Prof. LI Ping, Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies

Generative AI’s Impact on Language and Cognition: What’s left for us to study? 2nd Language Cognition and Development Roundtable Forum. School of International Studies, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang, Hangzhou, China, 12-13 April 2025.

Abstract
In an era of rapid developments in genAI and digital technology, many fields of research and education may soon become obsolete or may disappear altogether. Language and cognition researchers face the same challenges and need to seize new opportunities. In linguistics and cognitive science more broadly, we must combine the latest techniques and emerging technologies to study the learning, processing, and representation of native and non-native languages. For example, we can use neurocomputational theories to study individual differences in processing; we can build models that simulate human developmental processes and human-like representations; and we can study how human learners, compared with AI models, more effectively integrate multimodal information in social interactive contexts, and how such interactive processes enable some to learn more effectively than others. To achieve these goals, we need to collect and use high-quality domain-specific data (unlike what genAI models do), linguistic and non-linguistic processing data, and real-time multimodal learning data. We can also leverage genAI to develop evidence-based, personalized, pedagogical designs for language learning, processing, and representation.