Hello!
I'm Yan Cong. I use computers and AI to study language in use and apply those insights to improve AI evaluation and design, making systems smarter and more useful. Previously, I was an NLP researcher at the Feinstein Institutes. Before that, I completed my PhD in Linguistics from Michigan State University in August 2021, with an additional specialization in Cognitive Science. I have an MA in Second Language Studies from Hong Kong Baptist University.
Specializations
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Natural language understanding
[Representative publication]
Optimize language models to reason about enriched meanings flexibly like humans do (and the cognitive, educational, and clinical implications of this optimization)
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Computational approach to language function and disfunction
[Representative publication]
Linguistic indices of language development, decline, and recovery
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Description and experiments in linguistic meaning
Gricean pragmatics; degree semantics; ambiguity
[GitHub] [Google Scholar] [ResearchGate] [ACL Anthology] [HuggingFace] [CV]
Email: cong4 at purdue dot edu
Last updated on Mar 2026