LANGUAGE ACQUISITION, PROCESSING, AND PEDAGOGY LAB

We advance linguistic theory and improve language education

team meeting

Experimental Linguistics Research

Established in 2015, LAPP Lab carries out behavioral and eye-tracking research. Our research is generously supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, Duolingo, the journal Language Learning, and the PROSEED/TEL CMU fund.

Active Student Learning

PhD, MA, and BA/BS students take part in research, conference presentations, and journal publications. Grad students have gone on to tenure-track, post-doc, and industry positions. Undergrads have gone on to top graduate schools. Consider joining the lab!

Collaborative and Open Science

LAPP Lab stimuli, data, and code are made freely available on the Open Science Framework. Because team science is the best science, LAPP Lab collaborates with other labs and is part of the Pittsburgh Cognitive Auditory Neuroscience (PCAN) network.


LAPP Lab takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the mechanisms and architecture underlying language acquisition and processing. Our work bridges linguistics, psychology, speech science, and education, and aims to contribute real-world pedagogical innovations that improve language teaching and learning. The lab has two standing research groups: Psychling, the behavioral psycholinguistics group, and StatsEye, the R and eye-tracking group.

Interested in gaining research experience? Getting copies of papers or materials? Opening a dumpling lab? Or even participating in one of our studies? Contact the lab's director, Dr. Seth Wiener, for more information.



Publications


  • Bramlett, A. A. & Wiener, S. (2025). Individual differences modulate prediction of Italian words based on lexical stress: a close replication and LASSO extension of Sulpizio and McQueen (2012). Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 9, 55-81.
    • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Wiener, S., Murphy, T. K., & Holt, L. L. (2025). Incidental Nonspeech Auditory Learning Scaffolds Phonetic, Category, and Word Learning in a Foreign Language Classroom. Language Learning.
    • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Bramlett, A. A. & Wiener, S. (In print). The Art of Wrangling: Working with Web-based Visual World Paradigm Eye-tracking Data in Language Research. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism.
    • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Bramlett, A. A., Brown, B., Dueck, J., & Wiener, S. (2024) Measuring music and prosody: accounting for variation in non-native speech discrimination with working memory, specialized music skills, and music background. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2024 (pp. 482–486)
    • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Bramlett, A. A., & Wiener, S. (2023). Switching between phonological biases is not free: Evidence from a bilingual reconstruction task. In R. Skarnitzl & J. Volín (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS XX) (pp. 2800–2804). Guarant International.
    • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Coretta, S., Casillas, J.V.,... Wiener, S.,... & Roettger, T.B. (2023) Multidimensional Signals and Analytic Flexibility: Estimating Degrees of Freedom in Human-Speech Analyses. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 6(3), DOI: 25152459231162570.
    • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Zhu, J., Shao, J., Zhang, C., Chen, F., & Wiener, S. (2023). Statistical information affects spoken word recognition of tone languages in stutterers: Evidence from an auditory-perceptual gating study. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66 (9), 3382-3398.

  • Zhu, J., Chen, X., Chen, F., Zhang, C., & Wiener, S. (2023). Tone deafness in music does not preclude distributional learning of non-native tonal languages in individuals with Congenital Amusia. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66 (7), 2461-2477.

  • Brown, B., Tusmagambet, B., Rahming, V., Tu, C.-Y., DeSalvo, M. B., & Wiener, S. (2023). Searching for the “native” speaker: A preregistered conceptual replication and extension of Reid, Trofimovich, and O’Brien (2019). Applied Psycholinguistics, 44, 475-494.
    • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Zhu, J., Chen, X., Chen, F., Zhang, C., Shao, J., & Wiener, S. (2023). Distributional learning of musical pitch despite tone deafness in individuals with congenital amusia. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 153(5), 3117– 3129.

  • Wang, X., Lee, C.-Y., & Wiener, S. (2023). Non-native disadvantage in spoken word recognition is due to lexical knowledge and not type/level of noise. Speech Communication, 149, 29-37.
    • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Wiener, S. & Bradley, E. D. (2023). Harnessing the musician advantage: Short-term musical training affects non-native cue weighting of linguistic pitch. Language Teaching Research, 27(4), 1016-1031.

  • Sinagra, C., & Wiener, S. (2022). The perception of intonational and emotional speech prosody produced with and without a face mask: an exploratory individual differences study. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 7, 89.
    • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Gao, Z., Wiener, S., & MacWhinney, B. (2022). Acquisition of Chinese Verb Separation by Adult L2 Learners. Languages, 7 (3):225.
    • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Bramlett, A. A. & Wiener, S. (2022). jTRACE modeling of L2 Mandarin learners’ spoken word recognition at two time points in learning. Proc. 11th International Conference on Speech Prosody, (pp. 773-776).

  • Liu, J. & Wiener, S. (2022). Effects of phonological and talker familiarity on second language lexical development. The Mental Lexicon, 17 (1), 132-153.
    • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Zhang, H., Wiener, S., & Holt, L. L. (2022). Adjustment of cue weighting in speech by speakers and listeners: Evidence from amplitude and duration modifications of Mandarin Chinese tone. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 151 (2), 992-1005.
    • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Wiener, S., Gao, Z., Li, X., & Wu, Z. (2022). Acquisition of non-sibilant anterior English fricatives by adult second language learners. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, 8 (1), 68-94.
    • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Zhu, J., Chen, X., Chen, F., & Wiener, S. (2022). Individuals with Congenital Amusia show degraded speech perception but preserved statistical learning for tone languages. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 65 (1), 53-69.

  • Wiener, S. & Liu, J. (2021). Effects of perceptual abilities and lexical knowledge on the phonetic categorization of second language speech. JASA Express Letters 1, 045202.
    • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Maa, J., Li, X., Ballesteros Soria, N., Gao, Z., Burns, K. E., & Wiener, S. (2021). Second language acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University, USA. Language Teaching, 54, 292-296.

  • Liu, J. & Wiener, S. (2021). CFL learners’ Mandarin syllable-tone word production: effects of task and prior phonological and lexical learning. Chinese as a Second Language Research, 9 (2), 31-52.
    • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Wiener, S., Ito, K., & Speer, S. R. (2021). Effects of multi-talker input and instructional method on the dimension-based statistical learning of syllable-tone combinations: An eye-tracking study. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 43 (1), 155-180.
     • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Wiener, S. & Tokowicz, N. (2021). Language proficiency is only part of the story: Lexical access in heritage and non-heritage bilinguals. Second Language Research, 37(4), 681-695.

  • Liu, J. & Wiener, S. (2020). Homophones facilitate lexical development in a second language. System, 91, 102249.
     • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Chen, T., Koda, K., & Wiener, S. (2020). Word-meaning inference in L2 Chinese: an interactive effect of learners’ linguistic knowledge and words’ semantic transparency. Reading and Writing, 33, 2639–2660.

  • Lee, C.-Y. & Wiener, S. (2020). Acoustic-Based and Knowledge-Based Processing of Mandarin Tones by Native and Non-native Speakers. In H-M. Liu, F-M. Tsao, & P. Li (Eds.), Speech perception, production and acquisition: Multidisciplinary approaches in Chinese languages (pp. 37-57). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.

  • Wiener, S. & Lee, C.-Y. (2020). Multi-Talker Speech Promotes Greater Knowledge-Based Spoken Mandarin Word Recognition in First and Second Language Listeners. Frontiers in Psychology - Language Sciences. 11:214. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00214
     • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Wiener, S., Chan, M. K. M., & Ito, K. (2020). Do explicit instruction and high variability phonetic training improve non-native speakers’ Mandarin tone productions? The Modern Language Journal, 104 (1), 152-168.
     • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Wiener, S. (2020). Second language learners develop non-native lexical processing biases. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23 (1), 119-130.
    • • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Wiener, S. & Goss, S. (2019). Second and third language learners’ sensitivity to Japanese pitch accent is additive: An information-based model of pitch perception. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 41(4), 897-910.
    • • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Wiener, S., Murphy, T. K., Goel, A., Christel, M. G., & Holt, L. L. (2019). Incidental learning of non-speech auditory analogs scaffolds second language learners’ perception and production of Mandarin lexical tones. In S. Calhoun, P. Escudero, M. Tabain, and P. Warren (Eds.), Proc. 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019 (pp. 1699-1703). Canberra, Australia: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.

  • Wiener, S., Lee, C.-Y., & Tao, L. (2019). Statistical regularities affect the perception of second language speech: Evidence from adult classroom learners of Mandarin Chinese. Language Learning, 69(3), 527-558.
    • • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Wiener, S. & Goss, S. (2018). Perceptual assimilation of non-native prosodic cues: Cross-linguistic effects of lexical F0 learning. Proc. 9th International Conference on Speech Prosody, (pp.947-951).
    • • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Wiener, S., Ito, K., & Speer, S. R. (2018). Early L2 Spoken Word Recognition Combines Input-Based and Knowledge-Based Processing. Language and Speech, 61(4), 632-656.
    • • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Wiener, S. (2017). Changes in early L2 cue-weighting of non-native speech: Evidence from learners of Mandarin Chinese. Proc. of Interspeech 2017, (pp. 1765-1769).

  • Wiener, S., Ito, K., & Speer, S. R. (2016). Individual variability in the distributional learning of L2 lexical tone. In J. Barnes, A. Brugos, S. Shattuck-Hufnagel, and N. Veilleux (Eds.), Proc. 8th International Conference on Speech Prosody (pp. 538-542). Boston, MA.
    • • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Wiener, S. & Ito, K. (2016). Impoverished acoustic input triggers probability-based tone processing in mono-dialect Mandarin listeners. Journal of Phonetics, 56, 38-51.

  • Wiener, S. & Turnbull, R. (2016). Constraints of Tones, Vowels and Consonants on Lexical Selection in Mandarin Chinese. Language and Speech, 59(1), 59-82.
    • • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Wiener, S. & Ito, K. (2015). Do syllable-specific tonal probabilities guide lexical access? Evidence from Mandarin, Shanghai and Cantonese speakers. Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, 30(9), 1048-1060.

    • Posters


  • Wiener, S. & Bramlett, A. A. (2025). Vowel and consonant mutability in English: Evidence from a (new web-based) word reconstruction task. 15th International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB15), San Sebastian, Spain.
    • • Materials, Data, & Preregistration: Available on Open Science Framework

  • Bramlett, A. A., Brown, B., Dueck, J., & Wiener, S. (2024). Measuring music and prosody: accounting for variation in non-native speech discrimination with working memory, specialized music skills, and music background. Speech Prosody 2024, Leiden, The Netherlands.

  • Bramlett, A., Tu, C.-Y., Liu, X., & Wiener, S. (2023). An eye-tracking replication without an eye tracker: Capturing predictive sentence processing of accented speech via the internet, 36th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Pittsburgh, PA.

  • Bramlett, A. A. & Wiener, S. (2022). jTRACE modeling of L2 Mandarin learners’ spoken word recognition at two time points in learning. Speech Prosody 2022, Lisbon, Portugal.

  • Lin, Y., Rohde, H., & Wiener, S. (2022). More participants, fewer trials: A silver lining of moving eye-tracking experiments online, 35th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing, University of California, Santa Cruz (Online).

  • Cole, K., Chan, B., & Wiener, S. (2022). Black Aggression in the Wake of Pandemic Panic: Effects of Word Choice and Race on Speaker Judgments, 96th Linguistics Society of America Meeting, Washington DC.

    • Meet the LAPP Lab team!

    Dr. Wiener is an Associate Editor for the journal, Applied Psycholinguistics. His Erdös Number is 4. He is mostly interested in dumplings, breakfast, and comedy. Learn more about him on the podcast, "Lost in Citations."

    Seth Wiener

    Principal Investigator

    Adam joined the lab in 2022. He is interested in understanding language learning and non-native speech perception through psycholinguistics, data analytics, and open science.

    Adam Bramlett

    PhD student

    Noor joined the lab in 2024. She is a linguistics major.

    Noor Warner

    Undergraduate

    Andrew has not been seen in the lab for quite some time, and he really isn't known for his linguistics, but his heart is in the work.

    Andrew Carnegie

    Industrialist


    Lab Alumni

    Graduate students: Dr. Tianxu Chen (2019), Dr. Zhe Gao (2022) , Dr. Tim Murphy (2024), Dr. Bianca Brown (2025), Dr. Botagoz Tusmagambet (2025), Dr. Chisom Obasih (2025)

    Undergraduate students: Hannah Anderson, Yuan Bing, Angela Chen, Seoyoon Chun, Komal Dewan, Prina Doshi, Martina Gai, Maxine Graves, Jieming (Lewis) Li, Yikai Li, Xiaohan Liu, Yuanpu (Yvonne) Ma, Taylor Roberts, Mudita Sai, Chloe Sinagra, Youna Song, Radhika Subramani, Lakshmi Tumati, Katie Wise, Hui Zhang, Katherine Zhang, Guodong Zhao

    Check Out the latest from the lab!

    Untitled

    • 13 August 2025
    • Lab

    Three dissertations and three new beginnings

    This spring and summer three members of LAPP Lab successfully defened their dissertations and were awarded Doctor of Philosphy degrees: Dr. Obasih (Dissertation title: "Gradient Categorization, Linguistic Diversity, and Second Language Acquisition: Perceptual Learning of L2 Phonemic Contrasts Using a Multilingual Training Paradigm"), Dr. Tusmagambet ("An Activity Theory Perspective on Multilingual Literacy Practices in Kazakhstani Family Contexts"), and Dr. Brown ("Looking Beyond the Native-Speaker Interlocutor in Study Abroad: The Role of L1 Peers, Service Encounters, and LX Communities in Target Language Interaction"). We are so, so proud of their accomplishments and growth. They made LAPP Lab a better place and will be missed.

    "The future is completely open, and we are writing it moment to moment."
    --Pema Chödrön