Submitted

Yu, X. & Lau, E. Features fade, pointers persist: dissociable parietal mechanisms in visual working memory formation and maintenance.

Thorburn, C., Karunathilake, I.M.D., Dixon, L., Lau, E., Simon, J. Neural recordings of continuous speech reveal robust signatures of prediction in second language learners of English. bioarxiv

Yu, X., Zhang, D., Carey, T., Poppel, E., Lau, E., Sanders, T. Unleashing the potential of OPM-MEG to study event-related fields against low-frequency artifacts: the case of sentence processing. bioarxiv

Yu, X., Tian, X., & Lau, E. Electrophysiological responses to syntactic and “morphological” structures: evidence from Mandarin Chinese. bioarxiv

Thoughts

How single-neuron computation matters for cognitive neuroscience

Moving towards an alternative approach to noun meaning and reference: handout on ‘kind’ subjects; handout on Geach’s substantival approach

A pre-recorded talk for the 2025 SLIME4 workshop about these issues: New directions for neurobiology of semantics – mental particulars and long-term knowledge.

My course notes illustrating why ‘words’ don’t belong in psycholinguistic theory (many common uses of the alternative terms ‘lexical item’ or ‘morpheme’ don’t fix this)

Slides from my 2024 UMD Language Science Center lunch talk ‘Wherefore art thou N400?‘. These review my shift in perspective on the psychology/neuroscience of sentence interpretation. *Note that for reasons of time and space, these slides leave open whether general concepts and mental particulars are wholly separate mental representations; however I’m strongly committed to the view that they are organized together within one common data structure (e.g. Prasada, forthcoming).

Lau, E. Hippocampal memory, individuals, and subject-predicate structure. pdf

Papers

Cuonzo, C., MacDonald, A., & Lau, E. (in press). Blueberries and fingerprints: ERP insights into compound structure in production. Cognitive Neuropsychology.

Yu, X. & Lau, E. (2025). Same set of visual pointers for biological and non-biological objects in working memory. Visual Cognition. pdf

Thorburn, C., Lau, E., & Feldman, N. (2025). Exploring the effectiveness of reward-based learning strategies for second-language speech sounds. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. pdf

Yu, X. & Lau, E. (2025). A finite set of content-free pointers in visual working memory: MEG evidence. NeuroReport. pdf

Yu, X., Li, J., Zhu, H., Tian, X., & Lau, E. (2024). Electrophysiological hallmarks for event relations and event roles in working memory. Frontiers in Neuroscience. pdf

Krauska, A. & Lau E. (2023). Moving away from lexicalism in psycho- and neuro- linguistics. Special issue on ‘Syntax, the brain, and linguistic theory’ in Frontiers in Language Sciences. pdf

Yu, X. & Lau, E. (2023). The binding problem 2.0: beyond perceptual features. Cognitive Science. pdf

Liao, C.-H., & Lau, E. (2023). ERP sensitivity to subcategorization violations in L2 learners. Second Language Research. pdf

Lau, E., Socolof, M., Clarke, N., Asatiani, R., Polinsky, M. (2023). A subject relative clause preference in a split-ergative language: ERP evidence from Georgian. Brain and Language. pdf

Gaston, P., Brodbeck, C., Phillips, C., Lau, E. (2023). Auditory word comprehension is less incremental in isolated words. Neurobiology of Language. pdf

Brodbeck, C., Bhattasali, S., Cruz Heredia, A., Resnik, P., Simon, J.Z., & Lau, E. (2022). Parallel processing in speech perception with local and global representations of linguistic context. eLife. full article

Liao, C.-H., Lau, E., Chow, W.-Y. (2022). Towards a time course model for argument-verb computations in online sentence comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language. pdf

Lau, E., Polinsky, M., Clarke, N., & Socolof, M. (2022). On the representation of morphosyntactic predictions: ERP Evidence from Georgian. Issues in Kartvelian Studies, 107. pdf

Cruz Heredia, A., Dickerson, B., Lau, E. (2021). Towards understanding sustained neural activity across syntactic dependencies. Neurobiology of Language. pdf

Pelzl, E., Lau, E., Guo, T., DeKeyser, R. (2021). Advanced second language learners of Mandarin show persistent deficits for lexical tone encoding in picture-to-word form matching. Frontiers in Communication. full article

Thorburn, C., Lau, E., & Feldman, N. (2021). A reinforcement learning approach to speech category acquisition. Proceedings of the Boston University Conference on Language Development. pdf

Schlueter, Z., Parker, D., & Lau, E. (2019). Error-driven Retrieval in Agreement Attraction does not lead to Misinterpretation. Frontiers in Psychology.

Matchin, W., Liao, C-H., Gaston, P., & Lau, E. (2019). Same words, different structures: an fMRI investigation of argument relations and the angular gyrus. Neuropsychologia. pdf

Lago, S., Namyst, A., Jäger, L., & Lau, E. (2019). Antecedent access mechanisms in pronoun processing: evidence from the N400. Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience. pdf

Delaney-Busch, N., Morgan, E., Lau, E., & Kuperberg, G. (2019). Neural evidence of rational adaptation of semantic predictions: a Bayesian model of trial-by-trial N400 amplitude during semantic priming. Cognition.

Kuperberg, G., Weber, K., Delaney-Busch, N., Ustine, C., Stillerman, B., Hamalainen, M., Lau, E. (2019). Multimodal neuroimaging evidence for looser lexico-semantic connections in schizophrenia. Neuropsychologia.

Lau, E. (2018). Neural indices of structured sentence representation: State of the art. In Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Vol. 68. pdf

Matchin, W., Brodbeck, C., Hammerly, C., & Lau, E. (2018). The temporal dynamics of structure and content in sentence comprehension: Evidence from fMRI-constrained MEG. Human Brain Mapping. pdf

Pelzl, E., Lau, E., Guo, T., & DeKeyser, R. (2018). Advanced Second Language Learners’ Perception of Lexical Tone Contrasts. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. pdf

Chow, W-Y., Lau, E.F., Wang, S. & Phillips, C. (2018). Wait a second! Delayed impact of argument roles on on-line verb prediction. Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience. pdf

Schlueter, Z., Williams, A., & Lau, E. (2018). Exploring the abstractness of number retrieval cues in the computation of subject-verb agreement in comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language.

Lau, E. & Liao, C-H. (2017). Linguistic structure across time: ERP responses to coordinated and uncoordinated noun phrases. Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience. pdf

Matchin, W., Hammerly, C., & Lau, E. (2017). The role of the IFG and pSTS in syntactic prediction: evidence from a parametric study of hierarchical structure in fMRI. Cortex. pdf

Lago, S., Sloggett, S., Schlueter, Z., Chow, W-Y., Williams, A., Lau, E., & Phillips, C. (2017). Coreference and antecedent representation across languages. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition.

Lapinskaya, N., Uzomah, U., Bedny, M., & Lau, E. (2016). Electrophysiological signatures of event words: dissociating syntactic and semantic category effects in lexical processing. Neuropsychologia.

Neufeld, C., Kramer, S., Lapinskaya, N., Heffner, C., Malko, A., & Lau, E. (2016). The electrophysiology of simple phrase building. Plos One.

Lau, E., Namyst, A., Fogel, A., Delgado, T. (2016). A direct comparison of N400 effects of predictability and incongruity in adjective-noun combination. Collabra.

Barrios, S., Namyst, A., Lau, E., Feldman, N., Idsardi, W. (2016). Establishing new mappings between familiar phones: Neural and behavioral evidence for early automatic processing of nonnative contrasts. Frontiers in Psychology.

Weber, K., Lau, E.F., Stillerman, B., Kuperberg, G.R. (2016). The Yin and the Yang of Prediction: an fMRI study of semantic predictive processing. Plos One. 

Chow, W-Y., Momma, S., Smith, C., Lau, E. & Phillips, C. (2016). Prediction as Memory Retrieval: Timing and Mechanisms. Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience.

McCourt, M., Green, J., Lau, E., & Williams, A. (2015). Processing implicit control: evidence from reading times. Frontiers in Psychology.

Chow, W-Y., Smith, C., Lau, E. & Phillips, C. (2015). A ‘bag-of-arguments’ mechanism for initial verb predictions. Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience.

Lau, E.F. & Nguyen, E.T. (2015). The role of temporal predictability in semantic expectation: An MEG investigation. Cortex.

Lago, S., Shalom, D., Sigman, M., Lau, E., Phillips, C. (2015). Agreement processes in Spanish comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language.

Omaki, A., Lau, E.F., Davidson White, I., Dakan, M., Apple, A., & Phillips, C. (2015). Hyper-active gap filling. Frontiers in Psychology.

Lau, E.F., Weber, K., Gramfort, A., Hamalainen, M., & Kuperberg, G. (2014). Spatiotemporal signatures of lexical-semantic prediction. Cerebral Cortex.

Chow, W-Y., Lago, S., Barrios, S., Parker, D., Morini, G. & Lau, E. (2014) Additive effects of repetition and predictability during comprehension: Evidence from event-related potentials. PLoS One.

Lau, E.F., Gramfort, A., Hamalainen, M., & Kuperberg, G. (2013). Automatic semantic facilitation in anterior temporal cortex revealed through multimodal neuroimaging. Journal of Neuroscience.

Lau, E.F., Holcomb, P.J., & Kuperberg, G.R. (2013). Dissociating N400 effects of prediction from association in single word contexts. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

Sprouse, J. & Lau, E.F. (2013). Syntax and the Brain. The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax. Cambridge University Press, UK.

Monahan, P., Lau, E., & Idsardi, W. (2013). Computational Primitives in Phonology and their Neural Correlates. Handbook of Biolinguistics, Cambridge University Press, UK.

Lau, E.F., Almeida, D., Hines, P., Poeppel, D. (2009). A lexical basis for context effects: evidence from the N400. Brain and Language.

Wagers, M.W., Lau, E.F., & Phillips, C. (2009). Agreement attraction in comprehension: representations and processes. Journal of Memory and Language.

Lau, E.F., Phillips, C., & Poeppel, D. (2008). A cortical network for semantics: (de)constructing the N400. Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

Lau, E.F., Rozanova, K., & Phillips, C. (2007). Syntactic prediction and lexical frequency effects in sentence processing. University of Maryland Working Papers.

Kazanina, N., Lau, E.F., Lieberman, M., Phillips, C., & Yoshida, M. (2007). Effect of syntactic constraints on long-distance dependency formation in backwards anaphora processing. Journal of Memory and Language.

Lau, E. F., Stroud, C., Plesch, S., & Phillips, C. (2006). The role of prediction in rapid syntactic analysis. Brain & Language.
**It’s important to be aware that a recent study by Kaan et al. (2016) has failed to replicate this finding. I am not currently pursuing further research on the early left anterior negativity myself given the related concerns raised about that broader literature by Steinhauer & Drury (2012).

Resnik, P., Elkiss, A., Lau, E., & Taylor, H. (2005). The Web in Theoretical Linguistics Research: Two Case Studies Using the Linguist’s Search Engine. Proceedings of the 31st Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, February 2005.

Lau, E.F. & Ferreira, F. (2005). Lingering effects of disfluent material on the comprehension of garden path sentences. Language and Cognitive Processes.

Ferreira, F., Lau, E. F., & Bailey, K. G. D. (2004). Disfluencies, Language Comprehension, and Tree Adjoining Grammars. Cognitive Science.

Phillips, C. & Lau, E. (2004). Foundational Issues (review article for R. Jackendoff’s Foundations of Language). Journal of Linguistics.

Conference Presentations (not yet in ms form)

Gaston, P., Lau, E., & Phillips, C. (2018). Resolving cross-method conflicts in the timing of cohort competition using jTRACE. 31st Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. pdf

Karatas, N.B., Gor, K., Slevc, L.R. & Lau, E. (2018). Complex sentence planning in L1 & L2 Turkish. 31st Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. pdf

Karatas, N.B. & Lau, E. (2018). A morphological cue beats a semantic constraint in Turkish agreement attraction. 31st Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. pdf

Schlueter, Z., Namyst, A., & Lau, E. (2018). Predicting discourse status: N400 effects of determiner expectation. 31st Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. pdf

Schlueter, Z., Parker, D., & Lau, E. (2018). Things that should affect agreement attraction in comprehension, but don’t. 31st Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. pdf

Hirzel M, Lapinskaya N, Lidz J, & Lau E. (2018). Syntactic constituency rate effects in EEG. Society for the Neurobiology of Language. pdf

Dissertation

Lau, E. The predictive nature of language comprehension. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Maryland. Chaired by Colin Phillips, co-supervised by David Poeppel.

My 2021 MPI 40th anniversary talk ‘More thought, less words’ – slides