Research
Cognition, language and concepts, models of categorization, comprehension and use of reference, word meaning, the relation to language to thought, the psychology of sustainability.
Current projects include testing theories of naming and categorization by assessing the relation of similarity to naming; by studying how names are selected for unfamiliar objects in a referential communication task; by studying how names are assigned to familiar objects in English by non-native speakers of English; and by examining the structure of categories defined by verbs.
Selected Publications
Ramiro, C., Srinivasan, M., Malt, B.C., & Xu, Y. (2018). Algorithms in the historical emergence of word senses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115, 2323-2328.
White, A., Storms, G., Malt, B.C., & Verheyen, S. (2018). Mind the generation gap: Differences between old and young in everyday lexical categories. Journal of Memory and Language, 98,12-25.
Malt, B. C. & Lebkuecher, A. (2017). Representation and process in bilingual lexical interaction. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 20, 867-885.
Malt, B.C., White, A., Ameel, E., & Storms, G. (2016). Learning the language of locomotion: Do children use biomechanical structure to constrain hypotheses about word meaning? Language Learning and Development, 12, 357-379. DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2016.1171152
Malt, B.C., Gennari, S.P., Imai, M., Ameel, E., Saji, N., & Majid, A. (2015). Where are the concepts? What words can and can’t reveal. In E. Margolis and S. Laurence (Eds.), The Conceptual Mind: New Directions (pp. 291-326). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Malt, B.C., Li, P., Pavlenko, A., Zhu, H., & Ameel, E. (2015). Bidirectional lexical interaction in late immersed Mandarin-English bilinguals. Journal of Memory and Language, 82, 86-104.
Malt, B.C. & Paquet, M. (2013). The real deal: What judgments of really reveal about how people think about artifacts. Memory & Cognititon, 41, 354-364.
Pavlenko, A. & Malt, B.C. (2011). Kitchen Russian: Cross-linguistic differences and first-language object naming by Russian-English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14, 19-45.
Malt, B.C. (2010). Naming artifacts: Patterns and processes. In B. Ross (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (pp. 1-38). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Malt, B.C., Gennari, S., and Imai, M. (2010). Lexicalization patterns and the world-to-words mapping. In B.C. Malt and P. Wolff (Eds.), Words and the mind: How words capture human experience (pp. 29-57). New York: Oxford University Press.
Gao, Y. & Malt, B.C. (2009). Mental representation and cognitive consequences of Chinese individual classifiers. Language and Cognitive Processes, 24, 1124-1179.
Malt, B.C., Gennari, S., Imai, M., Ameel, E., Tsuda, N., & Majid, A. (2008). Talking about walking: Biomechanics and the language of locomotion. Psychological Science, 19, 232-240.
Malt, B.C. and Sloman, S.A. (2007). Category essence or essentially pragmatic? Creator's intention in naming and what's really what. Cognition, 105, 615-648.
Ameel, E., Storms, G., Malt, B., & Sloman, S.A. (2005). How billinguals solve the naming problem. Journal of Memory and Language, 53, 60-80.
Malt, B.C., Sloman, S.A., and Gennari, S. (2003). Speaking vs. thinking about objects and actions. In D. Genter & S. Goldin-Meadow (Eds.) Language in mind: Advances in the study of language and thought (pp. 81-111). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Malt, B.C., Sloman, S.A., and Gennari, S. (2003). Universality and language specificity in object naming. Journal of Memory and Language, 49, 20-42.
Malt, B.C. and Sloman, S.A. (2003). Linguistic diversity and object naming by non-native speakers of English. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 6, 47-67.
Gennari, S., Sloman, S.A., Malt, B.C., and Fitch, W.T. (2002). Motion events in language and cognition. Cognition, 83, 49-79.
Malt, B.C., Sloman, S.A., Gennari, S., Shi, M., & Wang, Y. (1999). Knowing versus naming: Similarity and the linguistic categorization of artifacts. Journal of Memory and Language, 40, 230-262
