Jesse Snedeker

Professor

Department of Psychology

Harvard University

33 Kirkland St.

Cambridge, MA 02138

Phone: 617-495-3873

Fax: 617-384-7944

Education

University of Washington, B.A., 1994

University of Pennsylvania, M.A., 1996

University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D., 1999

Positions

2010-Present Professor, Dept. of Psychology, Harvard University

2006-2010 John L. Loeb Associate Professor, Dept. of Psychology, Harvard University

2001-2006 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Psychology, Harvard University

2000-2001 Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, University of Pennsylvania

Coffey, J., & Snedeker, J. (2024). Disentangling the roles of age and knowledge in early language acquisition: A fine-grained analysis of the vocabularies of infant and child language learners. Cognitive Psychology, 153, 101681.

Conwell, E., & Snedeker, J. (2024). Semantic Cues Facilitate Structural Generalizations in Artificial Language Learning. Language Learning and Development, 1–16.

Kandel, M., & Snedeker, J. (2024). Assessing two methods of webcam-based eye-tracking for child language research. Journal of Child Language, 1–34.

Levari, T, Snedeker, J. (2024). Understanding words in context: A naturalistic EEG study of children’s lexical processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 137, 104512.

Coffey, J. R., Zeitlin, M., Crawford, J., & Snedeker, J. (2024). It’s all in the interaction: early acquired words are both frequent and highly imageable. Open Mind, 8, 309-332.

Kandel, M., & Snedeker, J. (2024). Cascaded processing develops by five years of age: Evidence from adult and child picture naming. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 39(2), 167–202.

Research Grants

(under review) Pragmatic and prosodic processes in highly-verbal children with autism. NIH.
(under review) Linguistic Commitment and Plasticity: Potential Insights from International Adoption. NSF.

2022 – to present with no expiration Does Language Shape Children’s Understanding of Number Concepts? Co-Investigator (with Simge Topaloglu and Akshita Srinivasan).

January 2022 – January 2025 Investigating linguistic prediction in ASL. Co-Investigator (with Anthony Yacovone).

September 2022 – February 2026 How Events are Conceptualized by Users of Homesign and by Users of an Established Sign Language. National Science Foundation.

July 2019 – June 2023 Predictive Processes in Autistic and Neuro-typical Individuals: A behavioral, neural and developmental investigation. The Simons Foundation.

September 2018 – December 2022 Development of Children’s Language Comprehension using ERPs During Natural Listening. National Institutes of Health (R03).

Fall 2018 to present with no expiration The Storytime Paradigm: A Naturalistic Method for Studying Neural Basis of Language Comprehension in Children. Harvard Dean’s Competitive Fund for Promising Scholarship Award.

April 2017 – April 2019 Language Creation: Modeling the Rapid Emergence of a New Language in Nicaragua. Star Family Challenge for Promising Scientific Research.

October 2017 – September 2019 Investigating Scalar Representations of Value in Infancy. Pershing Square Fund for Foundations of Human Behavior. Co-Investigator (with Elizabeth Spelke).

July 2017 – June 2018 Linguistic Complexity in an Emerging Language. The Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative. Co-Investigator (with Kathryn Davidson).

July 2016 – June 2017 Nicaraguan Sign Language as a Window into Language Development and Cognition. The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.

2015 – 2020 The Nature and Origins of the Human Capacity for Abstract Combinatorial Thought. James S. McDonnell Foundation. Co-Investigator (with Susan Carey).

2015 – 2017 Grammar, motives, and events: infants’ use of linguistic categories in reasoning about intentions. The Pershing Square Venture Fund for Research on the Foundations of Human Behavior.

2015 – 2016 The Structure of Logical Representations in Language and Thought. The Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative.

2014 – 2015 Nicaraguan Sign Language as a Window into Language Development and Cognition. David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.

2012 – 2015 Prosodic and Pragmatic Training in Highly-Verbal Children with Autism. Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative.

2009 – 2012 From Words to Inferences: The Development of Incremental Language Comprehension. NSF BCS

2013 – 2015 Development of Language Comprehension (in Turkish). Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship.

2013 – 2014 Number and Counting in Indigenous Communities in Brazil. David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.

2009 – 2012 BCS: From Words to Inferences: the Development of Incremental Language Comprehension. NSF-BCS.

2009 – 2012 Prosodic and Pragmatic Processes in Highly-Verbal Children with Autism. Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative.

2011 – 2012 Testing a Top-Down Impairment Hypothesis of Linguistic Deficits in Schizophrenia (Co-PI: G. Kuperberg). Mind/Brain/Behavior, Harvard University
2009-2011 Cognitive Neuroscience of Autism (Language Subcontract, PI: N. Kanwisher). The Ellison Medical Foundation.

2007 – 2008 Language Comprehension in Children with Pragmatic and Linguistic Challenges. Research Enabling Grants, Harvard University.

2004 – 2006 Language Acquisition in Internationally Adopted Children. NSF BCS.

2004 – 2006 Understanding the Grammatical Development of Children with Cochlear Implants. The William F. Milton Fund.

2002 – 2004 Bayesian Learning at the Syntax-Semantics Interface (co-PI: R. Berwick). NSF ITR.

Recent Talks

Snedeker, J. (2022) Top-down prediction in language comprehension: a handful of facts and a mystery. Invited talk at the Central European University Departmental Colloquium, CEU, September 2022.

Snedeker, J. (2022) The bigger picture of language acquisition. Invited talk at the International Max Planck Research School for Language Sciences conference series, MPI (talk given remotely) June 2022.

Snedeker, J. (2021) Living in the moment: Studying pragmatic inference with temporally sensitive measures of comprehension. Invited talk at NeurIPS workshop, Meaning in Context: Pragmatic Communication in Humans and Machines, Remote, December 2021.

Snedeker, J. (2021) Older and wiser: twenty years of research on the development of scalar implicature. Invited talk at 20 Years of Experimental Pragmatics Symposium, XPRAG.it, Remote, November 2021.

Snedeker, J. (2021) Where does meaning come from? Natural experiments on the origins of semantic structure. Invited talk at NYU’s Cognition and Perception Colloquium, NYU (talk given remotely), October 2021.

Snedeker, J. (2020) Moment-to-moment language comprehension in highly verbal children with autism: Studies of prosody, pragmatics and the role of context. Invited talk at Simons Center for the Social Brain Colloquium, Cambridge MA, February 2020.

Snedeker, J. (2019) Where does meaning come from? Natural experiments on the origins of semantic structure. Invited talk at Boston College’s Current Work in Developmental Psychology series, Boston MA, December 2019.

Snedeker, J. (2019) Where does meaning come from? Natural experiments on the origins of semantic structure. Invited talk at Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development (BCCCD), Central European University, Budapest, January 2019.

Snedeker, J. (2016) Clean Mapping: How conceptual structure might serve as the developmental and phylogenetic starting point of syntax. Invited talk at Princeton Cognitive Psychology Seminar, Princeton University, Princeton NJ, December 2016.

Snedeker, J. (2016) Clean Mapping: How conceptual structure might serve as the developmental and phylogenetic starting point of syntax. Invited talk at the University of Connecticut Syntax Workshop, Storrs CT, September 2016.

Snedeker, J. (2016) Clean Mapping: A story about how conceptual structure could shape language acquisition and some evidence suggesting that it might be true. Invited talk at The Investigation of Linguistic Meaning, National Center for the Humanities, Chapel Hill North Carolina, July 2016.

Snedeker, J. (2016) Safe Experimentation. Invited talk at The Investigation of Linguistic Meaning, National Center for the Humanities, Chapel Hill North Carolina, July 2016.

Snedeker, J. (2016) Clean Mapping 2: An alternative form of nativism and some possible research strategies. Invited Talk at XPrag annual meeting, Tubingen Germany, June 2016.

Snedeker, J. (2016) Starting over: What internationally adopted children tell us about how all children acquire language. Invited talk at International Conference on Infant Studies (ICIS), New Orleans LA, May 2016.

Snedeker, J. (2016) Language in Motion: the 21st century standard model of cognitive processing & its implications for developmental pragmatics. Invited talk at xPrag workshop, Humboldt University, Berlin Germany, May 2016.

Snedeker, J. (2016) Prosody & pragmatics in high-functioning autism: Insights from the visual world paradigm. Invited talk at Developmental Perspectives on Language Processing Workshop, Macquarie University, Sydney Australia, May 2016.

Snedeker, J. (2016) Clean Mapping: A story about how conceptual structure could shape language acquisition and some evidence suggesting that it might be true. Invited talk at Centre for Language Sciences and Centre of Excellence for Cognition and its Disorders (CLaS-CCD) Research Colloquium Series, Macquarie University, Sydney Australia, May 2016.

Snedeker, J. (2016) Prosodic and pragmatic processing in highly verbal children with autism: A training study. Invited talk at the Annual Simons Foundation SFARI meeting, New York NY, April 2016.

Snedeker, J. (2016) Language Comprehension in High Functioning Autism. Invited talk at the University of Chile Symposium on Genes, Brains and Behavior, Santiago Chile, April 2016.

Snedeker, J. (2016) Prosody and pragmatics in high-functioning autism: Insights from the visual world paradigm. Invited talk for The Attentive Listener in the Visual World (AttLis), Potsdam Germany, March 2016

Snedeker, J. (2016) A modest proposal about the role of event structure in language development and evolution. Invited talk for CUNY Preconference Workshop on Events, Gainesville FL, March 2016.

Snedeker, J. (2016) Accounting for children’s scalar implicature failures and successes: an examination of the lexical alternatives hypothesis. Invited talk for Trends in Experimental Pragmatics, Tubingen Germany, January 2016.

Children’s comprehension of negation: When can you say “no” to a toddler? Invited talk at the 2015 Xprag.de meeting, Göttingen, June 2015.

Clean Mapping: A sketchy story about how conceptual structure could shape language acquisition and some evidence suggesting that it just might be true. Invited talk at ZAS, Berlin, June 2015. [Also: University of Maryland, Cognitive Science Colloquium, February 2015; Yale Developmental Seminar, January 2015; University of Connecticut, Linguistics Colloquium, October 2014; University of Edinburgh, September 2014]

Embodied cognition(s), development and language: An outsider’s perspective. Göttingen, July 2015. [Also: ZAS Berlin, June 2015; Embodied and Situated Language Processing, Newcastle, August 2012.]

Scalar implicature: a whirlwind tour with stops in processing, development and disorder. Tubingen, July 2015. [Earlier versions presented as invited talks at: University College London, June 2013; CUNY 2014, University of Ohio, March 2014; Xprag.de annual meeting, ZAS, Berlin, June 2014]

Comprehension of case in German children: Evidence against a maturational hypothesis. (Özge, Kornfilt, Münster, Knoeferle, Küntay & Snedeker). CUNY 2015, USC, March 2015.

Children’s language comprehension: incremental, interactive and abstract. Michigan State University, Cognitive Science Colloquium, March 2014. [Also: Potsdam University, June 2015; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, DF Mexico, February 2014; Indiana University, Cognitive Science Colloquium, October 2013]

Pragmatic and Prosodic Processing in Autism. ZAS, June 2015. [Earlier versions presented as invited talks at: University College London, June 2013; Prosody Xprag.de annual meeting, June 2014]