Foundations of Language and Cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

-- Alloway, T.P., Corley, M., & Ramscar, M. (2006). Seeing ahead: Experience and language in spatial perspective. Memory and Cognition: 34, 380-386.

-- Matlock, T, Ramscar, M., & Boroditsky, L. (2005). The experiential link between spatial and temporal language. Cognitive Science: 29, 655-664.

-- Yarlett, D & Ramscar, M (2003). Overfurnishing the mind. Review of Jesse J. Prinz, Furnishing the Mind: Concepts and their Perceptual Basis. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002. Metascience 12: 285-291.

-- Ramscar, M. & Yarlett, D. (2003) Semantic Grounding in Models of Analogy: An Environmental Approach. Cognitive Science: 27, 41-71.

-- Boroditsky, L. & Ramscar, M. (2002). The Roles of Body and Mind in Abstract Thought. Psychological Science: 13(2), 185-188.

-- Boroditsky, L. & Ramscar, M.J.A. (2001). "First, we assume a spherical cow..." A commentary on Tenenbaum & Griffiths, Generalization, Similarity, and Bayesian Inference. Behavioral & Brain Sciences.

-- Hahn, U. and Ramscar, M.J.A. (2001) Mere similarity? In U. Hahn & M.J.A. Ramscar, (eds.) Similarity and Categorization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.