Yuhan Zhang

Hi there! My name is Yuhan Zhang ([y'hæn ʈ͡ʂɑ̃ŋ]). I do science in the intersections of language, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. 

Research Interests

Our ability to understand and use language is the foundation for our daily function and paves the way for human civilization. This ability can be easily taken for granted for its givenness to a typical person. Yet, ...

• How can we make sense of what we hear and read so effortlessly, given the inherent complexity in language, our built-in cognitive limitations, and uncertainty in the environment?

• Are there shared principles during language comprehension which we can understand by modeling them mathematically?

• How is language realized in the brain? What types of neural cognitive functions are indispensable for language processing?  

Current Research Focus

If you have ever heard of "language/linguistic illusions", welcome to my world! Linguistic illusions refer to a suite of language comprehension phenomena where sentences that are anomalous turn out to be natural and acceptable for native speakers. Take the sentence "No head injury is too trivial to be ignored" as an example. I encourage you to think hard about its meaning. Does it really "head injuries should not be ignored"? I study the cognitive processes behind human illusory experience and their neural representations in the brain, as a case study to investigate the nature of language comprehension. I also look into large language models' interpretations, as a window to peek at their non-human/super-human capabilities.