Bilingualism
Pronouns
Multimodal models
Distributional semantics
Language models & comprehension
Sentence structure & comprehension
Language segmentation
The DSS model
Systematicity

Stefan Frank

Centre for Language Studies ← Click here for a picture of me (if you must)
Radboud University
Erasmusplein 1 ⟡ Room 6.01 (Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays)
6525HT Nijmegen ⟡ The Netherlands
📧 ⟡ 📞+31 24 3615491 ⟡ 🦋@stefanfrank.bsky.social ⟡ 🐘@stefanfrank@scholar.social

Selected publications by topic

(Last update: October 2, 2024)

Bilingualism

The missing-VP effect in readers of English as a second language [doi]
Frank, S.L., Ernst, P., Thompson, R.L., & Cozijn, R. (2021)
Memory & Cognition, 49, 1204-1219

Cross-language structural priming in recurrent neural network language models [pdf]
Frank, S.L. (2021)
Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society

Cross-linguistic differences in processing double-embedded relative clauses: Working-memory constraints or language statistics? [doi][supplement]
Frank, S.L., Trompenaars, T., & Vasishth, S. (2016)
Cognitive Science, 40, 554-578

Towards computational models of multilingual sentence processing [doi]
Frank, S.L. (2021)
Language Learning, 71, 193-218 (special issue "What is special about multilingualism?")

Bilingual Dual-Path model

The Bilingual Dual-path model: Simulating bilingual production, comprehension, and development [doi]
Khoe, Y.H., & Frank, S.L.
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism

Simulating event-related potentials in bilingual sentence comprehension: syntactic violations and syntactic transfer [pdf]
Verwijmeren, S., Frank, S.L., Fitz, H. & Khoe, Y.H. (2024)
Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Cognitive Modelling

A neural network simulation of event-related potentials in response to syntactic violations in second-language learning [pdf]
Verwijmeren, S., Frank, S.L., Fitz, H. & Khoe, Y.H. (2023)
Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Cognitive Modelling

Is structural priming between different languages a learning effect? Modeling priming as error-driven implicit learning [doi]
Khoe, Y.H., Tsoukala, C., Kootstra, G.J., & Frank, S.L. (2023)
Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 38, 537-557

Simulating proficiency and exposure effects on cross-language structural priming in simultaneous bilinguals [pdf]
Khoe, Y.H., Kootstra, G.J., Schoonen, R., & Frank, S.L. (2021)
Proceedings of the 19th Annual Meeting of the International Conference on Cognitive Modelling

Modeling the auxiliary phrase asymmetry in code-switched Spanish-English [doi]
Tsoukala, C., Frank, S.L., Van den Bosch, A., Valdés Kroff, J., & Broersma, M. (2021)
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 24, 271-280

Simulating code-switching using a neural network model of bilingual sentence production [doi]
Tsoukala, C., Broersma, M., Van den Bosch, A., & Frank, S.L. (2021)
Computational Brain & Behavior, 4, 87-100

Modeling cross-language structural priming in sentence production [pdf]
Khoe, Y.H., Tsoukala, C., Kootstra, G.J., & Frank, S.L. (2020)
In: T.C. Stewart (Ed.), Proceedings of the 18th Annual Meeting of the International Conference on Cognitive Modelling (pp. 131-137)

"He's pregnant": simulating the confusing case of gender pronoun errors in L2 English [pdf]
Tsoukala, C., Frank, S.L., & Broersma M. (2017)
In: G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E.J. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 3392-3397). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society

Pronouns

Masculine generic pronouns as a gender cue in generic statements [doi]
Redl, T., Szuba, A., De Swart, P., Frank, S.L., & De Hoop, H. (2022)
Discourse Processes, 59, 828-845

The male bias of a masculine generic pronoun: Evidence from eye-tracking and sentence evaluation [doi]
Redl, T., Frank, S.L., De Swart, P., & De Hoop, H. (2021)
PLoS ONE, 16, e0249309

"He's pregnant": simulating the confusing case of gender pronoun errors in L2 English [pdf]
Tsoukala, C., Frank, S.L., & Broersma M. (2017)
In: G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E.J. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 3392-3397). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society

Coherence-driven resolution of referential ambiguity: a computational model [pdf]
Frank, S.L., Koppen, M., Noordman, L.G.M., & Vonk, W. (2007)
Memory & Cognition, 35, 1307-1322

Multimodal models

Communicative efficiency in multimodal language directed at children and adults [doi]
Grzyb, B., Frank, S.L., & Vigliocco, G. (2024)
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 153, 1904-1919

Modelling word learning and recognition using visually grounded speech [doi]
Merkx, D., Scholten, S., Frank, S.L., Ernestus, M., & Scharenborg, O. (2023)
Cognitive Computation, 15, 272-288

Seeing the advantage: visually grounding word embeddings to better capture human semantic knowledge [pdf]
Merkx, D., Frank, S.L., & Ernestus, M. (2022)
Proceedings of the Workshop on Cognitive Modeling and Computational Linguistics

Semantic sentence similarity: size does not always matter [doi] [Spoken STS data]
Merkx, D., Frank, S.L., & Ernestus, M. (2021)
Proceedings of Interspeech 2021 (pp. 4393-4397)

Learning semantic representations of sentences from visually grounded language [doi]
Merkx, D., & Frank, S.L. (2019)
Natural Language Engineering, 25, 451-466

Language learning using speech to image retrieval [doi]
Merkx, D., Frank, S.L., & Ernestus, M. (2019)
Proceedings of Interspeech 2019 (pp. 1841-1845)

Reconciling embodied and distributional accounts of meaning in language [pdf]
Andrews, M., Frank, S.L., & Vigliocco, G. (2014)
Topics in Cognitive Science, 6, 359-370

Distributional semantics

Seeing the advantage: visually grounding word embeddings to better capture human semantic knowledge [pdf]
Merkx, D., Frank, S.L., & Ernestus, M. (2022)
Proceedings of the Workshop on Cognitive Modeling and Computational Linguistics

Modelling the structure and dynamics of semantic processing [doi]
Rotaru, A.S., Vigliocco, G., & Frank, S.L. (2018)
Cognitive Science, 42, 2890-2917

Word predictability and semantic similarity show distinct patterns of brain activity during language comprehension [doi]
Frank, S.L., & Willems, R.M. (2017)
Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 32, 1192-1203

Word embedding distance does not predict word reading time [pdf]
Frank, S.L. (2017)
In: G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E.J. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 385-390). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society

Reconciling embodied and distributional accounts of meaning in language [pdf]
Andrews, M., Frank, S.L., & Vigliocco, G. (2014)
Topics in Cognitive Science, 6, 359-370

Self-organizing word representations for fast sentence processing [pdf]
Frank, S.L. (2008)
In: R.M. French and E. Thomas (Eds.), From associations to rules: Proceedings of the 10th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop (pp. 78-88). Singapore: World Scientific

Language models and comprehension

The need for human data when analysing the human-likeness of syntactic representations in neural language models: The case of English wh-island constraints [preprint]
Suijkerbuijk, M., Shapiro, N.T., De Swart, P., & Frank, S.L.
Manuscript submitted for publication

BLiMP-NL: A corpus of Dutch minimal pairs and acceptability judgements for language model evaluation [preprint]
Suijkerbuijk, M., Prins, Z., de Heer Kloots, M., Zuidema, M., & Frank, S.L.
Manuscript submitted for publication

Neural language model gradients predict event-related brain potentials [preprint]
Frank, S.L. (2024)
Proceedings of the Society for Computation in Linguistics (SCiL) 2024, 316-323

The Learnability of the Wh-island constraint in Dutch by a Long Short-Term Memory network [doi]
Suijkerbuijk, M., De Swart, P., & Frank, S.L. (2023)
Proceedings of the Society for Computation in Linguistics (SCiL) 2023, 321-331

An eye-tracking-with-EEG coregistration corpus of narrative sentences [doi] [supplement] [data]
Frank, S.L., & Aumeistere, A. (2024)
Language Resources and Evaluation, 58, 641-657

Cross-language structural priming in recurrent neural network language models [preprint] [supplement] [data]
Frank, S.L. (2021)
Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society

Human sentence processing: recurrence or attention? [pdf]
Merkx, D., & Frank, S.L. (2021)
Proceedings of the Workshop on Cognitive Modeling and Computational Linguistics

Evaluating information-theoretic measures of word prediction in naturalistic sentence reading [doi]
Aurnhammer C., & Frank, S.L. (2019)
Neuropsychologia, 134, 107198

The interaction between structure and meaning in sentence comprehension: Recurrent neural networks and reading times [pdf]
Frank, S.L., & Hoeks, J.C.J. (2019)
In: A. K. Goel, C. M. Seifert, and C. Freksa (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 337-343)

Comparing gated and simple recurrent neural network architectures as models of human sentence processing [pdf]
Aurnhammer C., & Frank, S.L. (2019)
In: A. K. Goel, C. M. Seifert, and C. Freksa (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 112-118)

Probabilistic language models in cognitive neuroscience: promises and pitfalls [doi]
Armeni, K., Willems, R.M., & Frank, S.L. (2017)
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 83, 579-588

Word predictability and semantic similarity show distinct patterns of brain activity during language comprehension [doi]
Frank, S.L., & Willems, R.M. (2017)
Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 32, 1192-1203

Using stochastic language models to map lexical, syntactic, and phonological information processing in the brain [pdf]
Lopopolo, A., Frank, S.L., Van den Bosch, A., & Willems, R.M. (2017)
PLoS ONE, 12(5), e0177794

Prediction during natural language comprehension [pdf][supplement]
Willems, R.M., Frank, S.L., Nijhof, A.D., Hagoort, P., & Van den Bosch, A. (2016)
Cerebral Cortex, 26, 2506-2516

The ERP response to the amount of information conveyed by words in sentences [doi][supplement][data]
Frank, S.L., Otten, L.J., Galli, G., & Vigliocco, G. (2015)
Brain and Language, 140, 1-11

Reading-time data for evaluating broad-coverage models of English sentence processing [doi][erratum][data]
Frank, S.L., Monsalve, I.F., Thompson, R.L., & Vigliocco, G. (2013)
Behavior Research Methods, 45, 1182-1190

Uncertainty reduction as a measure of cognitive load in sentence comprehension [pdf][data]
Frank, S.L. (2013)
Topics in Cognitive Science, 5, 475-494

Lexical surprisal as a general predictor of reading time [pdf]
Monsalve, I.F., Frank, S.L., & Vigliocco, G. (2012)
Proceedings of the 13th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (pp. 398-408). Avignon, France: Association for Computational Linguistics

Insensitivity of the human sentence-processing system to hierarchical structure [pdf][supplement][data]
Frank, S.L., & Bod, R. (2011)
Psychological Science, 22, 829-834

Sentence comprehension as mental simulation: an information-theoretic perspective [pdf]
Frank, S.L., & Vigliocco, G. (2011)
Information, 2, 672-696

Sentence structure and comprehension

The need for human data when analysing the human-likeness of syntactic representations in neural language models: The case of English wh-island constraints
Suijkerbuijk, M., Shapiro, N.T., De Swart, P., & Frank, S.L.
Manuscript submitted for publication

BLiMP-NL: A corpus of Dutch minimal pairs and acceptability judgements for language model evaluation [preprint]
Suijkerbuijk, M., Prins, Z., de Heer Kloots, M., Zuidema, M., & Frank, S.L.
Manuscript submitted for publication

The Learnability of the Wh-island constraint in Dutch by a Long Short-Term Memory network [preprint]
Suijkerbuijk, M., De Swart, P., & Frank, S.L. (2023)
Proceedings of the Society for Computation in Linguistics (SCiL) 2023, 321-331

The missing-VP effect in readers of English as a second language [doi]
Frank, S.L., Ernst, P., Thompson, R.L., & Cozijn, R. (2021)
Memory & Cognition

Cross-language structural priming in recurrent neural network language models [pdf]
Frank, S.L. (2021)
Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society

Judgements about double-embedded relative clauses differ between languages [doi]
Frank, S.L., & Ernst, P. (2019)
Psychological Research, 83, 1581-1593

The interaction between structure and meaning in sentence comprehension: Recurrent neural networks and reading times [pdf]
Frank, S.L., & Hoeks, J.C.J. (2019)
In: A. K. Goel, C. M. Seifert, and C. Freksa (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 337-343)

Cross-linguistic differences in processing double-embedded relative clauses: Working-memory constraints or language statistics? [pdf][supplement]
Frank, S.L., Trompenaars, T., & Vasishth, S. (2016)
Cognitive Science, 40, 554-578

Hierarchical and sequential processing of language: A response to Ding, Melloni, Tian, & Poeppel (2017) [doi]
Frank, S.L., & Christiansen, M.H. (2018)
Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 33, 1213-1218

Lexical representation explains cortical entrainment during speech comprehension [doi]
Frank, S.L., & Yang, J. (2018)
PLoS ONE, 13(5), e0197304

How hierarchical is language use? [pdf]
Frank, S.L., Bod, R., & Christiansen, M.H. (2012)
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 279, 4522-4531

Insensitivity of the human sentence-processing system to hierarchical structure [pdf][supplement][data]
Frank, S.L., & Bod, R. (2011)
Psychological Science, 22, 829-834

The interaction between structure and meaning in sentence comprehension: Recurrent neural networks and reading times [pdf]
Frank, S.L., & Hoeks, J.C.J. (2019)
In: A. K. Goel, C. M. Seifert, and C. Freksa (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 337-343)

Dependency parsing with your eyes: Dependency structure predicts eye regressions during reading [pdf]
Lopopolo, A., Frank, S.L., Van den Bosch, A., & Willems, R.M. (2019)
Proceedings of the Workshop on Cognitive Modeling and Computational Linguistics (pp. 77-85). Minneapolis, Minnesota: Association for Computational Linguistics

Language segmentation

Unsupervised text segmentation predicts eye fixations during reading [doi]
Yang, J., Van den Bosch, A., & Frank, S.L. (2022)
Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 5, 731615

Modeling the influence of language input statistics on children's speech production [doi]
Roete, I., Frank, S.L., Fikkert, P., & Casillas, M.A. (2020)
Cognitive Science, 44, e12924

Less is Better: A cognitively inspired unsupervised model for language segmentation [pdf]
Yang, J., Van Den Bosch, A., & Frank, S.L. (2020)
Proceedings of the Workshop on Cognitive Aspects of the Lexicon (pp. 33-45)

The Distribution Situation Space model

Causal inferences and world knowledge [pdf]
Noordman, L., Vonk, W., Cozijn, R., & Frank, S.L. (2015)
In: E.J. O'Brien, A.E. Cook, & R.F. Lorch (Eds.). Inferences during reading (pp. 260-289). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

World knowledge in computational models of discourse comprehension [pdf]
Frank, S.L., Koppen, M., Noordman, L.G.M., & Vonk, W. (2008)
Discourse Processes, 45, 429-463

Sentence comprehension as mental simulation: an information-theoretic perspective [pdf]
Frank, S.L., & Vigliocco, G. (2011)
Information, 2, 672-696

Connectionist semantic systematicity [pdf]
Frank, S.L., Haselager, W.F.M., & Van Rooij, I. (2009)
Cognition, 110, 358-379

Modeling multiple levels of text representation [pdf]
Frank, S.L., Koppen, M., Noordman, L.G.M., & Vonk, W. (2007)
In: F. Schmalhofer & C.A. Perfetti (Eds.), Higher level language processes in the brain: inference and comprehension processes (pp. 133-157). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum

Coherence-driven resolution of referential ambiguity: a computational model [pdf]
Frank, S.L., Koppen, M., Noordman, L.G.M., & Vonk, W. (2007)
Memory & Cognition, 35, 1307-1322

Modeling knowledge-based inference in story comprehension [pdf]
Frank, S.L., Koppen, M., Noordman, L.G.M., & Vonk, W. (2003)
Cognitive Science, 27, 875-910

The systematicity debate

Getting real about systematicity [pdf]
Frank, S.L. (2014)
In: P. Calvo & J. Symons (Eds.), The architecture of cognition: rethinking Fodor and Pylyshyn's systematicity challenge (pp. 147-164). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

Connectionist semantic systematicity [pdf]
Frank, S.L., Haselager, W.F.M., & Van Rooij, I. (2009)
Cognition, 110, 358-379

Sentence processing in echo state networks: a qualitative analysis by finite state machine extraction [pdf]
Frank, S.L., & Jacobsson, H. (2010)
Connection Science, 22, 135-155

Strong systematicity in sentence processing by simple recurrent networks [pdf]
Brakel, P., & Frank, S.L. (2009)
In: N.A. Taatgen & H. van Rijn (Eds.), Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1599-1604). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society

Generalization and systematicity in echo state networks [pdf]
Frank, S.L., & Cernanský, M. (2008)
In: B.C. Love, K. McRae, & V.M. Sloutsky (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 733-738). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society

Learn more by training less: Systematicity in sentence processing by recurrent networks [pdf]
Frank, S.L. (2006)
Connection Science, 18, 287-302

Strong systematicity in sentence processing by an Echo State Network [pdf]
Frank, S.L. (2006)
In: S. Kollias et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of ICANN 2006, Part I, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 4131 (pp. 505-514)