Ebru Evcen
@ebruevcen.bsky.social
phd candidate in linguistics at UC San Diego | interested in language and meaning | ebruevcen.github.io
Reposted by Ebru Evcen
New w/ @drbarner.bsky.social! We argue that children's struggle to represent the past and future in common tests of knowledge may stem from difficulties in hypothetical reasoning about imaginary timelines, rather than a lack of knowledge about time. 1/n
academic.oup.com/chidev/advan...
academic.oup.com/chidev/advan...
Back to reality: Children's early temporal reasoning applies to real but not hypothetical events
Abstract. Time words like “yesterday” and “tomorrow” are hard for children to learn, and for researchers to study, because their referents change from day
academic.oup.com
January 29, 2026 at 8:22 PM
New w/ @drbarner.bsky.social! We argue that children's struggle to represent the past and future in common tests of knowledge may stem from difficulties in hypothetical reasoning about imaginary timelines, rather than a lack of knowledge about time. 1/n
academic.oup.com/chidev/advan...
academic.oup.com/chidev/advan...
Now out in Open Mind!
@drbarner.bsky.social and I find that when people hear a conditional statement like “If you mow the lawn, you’ll get $5,” they often interpret it as “only if you mow the lawn”, a pragmatic, perfected meaning.
doi.org/10.1162/opmi...
@drbarner.bsky.social and I find that when people hear a conditional statement like “If you mow the lawn, you’ll get $5,” they often interpret it as “only if you mow the lawn”, a pragmatic, perfected meaning.
doi.org/10.1162/opmi...
Already Perfect: Language Users Access the Pragmatic Meanings of Conditionals First
Abstract. Conditional statements often have two interpretations. For instance, the statement, “If you mow the lawn, you will receive $5”, might be understood to mean that mowing the lawn is just one p...
doi.org
September 12, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Now out in Open Mind!
@drbarner.bsky.social and I find that when people hear a conditional statement like “If you mow the lawn, you’ll get $5,” they often interpret it as “only if you mow the lawn”, a pragmatic, perfected meaning.
doi.org/10.1162/opmi...
@drbarner.bsky.social and I find that when people hear a conditional statement like “If you mow the lawn, you’ll get $5,” they often interpret it as “only if you mow the lawn”, a pragmatic, perfected meaning.
doi.org/10.1162/opmi...
Reposted by Ebru Evcen
This new project by the 🎉fantastic🎉 @ebruevcen.bsky.social shows in 4 studies that people’s first understanding of conditionals is pragmatic - using RT data, then with a cognitive load task. This is contrary to what’s found for other pragmatic inferences w/ interesting implications for acquisition.
New preprint w @drbarner.bsky.social! When you hear, "If you mow the lawn, you’ll get $5," do you immediately think, "No $5 if I don't?" Turns out, that's no coincidence - we show that people start with pragmatic interpretations of conditionals, considering literal ones when necessary.
osf.io/mv3y8
osf.io/mv3y8
OSF
osf.io
May 21, 2024 at 9:28 PM
This new project by the 🎉fantastic🎉 @ebruevcen.bsky.social shows in 4 studies that people’s first understanding of conditionals is pragmatic - using RT data, then with a cognitive load task. This is contrary to what’s found for other pragmatic inferences w/ interesting implications for acquisition.
New preprint w @drbarner.bsky.social! When you hear, "If you mow the lawn, you’ll get $5," do you immediately think, "No $5 if I don't?" Turns out, that's no coincidence - we show that people start with pragmatic interpretations of conditionals, considering literal ones when necessary.
osf.io/mv3y8
osf.io/mv3y8
OSF
osf.io
May 19, 2024 at 8:45 PM
New preprint w @drbarner.bsky.social! When you hear, "If you mow the lawn, you’ll get $5," do you immediately think, "No $5 if I don't?" Turns out, that's no coincidence - we show that people start with pragmatic interpretations of conditionals, considering literal ones when necessary.
osf.io/mv3y8
osf.io/mv3y8