Maryellen MacDonald is a cognitive scientist who focuses on psycholinguistics.
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Scientists are uncovering how the hidden effort of talking affects everything from everyday conversations to spotting deception and fake news.
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Maryellen MacDonald is the Donald P. Hayes Professor (emerita) of Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Wisconsin−Madison. She is a cognitive scientist with a focus on psycholinguistics, the study of how we comprehend, produce, and learn languages. She has researched the impact of language in children, young adults, elderly adults, and patients with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as language production in six different languages. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
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Constraint Satisfaction in Large Language Models
Co-authors: Cassandra L. Jacobs | Language, Cognition and Neuroscience | June | 2024
In the late 1900s, constraint satisfaction theories became popular. These theories focused on how people understand language by using many different clues at once, as words and sentences are spoken or read. One problem was that it was hard to clearly explain how all these clues work together, especially since their importance can change depending on the context.
Connectionist models (a type of computer model) seemed like a good way to study this, but back then, computers weren’t powerful enough and there wasn’t enough language data to use. Today, that’s no longer a problem. Large language models (LLMs), like the ones used in AI, now give us a new way to explore these ideas. Researchers are using LLMs to study how people figure out the meaning of words with more than one meaning. While LLMs can help us learn more, we still don’t fully understand how humans and machines use language clues in similar or different ways.
The Language-Production Basis of Serial Order and Maintenance in Verbal Memory
Current Directions in Psychological Science | December | 2016
MacDonald argues that utterance planning for language production has substantial memory maintenance demands and that utterance planning provides the maintenance and ordering processes for short-term verbal memory tasks. There has already been some movement toward this view. She discusses the benefits of pursuing these links more fully.
Co-authors: Jessica L Montag | Journal of Experimental Psychology | April | 2015
This study investigates text exposure as a possible source of linguistic experience that plays a role in the development of adult-like language abilities.
Publications by this author
How Talking Sharpens the Mind and Shapes Our World
Avery | June | 2025
Although talking allows us to share ideas and connect with one another, it has other benefits too. The act of talking takes effort: we can understand speech up to 50 percent faster than we can create it ourselves. MacDonald explains how complex processes in the brain that allow us to talk spill over and impact other areas of our lives in surprising ways.
Media by this author
Interview | July | 2025
Cara of the podcast Talk Nerdy is joined by psycholinguist and professor emeritus of Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Wisconsin−Madison, Dr. Maryellen MacDonald. They discuss her book, More Than Words: How Talking Sharpens the Mind and Shapes Our World.
Eyes on Reading: What’s Next in the Science of Reading? With Mark Seidenberg and Maryellen MacDonald
Feature | April | 2025
Two of the world’s leading scientists in reading and language research join Planet Word for an illuminating discussion on the Science of Reading movement. Moderated by Emily Hanford, this event explores crucial questions about the future of reading science and its implications for education, policy, and more.
Feature | May | 2023
Dr. Maryellen MacDonald has studied how language changes as we age and how Alzheimer’s disease affects it. She talks about the changes we can expect as we get older and how we can use talking and related language games to keep our brains as sharp as possible.
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