About

Edith Kaan is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Florida, affiliated with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She holds a PhD from the University of Groningen in The Netherlands. Her areas of interest and research include psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and research methodology. Her primary focus is on language comprehension at the sentence level, and her research encompasses studies on second-language learners, Heritage Speakers, and other bi/multilingual populations.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Natural Language Processing
• Psychology
• Linguistics
• Data Mining
• Developmental psychology
• Programming language
• Cognitive psychology
• Communication
• Data science

Selected publications

• Cognitive control in bilinguals: Proficiency and code-switching both matter

  Cognition · 2021 · 61 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Psychology
  DOI

• Prediction in second language processing and learning

  Bilingual processing and acquisition · 2021 · 31 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Natural Language Processing

  Abstract There is ample evidence that language users, including second language (L2) speakers, can predict upcoming information during listening and reading. Yet it is still unclear when, how, and why language users engage in prediction, and what the relation is between prediction and learning. This volume presents a collection of current research, insights and directions regarding the role of prediction in L2 processing and learning. In this introductory chapter, we provide an overview of the current state of the field and highlight that prediction may not always be the most efficient processing mechanism, depending on a language user’s linguistic experience, task demands, goals and resources. We propose that a focus on the utility of prediction may help us better understand differences in predictive processing within and between individuals and groups.

  DOI

• Processing Code-Switches in the Presence of Others: An ERP Study

  Frontiers in Psychology · 2020 · 42 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Natural Language Processing
  • Artificial Intelligence

  Code-switching is highly socially constrained. For instance, code-switching is only felicitous when those present are fluent in both languages. This means that bilinguals need to dynamically adjust their language control and expectation of code-switching to the current social situation or context. The aim of the present EEG study was to investigate how and when language control in the comprehension of code-switches is affected by the assumed language knowledge of others in the context. Spanish-English bilinguals read sentences with and without code-switches together with another Spanish-English bilingual or with an English monolingual. Switches elicited an early fronto-central positivity. This effect was smaller overall when a bilingual was present at the start of the study. In addition, the late positive complex found for switches was smaller when a bilingual was present rather than a monolingual, but only for those participants who were sensitive to the other's language knowledge in their off-line judgments. These findings suggest that the bilinguals in our study expected and activated both languages when initially paired with a bilingual and that they more easily accommodated code-switches, in the presence of a bilingual than in the presence of a monolingual. Our findings support the view that language control can be modulated by the perceived language knowledge of others present, and are compatible with a dynamic control model of bilingual language comprehension.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R03DC006160

  NIH · $205k · 2011

• Adaptation of control processes in code-switching

  NSF · $432k · 2020–2026

Frequent coauthors

• Ratree Wayland

  University of Florida

  16 shared

• Souad Kheder

  7 shared

• Frank Wijnen

  Utrecht University

  6 shared

• Jorge R. Valdés Kroff

  5 shared

• Shuang Lu

  Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University

  5 shared

• Eunjin Chun

  Hong Kong Polytechnic University

  5 shared

• Mingzhen Bao

  5 shared

• Aleksandra Tomić

  Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate

  5 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  University of Groningen

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