Abstract: 

What are the social, environmental, and cognitive pressures that shape the evolution of language in our species? Why are there so many different languages in the world? And how did this astonishing linguistic diversity come about? These are some of the most interesting questions in the fields of cognitive science and linguistics, and represent the range of topics discussed in my research so far. My work focuses on linking core aspects of language acquisition, cultural evolution, and language diversity using a range of novel behavioral paradigms and computational models. My goal is to shed light on the communicative pressures and cognitive constraints that shape social interaction and language use in our species, and to identify the cultural and environmental factors that lead to cross-linguistic variation. In this talk, I will provide an overview of some of my research (including methods and results from selected projects), as well as discuss future directions and ongoing work.