Our lab studies the acquisition, processing, and evolution of language. We focus on three fundamental questions: What does it mean to know a language? How is this knowledge acquired? How do learnability pressures shape the structure of human language and other communication systems in nature?

Our work is interdisciplinary in nature and practice, integrating findings and ideas from different fields. We use diverse methods, from studying how babies and children learn language, through simulating cultural evolution in the lab, to the analysis of datasets of animal communication (mostly humpback whales and songbirds). Our work is conducted at the University and in the Living Lab at the Bloomfield Science Museum