Franklin Chang

My research examines the relationship between learning and processing through the use of connectionist models and human experiments. I am a professor at Kobe City University for Foreign Studies in Kobe, Japan. Previously, I was a lecturer at the School of Psychology at the University of Liverpool and a member of the ESRC LUCID Centre on Language and Communicative Development. Before that, I was an assistant professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Hanyang University in Seoul, South Korea and research associate in the CLIP section of the Natural Language Research Group in the NTT Communication Science Laboratories near Kyoto, Japan. I have also worked at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany with Michael Tomasello and Elena Lieven on issues in language acquisition. I did my PhD on sentence production in the Department of Psychology at University of Illinois (Beckman Institute) with Gary Dell and Kathryn Bock.

Workshops

Introduction to Linear Models in R , University of Kent, June 2014

Workshop on neural network modelling of language at MAPLL, University of Tokyo, August 2014

Publications citations

Chang, F. (2025). Syntactic Priming. In M. C. Frank & A. Majid (Eds.), Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.fea3a130

Chang, F. & Tsumura, S. (in press). The lexical boost is not an automatic part of sentence production: Evidence from Japanese structural priming. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218241298250 pdf

Donnelly, S., Rowland, C., Chang, F., & Kidd, E. (2024). A Comprehensive Examination of Prediction-Based Error as a Mechanism for Syntactic Development: Evidence From Syntactic Priming. Cognitive Science, 48(4), e13431. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13431

Arai, M. & Chang, F. (2024). Influence of word-based prediction errors on syntactic priming. Seijo University Economic Research, 243, 97-120.

Chang, F., Tatsumi, T., Hiranuma, Y., & Bannard, C. (2023) Visual heuristics for verb production: Testing a deep-learning model with experiments in Japanese. Cognitive Science. 47(8), e13324. doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13324 pdf

チャン・フランクリン & 津村早紀 (2023). 人生を通して、常に言語を学習する. In 菊澤律子 & 吉岡乾両 (Eds.), Homō loquēns: しゃべるヒト―言葉の不思議を科学する―. 文理閣. pdf

Jessop, A. & Chang, F. (2022) Thematic role tracking difficulties across multiple visual events influences role use in language production. Visual Cognition. 30(3), 151-173. doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2021.2013374 pdf

Chang, F., Tsumura, S., Minemi, I., & Hirose, Y. (2022) Abstract structures and meaning in Japanese dative structural priming. Applied Psycholinguistics, 43(2), 411-433. doi.org/10.1017/S0142716421000576 pdf

Chan, A., Matthews, S., Tse, N., Lam, A., Chang, F., & Kidd, E. (2021). Revisiting Subject–Object Asymmetry in the Production of Cantonese Relative Clauses: Evidence From Elicited Production in 3-Year-Olds. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 5738. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.679008

Chang, F., Tatsumi, T., Hayakawa, H., Yoshizaki, M., Oka, N. (2021) The role of parental input in the acquisition of Japanese politeness distinctions Collabra: Psychology, 7, 1, 18989. doi.org/10.1525/collabra.18989 pdf

Tatsumi, T., Chang, F., and Pine, J. M. (2021). Exploring the acquisition of verb inflections in Japanese: A probabilistic analysis of seven adult–child corpora. First Language, 41, 1, 41-66. 10.1177/0142723720926320 pdf

Durrant, S., Jessop, A., Chang, F., Bidgood, A., Peter, M. S., Pine, J. M., and Rowland, C. F. (2020). Does the understanding of complex dynamic events at 10 months predict vocabulary development? Language and Cognition, 1–33, 10.1017/langcog.2020.26 pdf.

Yang, W., Chan, A., Chang, F., and Kidd, E. (2020). Four-year-old Mandarin-speaking children’s online comprehension of relative clauses. Cognition, 196, 104103, 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104103 pdf.

Jessop, A. and Chang, F. (2020). Thematic role information is maintained in the visual object-tracking system. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73(1), 146–163 10.1177/1747021819882842 pdf.

Chang, F. (2019). Early developing prerequisites for human interactive task learning. In Gluck, K. A. and Laird, J. E., editors, Interactive Task Learning: Agents, Robots, and Humans Acquiring New Tasks through Natural Interactions. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA pdf.

Fitz, H. and Chang, F. (2019). Language ERPs reflect learning through prediction error propagation. Cognitive Psychology, 111, 15–52, 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2019.03.002 pdf.

Chan, A., Yang, W., Chang, F., and Kidd, E. (2018). Four-year-old Cantonese-speaking children’s online processing of relative clauses: A permutation analysis. Journal of Child Language, 45(01), 174–203, 10.1017/S0305000917000198 pdf.

Janciauskas, M. and Chang, F. (2018). Input and age-dependent variation in second language learning: A connectionist account. Cognitive Science, 42(S2), 519–554, 10.1111/cogs.12519 pdf.

Abbot-Smith, K., Chang, F., Rowland, C., Ferguson, H., and Pine, J. (2017). Do two and three year old children use an incremental first-NP-as-agent bias to process active transitive and passive sentences?: A permutation analysis. PLOS ONE, 12(10), e0186129, 10.1371/journal.pone.0186129 pdf.

Lawson, R., Chang, F., and Wills, A. J. (2017). Free classification of large sets of everyday objects is more thematic than taxonomic. Acta Psychologica, 172, 26–40, 10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.11.001 pdf.

Chang, F. (2017). The LuCiD language researcher’s toolkit [Computer software].

Fitz, H. and Chang, F. (2017). Meaningful questions: The acquisition of auxiliary inversion in a connectionist model of sentence production. Cognition, 166, 225–250 pdf.

Twomey, K. E., Chang, F., and Ambridge, B. (2016). Lexical distributional cues, but not situational cues, are readily used to learn abstract locative verb-structure associations. Cognition, 153, 124–139, 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.05.001 pdf.

Chang, F., Baumann, M., Pappert, S., and Fitz, H. (2015a). Do lemmas speak German? A verb position effect in German structural priming. Cognitive Science, 39(5), 1113–1130 pdf.

Chang, F. (2015). The role of learning in theories of English and Japanese processing. In Nakayama, M., editor, Handbook of Japanese Psycholinguistics, 353–386. de Gruyter, Berlin.

Peter, M., Chang, F., Pine, J. M., Blything, R., and Rowland, C. F. (2015). When and how do children develop knowledge of verb argument structure? Evidence from verb bias effects in a structural priming task. Journal of Memory and Language, 81, 1–15, 10.1016/j.jml.2014.12.002 pdf.

Chang, F., Choi, Y., and Ko, Y. (2015b). Why loose rings can be tight: The role of learned object knowledge in the development of Korean spatial fit terms. Cognition, 136, 196–203, 10.1016/j.cognition.2014.11.002 pdf.

Ambridge, B., Pine, J. M., Rowland, C. F., Freudenthal, D., and Chang, F. (2014). Avoiding dative overgeneralisation errors: Semantics, statistics or both? Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 29(2), 218–243 pdf.

Chang, F. and Fitz, H. (2014). Computational models of sentence production: A Dual-Path approach. In Goldrick, M., Ferreira, V. S., and Miozzo, M., editors, The Oxford Handbook of Language Production. Oxford University Press pdf.

Mayor, J., Gomez, P., Chang, F., and Lupyan, G. (2014). Connectionism coming of age: Legacy and future challenges. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00187 pdf.

Twomey, K. E., Chang, F., and Ambridge, B. (2014). Do as I say, not as I do: A lexical distributional account of English locative verb class acquisition. Cognitive Psychology, 73, 41–71, 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2014.05.001 pdf.

Dell, G. S. and Chang, F. (2014). The P-chain: Relating sentence production and its disorders to comprehension and acquisition. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 369(20120394), 1–9, 10.1098/rstb.2012.0394 pdf.

Twomey, K., Chang, F., and Ambridge, B. (2013). A distributional learning account of the acquisition of the locative alternation: Corpus analysis and modeling. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, volume 35, 1498–1503, Berlin. ——- pdf.

Chang, F., Kidd, E., and Rowland, C. F. (2013). Prediction in processing is a by-product of language learning [Commentary on Pickering & Garrod: An integrated theory of language production and comprehension]. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36(4), 350–351, 10.1017/S0140525X12002518.

Ambridge, B., Pine, J. M., Rowland, C. F., Chang, F., and Bidgood, A. (2013). The retreat from overgeneralization in child language acquisition: Word learning, morphology, and verb argument structure. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 4(1), 47–62, 10.1002/wcs.1207 pdf.

Janciauskas, M. and Chang, F. (2013). Verb bias and structural priming in non-linguistic grammar acquisition task. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, volume 35, 657–662, Berlin. ——- pdf.

Rowland, C. F., Chang, F., Ambridge, B., Pine, J. M., and Lieven, E. V. (2012). The development of abstract syntax: Evidence from structural priming and the lexical boost. Cognition, 125(1), 49–63, 10.1016/j.cognition.2012.06.008 pdf.

Chang, F., Janciauskas, M., and Fitz, H. (2012). Language adaptation and learning: Getting explicit about implicit learning. Language and Linguistics Compass, 6(5), 259–278 pdf.

Ambridge, B., Pine, J. M., Rowland, C. F., and Chang, F. (2012). The roles of verb semantics, entrenchment, and morphophonology in the retreat from dative argument-structure overgeneralization errors. Language: Journal of the Linguistic Society of America, 88(1), 45–81.

Fitz, H., Chang, F., and Christiansen, M. H. (2011). A connectionist account of the acquisition and processing of relative clauses. In Kidd, E., editor, The Acquisition of Relative Clauses—Processing, Typology and Function, volume 8 of Trends in Language Acquisition Research, chapter 2, 39–60. John Benjamins, Amsterdam pdf.

Chang, F. (2009). Learning to order words: A connectionist model of heavy NP shift and accessibility effects in Japanese and English. Journal of Memory and Language, 61(3), 374–397 pdf.

Chang, F., Kobayashi, T., and Amano, S. (2009). Social factors in the acquisition of a new word order. First Language, 29(4), 427–445 pdf.

Fitz, H. and Chang, F. (2009). Syntactic generalization in a connectionist model of complex sentence production. In Mayor, J., Ruh, N., and Plunkett, K., editors, Proceedings of the 11th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop, volume 18 of Progress in Neural Processing, 289–300, Oxford University. World Scientific Press.

Chang, F., Lieven, E., and Tomasello, M. (2008). Automatic evaluation of syntactic learners in typologically-different languages. Cognitive Systems Research, 9(3), 198–213 pdf.

Chang, F. (2008). Implicit learning as a mechanism of language change. Theoretical Linguistics, 34(2), 115–122 pdf.

Fitz, H. and Chang, F. (2008). The role of the input in a connectionist account of the accessibility hierarchy in development. In Chan, H., Jacob, H., and Kapia, E., editors, Proceedings of the Boston University Conference on Language Development, volume 32, 120–131. Cascadilla Press, Somerville, MA.

Bock, K., Dell, G. S., Chang, F., and Onishi, K. H. (2007). Persistent structural priming from language comprehension to language production. Cognition, 104(3), 437–458 pdf.

Chang, F., Dell, G. S., and Bock, K. (2006). Becoming syntactic. Psychological Review, 113(2), 234–272 pdf.

Yamashita, H. and Chang, F. (2006). Sentence Production in Japanese. In Nakayama, M., Mazuka, R., and Shirai, Y., editors, Handbook of East Asian Psycholinguistics, volume 2 (Japanese). Cambridge University Press. pdf.

Chang, F., Lieven, E., and Tomasello, M. (2006). Using child utterances to evaluate syntax acquisition algorithms. In Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, pp. 154–159, Vancouver, Canada.

Chang, F., Lieven, E., and Tomasello, M. (2005). Towards a quantitative corpus-based evaluation measure for syntactic theories. In Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society, 418–423, Tucson, AZ.

Chang, F., Bock, K., and Goldberg, A. E. (2003). Can thematic roles leave traces of their places? Cognition, 90(1), 29–49 pdf.

Chang, F. (2002). Symbolically speaking: A connectionist model of sentence production. Cognitive Science, 26(5), 609–651 pdf.

Yamashita, H. and Chang, F. (2001). "Long before short" preference in the production of a head-final language. Cognition, 81(2), B45–B55 pdf.

Chang, F., Dell, G. S., Bock, J. K., and Griffin, Z. M. (2000). Structural priming as implicit learning: A comparison of models of sentence production. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 29(2), 217–230 pdf.

Dell, G. S., Chang, F., and Griffin, Z. M. (1999). Connectionist models of language production: Lexical access and grammatical encoding. Cognitive Science, 23(4), 517–542 pdf.

MacWhinney, B. and Chang, F. (1995). Connectionism and language learning. In Basic and Applied Perspectives on Learning, Cognition, and Development: The Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology, volume 28, 33–57. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. pdf.

Translation

Anan, N. & Chang, F (2012). Can Eros Be the Basis of Resistance? [Erosu wa teikō no kyoten to nari uru ka]. Conversation between Mishima Yukio and Terayama Shūji. Translation for a retrospective of Shūji Terayama, "Who Can Say That We Should Not Live Like Dogs?" The Tate Modern, London, UK. March, 2012, 19-37. pdf

Presentations

Chang, F., Tatsumi, T., Hiranuma, Y., and Bannard, C., (2020) The role of endpoints in verb tense/aspect morphology in Japanese children and adults. Plenary talk presented at the TL/Mental Architecture for Processing and Learning of Language conference. Tokyo, Japan.

Chang, F (2019) Sentence-level ERP effects as error propagation: A neurocomputational model. Invited talk presented at BLIT International Symposium on Neurobiology of Language. Tokyo, Japan

Samanta, S. and Chang, F. (2018) Modelling Human Understanding of Thematic Roles with Motion Heuristics. In 17th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA), Florida, USA

Samanta, S. and Chang, F. (2018) A Computational Model for Thematic Roles Identification. In 51st Annual Meeting of the Society for Mathematical Psychology, Madison, USA

Jessop, A. & Chang, F. (2018) Difficulties tracking role-referent switches can help to explain the subject/object relative clause asymmetry. Talk presented at the Architecture and Mechanisms of Language Processing Conference. Berlin, Germany

Chang, F. (2016) Linguistic adaptation as language learning: Linking L1 and L2 theories. Plenary talk presented at the Japanese Society for the Language Sciences, Tokyo, Japan

Fitz, H. & Chang, F. (2015) Prediction in error-based learning explains sentence-level ERP effects. Talk presented at the Architecture and Mechanisms of Language Processing Conference. Valletta, Malta

Chang, F. & Jessop, A. (2015). A cross-linguistic model of production and comprehension in visual worlds. Talk presented at the CUNY Sentence Processing Conference, Los Angeles, USA

Fitz, H. & Chang, F. (2014) Learning structure-dependent processing from combinatorial meaning. Talk presented at the Architecture and Mechanisms of Language Processing Conference. Edinburgh, UK

Chang, F. & Konopka, A. E. (2014). Prediction gone wrong: A mouse-tracking study in sentence comprehension. Poster presented at the Architecture and Mechanisms of Language Processing Conference. Edinburgh, UK

Abbot-Smith, A., Chang, F., Rowland, C., Ferguson, H. & Pine, J. (2014). Multiple syntactic processing biases change over development. Poster presented at the Architecture and Mechanisms of Language Processing Conference. Edinburgh, UK

Janciauskas, M. and Chang, F. (2014). Do language learning mechanisms lose sensitivity to the input? Poster presented at the Architecture and Mechanisms of Language Processing Conference. Edinburgh, UK

Peter, M., Blything, R., Rowland, C., & Chang, F. (2012) The role of verb bias in structural priming: Evidence from children and adults. Talk presented at the Architecture and Mechanisms of Language Processing Conference. Riva del Garda, Italy

Chang, F. (2012, August) Towards a unified approach to acquisition, production, and comprehension. Paper presented at the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Sapporo, Japan.

Chang, F. (2011, July) A connectionist model of the acquisition of English and Korean spatial language. Paper presented at the 12th Congress of the International Association for the Study of Child Language. Montreal, Canada

Chang, F. (2011, July) Using perceptual agency to guide syntax acquisition: A connectionist model. Paper presented at the 12th Congress of the International Association for the Study of Child Language. Montreal, Canada

Chang, F. & Kobayashi, T. (2010) Mapping between particles and intentionality in Japanese preferential looking. Poster presented at the Boston Conference on Language Development. Boston, US

Chang, F. (2008, November) Weight-based processing biases in a connectionist model of English and Japanese syntax acquisition. Poster presented at the Boston Conference on Language Development. Boston, US

Chang, F., Kobayashi, T., & Amano, S. (2008, Aug) Social knowledge contextualizes the initial learning of a new word order. Poster to be presented at the International Association for the Study of Child Language, Edinburgh, UK.

Chang, F., Yamashita, H., & Hirose, Y. (2008, March) Typing speed as a reflection of incremental sentence planning: Application of a new task to heavy NP shift in Japanese. Poster presented at the CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. Chapel Hill, US

Chang, F. (2008, March) A learning-based account of word order biases in English and Japanese sentence production. Poster presented at the CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. Chapel Hill, US

Chang, F. (2007, November) Comparing different approaches for using n-grams in syntax acquisition. Poster presented at the Boston Conference on Language Development. Boston, US

Chang, F., Kobayashi, T., & Amano, S. (2007, July) Social knowledge contextualizes syntactic representations in development. Talk presented at the Mental Architecture for Processing and Learning of Language. Hiroshima, Japan.

Chang, F. (2007, July) Some thoughts on the syntactic mind/body problem. Poster presented at the Japanese Society for the Language Sciences. Sendai, Japan

Chang, F., Kobayashi, T., & Amano, S. (2007, March) Social cues contextualize syntactic representations in development. Poster presented at the CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. San Diego, CA

Chang, F. (2006, October). Learning to Speak: A Connectionist Model of Syntax Acquisition and Sentence Production. Invited talk presented at 8th International Forum on Language, Brain, and Cognition. Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

Chang, F. (2006, August). Becoming syntactic. Invited talk presented at the Third International Workshop on Language Production. Chicago, USA

Chang, F., Lieven, E., & Tomasello, M. (2006, July). Unsupervised evaluation of syntax acquisition algorithms in typologically different languages. Poster presented at the Child Language Seminar. Newcastle, UK

Chang, F. (2006, July). Becoming syntactic: Psycholinguistic, developmental, and evolutionary considerations. Invited talk presented at the 5th International Workshop on Evolutionary Cognitive Sciences. Tokyo University, Japan

Chang, F., Lieven, E., & Tomasello, M. (2006, June). Comparing unsupervised syntax acquisition algorithms in twelve typologically-different languages. Talk presented at the 8th Annual International Conference of the Japanese Society for Language Sciences. Tokyo, Japan

Chang, F. (2005, July). Becoming syntactic. Invited talk presented at the Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam Symposium on Cognitive Development. Amsterdam

summer school tutorial

Chang, F., Lieven, E., & Tomasello, M. (2005, March). Towards a quantitative corpus-based evaluation measure for syntactic theories. Poster presented at the CUNY Sentence Processing Conference, Tucson, AZ.

Yamashita, H., Chang, F., & Hirose, Y. (2005, March). Producers build structures only with overt arguments. Poster presented at the CUNY Sentence Processing Conference, Tucson, AZ.

Chang, F. (2004, November). The development of the transitive construction: A connectionist account. Paper presented at the Boston Conference on Language Development. Boston, US

Yamashita, H., Chang, F., & Hirose, Y. (2003, August). Language Dependent Aspects of Structural Priming. Poster presented at the Architecture and Mechanism of Language Processing Conference. Glasgow, UK

Chang, F. (2003, July). Connectionist Syntax: Links to Cognitive and Usage-based Approaches. Paper presented at 8th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference. La Rioja, Spain

Chang, F. (2003, April). Learning to speak: Symbol processing in a connectionist production model. Paper presented at Society for Research in Child Development. Tampa, FL.

Chang, F. Dell, G. S., Bock, K. (2003, March). Comprehending structural priming: A connectionist learning account. Poster presented at the CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. Boston, MA.

Yamashita, H., Chang, F., & Hirose, Y. (2002, March). Separating functions and positions: Evidence from structural priming in Japanese. Poster presented at the CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. New York City, NY.

Chang, F., & Yamashita, H. (2001, March). To prepose or postpone: A connectionist model of heavy NP shift in English and Japanese, Poster presented at the CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. Philadelphia, PA.

Chang, F., Kondo, T., & Yamashita, H. (2000, March). Conceptual accessibilility influences scrambling in Japanese, Poster presented at the CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. San Diego, CA.

Yamashita, H., & Chang, F. (2000).A challenge for grammatical encoding: Phrasal ordering in Japanese.Paper presented at the Speech Production Conference, Los Angeles, CA.

Chang, F., Dell, G. S., Bock, K., & Griffin, Z. M. (1999). Structural priming as implicit learning: A comparison of models of sentence production. Paper presented at the CUNY Sentence Processing Conference, New York, NY.

Yamashita, H., & Chang, F. (1999). Phrasal ordering in Japanese: An integration of weight-based and accessibility-based accounts. Poster presented at Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing. Edinburgh, UK.

Chang, F. (1997). Syntactic adjustment in response to listener difficulty.Paper presented at the Sixty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.

Chang, F., Griffin, Z. M., Dell, G. S., & Bock, K. (1997). Modeling structural priming as implicit learning, Poster presented at Computational Psycholinguistics Meeting. Berkerley, CA.

Bock, K., Dell, G. S., Griffin, Z. M., Ferreira, V. S., & Chang, F. (1996). Structural priming as implicit learning. Paper presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomics Society, Chicago, IL.