Recording of Network Science Society Colloquium Series Cynthia Siew

Network Science Colloquium Series, 04/29/2026 Cynthia Siew What can lexical networks tell us about language and the mind? Cognitive representations are central to theoretical and computational accounts of behavioral and language phenomena in cognitive science and psycholinguistics. In this talk I will showcase how network science has been used to quantify and represent cognitive and linguistic representations as networks of phonological, orthographic, and semantic relationships. I present results from psycholinguistic and computational experiments, as well as large-scale analyses of megastudies and linguistic norms, that demonstrate that (i) language-related processes are influenced by the network structure of the mental lexicon, and (ii) the development of the mental lexicon over the lifespan is governed by network growth principles.