Professor
Department of Linguistics
I am a linguist & cognitive scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. My research interest is in language processing, especially the coordination of syntactic information in memory. I teach courses at UCSC on psycholinguistics, experimental methods & design, language and memory, and syntax.
I completed my Ph.D. in Linguistics at UMD (2008), supervised by Colin Phillips (dissertation). Before that, I did my A.B. in Molecular Biology at Princeton University (2003), with Certificates in Neuroscience and in Linguistics.
From July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2026, I was the Chair of the Department of Linguistics. From 2025-2026, I was the Faculty Director for Curriculum and Enrollment in the Division of Humanities.
A new article on prediction and commitment in Santiago Laxopa Zapotec, co-authored with Jack Duff, Delaney Gomez-Jackson, Fe Silva Robles & Maziar Toosarvandani:
Delayed structural prediction for relative clauses: A new argument for learning to parse from Santiago Laxopa Zapotec. Cognition, 275, 106599. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106599
Linguistic diversity snapshot in PSYC51
Guest lectured in PSYC51 AI, Data and Society and the class produced a language & tech diversity snapshot
A new article on subject islands and information structure, co-authored with Mandy Cartner, Matthew Kogan, Nikolas Webster & Ivy Sichel:
Subject islands do not reduce to construction-specific discourse function. Cognition, 271, 106467. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106467
A new manuscript with first author Matthew Kogan:
(PsyArXiv) Decomposing subject retrieval: Diverging interference profiles for agreement and thematic dependencies in English. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/83nha_v1
"Subject" dependencies are not uniform & retrieval is relativized to dependency type. Sometimes Goals/Indirect Objects interfere and sometimes they don't!
𒑳 We'll be presenting our research at HSP39:
Grammatical resumptive pronouns facilitate processing before they are perceived (Short talk with Mandy Cartner*, Maziar Toosarvandani & Ivy Sichel)
Syntactic positional similarity modulates interference for thematic and agreement dependencies (Long talk with Matthew Kogan*, Ruoqing Yao, & Aditi Borra)
Verbatim recall is stable and pervasive across individuals (Poster with Brian Dillon & Sujin Lee)
፨ We kicked off our new CITRIS-funded project Understanding Computational Thinking and Skill Development with Large Language Models with PI Leilani Gilpin & Co-PIs Pranav Anand & Hannah Hausman.
A new article on prediction and interference, co-authored with Maayan Keshev, Kai Hinkle & Brian Dillon:
Predictability of the retrieval site does not modulate interference: evidence from reflexive attraction. Open Mind, 9, 2031-2065. https://doi.org/10.1162/OPMI.a.275
A new encyclopedia article, co-authored with Brian Dillon, in the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science:
Sentence Processing. In M. C. Frank & A. Majid (Eds.), Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.624d819a
We will be at CogSci 2025 (30 Jul - 2 Aug; San Francisco):
(lecture) How linguistic boundaries form encoding contexts in memory: Evidence from temporal order effects with first authors Lalitha Balachandran & Stephanie Rich
(poster) P2-Y-221 Who and when gets the race? Two processing routes for the advantages and penalties of pronominal ambiguity resolution with first author Ruoqing Yao
A major question our lab focuses on is how complex compositional objects, like sentences, are bound in working memory. We try to make progress on this question by studying how linguistic features, and feature systems, can act as "traffic signals" to access recent memories via prediction and retrieval. Some representative publications:
My collaborators and I have focused on developing sentence processing research in smaller or lesser-studied languages. For the past several years, I've been investigating language processing in Chamorro, an Austronesian language of the Mariana Islands, together with Sandra Chung (UCSC) and Manuel F. Borja (Inetnun Åmut yan Kutturan Natibu, CNMI). Our research was supported by the NSF (2013-2016).
Other lab members have been approaching problems in language processing from the perspective of underinvestigated languages. Jed Pizarro-Guevara has been working on Tagalog language processing, focused on the predictive value of Voice in interpreting A-bar dependencies in Tagalog.
Since 2018 Maziar Toosarvandani and I have convened z/lab, on sentence processing Zapotec. This research, expanded to include comparative studies with Hebrew ,is now supported by the NSF (2020-2024; BCS), with Co-PI Ivy Sichel.
We're broadly interested in finding creative, useful new practices in the design and analysis of language experiments.
Dillon, B., & Wagers, M. In press. Acceptability with the tools of signal detection theory. In G. Goodall (Ed.) Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Syntax. Preprint.
Using signal-detection theoretic tools, like ROC curve analysis, to draw conclusions about gradience in acceptability judgments. Preprint provides code and tutorials.
Morgan, A., & Wagers, M. (2018). English Resumptive Pronouns are More Common where Gaps are Less Acceptable. Linguistic Inquiry, 49, 861-876. Postprint: https://osf.io/nj2mq/.
Comparing acceptability and production measures of English resumptive pronouns.
Kroll, M., & Wagers, M. Is working memory sensitive to discourse status? Experimental evidence from responsive appositives. Poster presented at XPrag 2017, Cologne, Germany, Jun 21-23, 2017. Poster: https://osf.io/95hjq/.
Manipulating acceptability with Questions-under-Discussion (QUDs).
Anand, P., Andrews, C., Farkas, D., & Wagers, M. (2011). The exclusive interpretation of plural nominals in quantificational environments. In N. Ashton, A. Chereches, & D. Lutz (Eds.) Proceedings of. the 21st Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference. 176-196. Open Access.
Correlating measures of plural ex-/inclusitivity.