My main interests are in language and cognition and in how these become understood by researchers in different disciplines using different research tactics. Since moving in 2002-3 to University of California, San Diego (UCSD), I have collaborated with William Bechtel on applying his new mechanistic approach to philosophy of science to the cognitive sciences. Currently I am dividing my work between that project and my longer-standing research on early words and symbolic gestures in typically and atypically developing toddlers. See below for my publications organized by topic, including mechanistic models, connectionism, language development, psycholinguistics, cognitive science, interdisciplinary relationships, augmentative communication, and learning across species. There is also a listing by date that includes links to PDF files.

At UCSD I am Associate Project Scientist at the Center for Research in Language. From 1994-2002 I was Associate Professor (part-time) at Washington University and also directed the undergraduate programs in Linguistics and in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology there. From November 2001 - October 2004 I was co-project director of a grant to Washington Univeristy from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education in the U.S. Department of Education, "A modular interdisciplinary methods course for cognitive science majors." Carl Craver, Peter Bradley, and William Bechtel have been my collaborators on that project, and our website can be viewed at inquiry.ucsd.edu.