Publications
* Equal authorship † Mentored student
Journal Articles
Unger, L. & Sloutsky, V. M. (2025). Dynamics of learning words from context. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 154, 1784. pdf data/scripts
Unger, L., Chang, T., Bergen, B. K., Savic, O., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2024). When is a word in good company for learning? Developmental Science, 27, e13510. accepted version data/scripts
Weichart, E., Unger, L., King, N., Sloutsky, V. M., & Turner, B. M. (2024). ‘The eyes are the window to the representation’: Linking gaze to memory precision and decision weights in object discrimination tasks. Psychological Review, 131, 1045. accepted version
Unger, L., Yim, H., Savic, O., Dennis, S., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2023). No frills: Simple regularities in language can go a long way in the development of word knowledge. Developmental Science, 26, e13373. pdf accepted version data/scripts
Unger, L. & Sloutsky, V. M. (2022). Category learning is shaped by the multifaceted development of selective attention. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 226, 105549. full text accepted version data/scripts
Savic, O.*, Unger, L.* & Sloutsky, V. M. (2022). Experience and maturation: The contribution of co-occurrence regularities in language to the development of semantic organization. Child Development, 94, 142–158. full text accepted version data/scripts
Unger, L. & Sloutsky, V. M. (2022). Ready to learn: Incidental exposure fosters category learning. Psychological Science, 33, 999–1019. full text accepted version data/scripts
Savic, O.*, Unger, L.* & Sloutsky, V. M. (2022). Exposure to co-occurrence regularities in language drives semantic integration of new words. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition. full text accepted version data/scripts
Unger, L. & Fisher, A. V. (2021). The emergence of richly organized semantic knowledge from simple statistics: A synthetic review. Developmental Review, 60, 100949. pdf accepted version doi
Unger, L., Vales, C., & Fisher, A. V. (2020). The role of co-occurrence statistics in developing semantic knowledge. Cognitive Science, 44, e12894. pdf accepted version data/scripts doi
Unger, L., Savic, O., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2020). Statistical regularities shape semantic organization throughout development. Cognition, 198, 104190. accepted version data/scripts doi
Unger, L., & Fisher, A. V. (2019). Rapid, experience-related changes in the organization of children’s semantic knowledge. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 179, 1–22. accepted version doi
Unger, L., Fisher, A. V., Nugent, R., Ventura, S., & MacLellan, C. (2016). Developmental changes in semantic knowledge organization. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 146, 202–222. accepted version doi
Fisher, A. V., Godwin, K. E., Matlen, B. J., & Unger, L. (2014). Development of category-based induction and semantic knowledge. Child Development, 86, 48–62.
Selected Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceedings
Unger, L., Savic, O., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2025). Building interconnected networks of word knowledge over time. Proceedings of the 47th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, San Francisco, CA, USA. pdf
Unger, L., & James, E. (2025). Do young children learn words from the company they keep? Proceedings of the 47th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, San Francisco, CA, USA. pdf
Unger, L. & Sloutsky, V. M. (2024). Dynamic processes of word learning from context. Proceedings of the 46th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Rotterdam, Netherlands. pdf
Unger, L., Weichart, E. R., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2023). Without even trying: How incidental exposure shapes category learning. Proceedings of the 45th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Virtual. pdf
Unger, L., Ralston, R., Wan, Q., Gao, M., & Savic, O. (2022). Delineating prediction mechanisms for word learning from context. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Error-Driven Learning in Language, Virtual/Tübingen, Germany. pdf
Unger, L. & Sloutsky, V. M. (2021). Category learning is shaped by the multifaceted development of selective attention. Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Virtual/Vienna, Austria. pdf
Unger, L., Savic, O., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2020). Environmental regularities shape semantic organization throughout development. Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Virtual/Toronto, Ontario, CA. pdf
Unger, L., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2019). Simple mechanisms, rich structure: Statistical co-occurrence regularities in language shape the development of semantic knowledge. Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Montreal, Quebec, CA. pdf
Savic, O., Unger, L., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2019). Rapid semantic integration of novel words following exposure to distributional regularities. Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Montreal, Quebec, CA. pdf
Unger, L., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2018). Ready to learn: Predictive exposure to category-relevant regularities facilitates novel category learning. Proceedings of the 40th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Madison, WI, USA. pdf
Unger, L., & Fisher, A. V. (2018). All creatures great and small: Category-relevant statistical regularities in children’s books. Proceedings of the 40th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Madison, WI, USA. pdf
Unger, L., Fisher, A. V. (2017). Learning in the wild: Real-world experiences shape children’s knowledge organization. Proceedings of the 39th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, London, UK. pdf
Vales, C., Fisher, A. V., & Unger, L. (2017). Looking for the cat and seeing the dog: Using visual search to study semantic knowledge in children. Proceedings of the 39th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, London, UK.
Unger, L., Fisher, A. V. (2016). Semantic contamination of visual similarity judgments. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Philadelphia, PA, USA. pdf
Unger, L., Kim, J., Badger, J., Fisher, A. V., & Huppert, T. J. (2016). The role of the prefrontal cortex in induction: An fNIRS study. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Philadelphia, PA, USA. pdf
Unger, L., Fisher, A. V., & MacLellan, C. (2014). Developmental changes in the semantic organization of living kinds. Proceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Quebec City, Quebec, CA. pdf
Supervised Student Conference Presentations
Granger, A.†, Unger, L., & Gomez, R. (2026). Connecting the dots: word-learning and semantic connectedness in 5-yr-olds. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Montreal, Quebec, CA.
Granger, A.†, Unger, L., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2023). Abstract and concrete word-learning from context in children. Poster presented at the Midwest Cognitive Science Conference, Grand Rapids, MI, USA.
Reardon, N.†, Unger, L., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2023). Incidental exposure optimizes attention to features that are relevant to category membership. Talk and poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Unger, L., Anilkumar, A.†, & Sloutsky, V. M. (2022). Learning new words from context. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Virtual/Boston, MA, USA.
Vallampati, A.†, Unger, L., & Savic, O. (2020). The semantic network: The mechanisms that build organized word knowledge in development. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Virtual/Toronto, Ontario, CA.
Swenski, T.†, Unger, L., Savic, O., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2019). Co-occurrence regularities in language shape the development of semantic knowledge. Poster presented at the Biennial Conference of the Cognitive Development Society, Louisville, KY, USA.
Unger, L., D’Emilia, W.†, & Fisher, A. V. (2015). Semantic development: The contribution of number of relations to representational similarity. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Philadelphia, PA, USA.