Research Focus
Dr. Lust's primary research concerns the child's acquisition of language, studied from a theoretical and experimental cross-linguistic perspective. Data from children acquiring more than 20 languages of the world are studied in the Cornell Language Acquisition Lab. Her interdisciplinary research program seeks both to identify the universals which characterize child language acquisition across all languages, and to explicate the nature of development of language during the time between birth and early childhood, as well as the nature of language loss with aging and dementia. A new theory of "Grammatical Mapping" has been recently articulated to capture this development.
In the Cornell Language Acquisition Lab, both experimental and naturalistic studies of young children's acquisition of early syntax and semantics are conducted. In addition to research on first language acquisition, research is also now being conducted on the development of multilingualism in young children and providing evidence for its cognitive consequences. Studies of adult second language acquisition are related. Studies of language in normal healthy aging and in patients with early Alzheimer's Disease are contrasted with the process of first language acquisition in the young child. Evidence is provided against the 'regression hypothesis' which proposed that acquisition and dissolution would be reversed.
Research directed at the Cornell Language Acquisition Lab is linked to related research being conducted in several national and international universities through a developing Virtual Center for Language Acquisition. Currently Dr. Lust is involved with an international agenda to develop 'linked open data in linguistics', especially as it impacts language acquisition data.
Professional Experience
- September 1, 2023-current Research Affiliate MIT
- September 1, 2017-current Visiting Scholar MIT
- July 1, 2017-current Professor Emerita Cornell University; Graduate Research Professor
- Fall 2015 Visiting Scholar MIT
- 1990-2017 Professor, Cornell University; Human Development. Fields of Linguistics, Psychology, Cognitive Science and Asian Studies.
- Joint appointment with Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, 1990- 1995; Department of Modern Languages, 1996-1999
- Spring 2010 Visiting Scientist MIT
- July 6-27, 2007 co-organized with S. Flynn; taught with M. Blume, C. Foley, Y-C Chien, K. Drozd, C. Dye) Course taught at Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, California. “Language Acquisition Methodologies and Practices: How they Alter the Pursuit of the Scientific Study of Language”
- Spring 2004 Visiting Fellow, Cambridge University, UK
- 1992-1999 Co-director, Cognitive Studies Program, Cornell University
- 1996-1997 Visiting Scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 1990 (Spring) Visiting Scientist, MIT
- 1987-1996 Graduate Field Representative, Cognitive Studies Program, Cornell University
- 1981-1990 Associate Professor, Cornell University, Department of Human Development and Family Studies
- 1984 (Spring) Visiting Scholar. United States Educational Foundation, and Kelaniya University, Sri Lanka (Sabbatic)
- 1984 (Fall) Visiting Scientist, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sabbatical)
- 1976-1981 Assistant Professor, Cornell University Department of Human Development and Family Studies, and Cognitive Development
- 1977 (Spring) Part-time Visiting Assistant Professor. SUNY, Binghamton, N.Y. Department of Philosophy. The Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in the History and Philosophy of Social Sciences. Cognitive Development
- 1974-1976 Visiting Scientist. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Department of Linguistics and Philosophy) (Post Doctoral Fellow)
Publications
Since 2015
Books
Blume, M. and Lust, B. (with collaboration of founding members of Virtual Center for Language Acquisition). (2016). Research Methods in Language Acquisition: Principles, Procedures and Practices. Mouton deGruyter/American Psychological Association. Washington DC. (Contributions by C. Dye, C. Foley, Y. Kedar and Y-C Chien.)
Blume, M., and Lust, B. In collaboration with: Somashekar, S., & Ogden, T. et al.. Data Transcription and Analysis Tool. User’s Manual. Cornell University.
Pareja-Lora, A., Blume, M. Chiarcos, C. and Lust, B. (eds). (2019). Development of linguistic Linked Open Data Resources for Collaborative Data-Intensive Research in the Language Sciences. MIT Press.
Lust, B. (2006; second edition now in preparation). Child Language: Acquisition and Growth. Cambridge University Press.
Lust, B., Flynn, S., Foley, C., Henderson, C. Jr and J.W. Gair (in prep). Acquisition of Relativization: Off with their Heads. Cambridge University Press.
Chapters in Books
Lust, B., Foley, C. and Dye, C. (2015). The First Language Acquisition of Complex Sentences. In Bavin, E. (ed). Handbook of Child Language. Second edition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Blume, M., Flynn, S., Foley, C, Caldwell, T., Reidy, J., Masci, J and Lust, B. (2019). Enabling new collaboration and research capabilities in language sciences: management of language acquisition data and metadata with the Data Transcription and Analysis tool. In Pareja-Lora, Blume, M, Chiarcos, C. and Lust, B (eds).pp 151-184
Lust, B., María Blume, Antonio Pareja-Lora, and Christian Chiarcos Development of Linguistic Linked Open Data Resources for Collaborative Data-Intensive Research in the Language Sciences: An Introduction (2019) In Pareja-Lora, Blume, M, Chiarcos, C. and Lust, B (eds). Pp ix-xxi
Lust, B. (2021). Why Conserve the Language of South Asia’s Children? In Tariq Khan (ed). Alternative Horizons in Linguistics. LINCOM Studies in Linguistics and Culture, Festschrift for Panchanan Mohanty. Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.Pp. 85-98.
Journal Articles/Working Papers
Lust, B., Flynn, S., Park, Seong Won, Kang, C, Blume, M and Yang, S. (2016, April) Assessing Child Bilingualism: Direct Assessment of Bilingual Syntax Amends Caretaker Report. International Journal of Bilingualism, pp 1-20. DOI: 10.1177/1367006914547661
Lust, B., Flynn, S., Sherman Janet Cohen, Gair, J., Whitlock, J., Cordella, C., Henderson, C., Mancuso, S., Chen, Z., Costigan, A. and Immerman, A. (2015, April) Reversing Ribot: Does Regression Hold in Normal Aging or Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease? Brain and Language. 143, 1-10.
Kang, Carissa, Felix Thoemmes and Barbara Lust.(2015) An Assessment of the Effects of SES on the Development of Executive Attention: 4 to 6-year-old English-Malay Bilinguals in Singapore. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 1-15. CJO 2015 doi:10.1017/S1366728915000437
Kim A., Park, A. and Lust, B. (2016). Simultaneous vs successive bilingualism among preschool-aged children: A Study of Four-year-old Korean-English Bilinguals in the U.S. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2016.1145186
Kedar, Y., Casasola, M. Parmet, Y and Lust, B. (2017). Little Words, Big Impact: Determiners Begin to Bootstrap Reference by 12 months. Language Learning and Development. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2017.128322
Kang, C. and Lust, B. (2017) Bilingual Proficiency Influences the Relationship Between Code-switching and Task-switching in 8-year-old English-Chinese Singaporean Children. Proceedings 41 of Boston University Child Language Conference. Cascadilla Press, Mass.
Lust, B., Flynn, S., Cohen Sherman, J., Henderson, C., Gair, J., Harrison, M and Shabo, L.(2017). On the Biological Foundations of Language: Recent Advances in Language Acquisition, Language Deterioration and Neuroscience Begin to Converge. Biolinguistics: Special Issue celebrating Biological Foundations of Language. Volume 11.115-137. https://doaj.org/article/fa05bb4b833845b2863bf91d9a734226
Kang, C. and Lust, B. (2018) Code Switching Does Not Predict Executive Function Performance in Highly Proficient Bilingual Children: Bilingualism Does. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition doi:10.1017/S1366728918000299
Dye, C.,, Kedar, Y. and Lust, B. (2019) From Lexical to Functional Categories: New Foundations for the study of Language Development. In Ninio, Anat (ed) The Role of Grammatical Words in Syntactic Development. First Language, Special issue.vol 39, issue 1, number 137, 9-32.
Sherman, J., Henderson, C.R., Flynn, S. and Lust, B. (2021). Language Decline Characterizes Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) Independent of Cognitive Decline. Journal of Sppech Language and Hearing Research.
Lust, B., Flynn, S., Henderson, C., Gair, J.W. and Cohen Sherman. (revised and resubmitted). Disintegration of the Syntax-Semantics Interface in Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease: New Evidence from Complex Sentence Anaphora in amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment.
Other
Acquiring Multiple Languages. Cornell University open access on-line course. (with Shohini Bhattasalli, Carissa Kang, Maria Del Mar Guttierez). https://onlinelearning.cornell.edu/.
Books in prep
Lust, B., Flynn, S., Foley, C., Henderson, C. Jr and J.W. Gair (in prep). Acquisition of Relativization: Off with their Heads. Cambridge University Press.
Lust, B. (2006; second edition now in preparation). Child Language: Acquisition and Growth. Cambridge University Press.
Lust, B. (in prep). Tracking Universals Through the Initial State.
Lust, B. (in prep). Universal Grammar and the Initial State: Cross-Linguistic Studies of Directionality. MIT Press.
Blume, M., Flynn, S., Kedar, Y., Lakshmanan, U., Kim, A. and Lust, B. (in prep). Introduction to a Virtual Linguistics Lab
Lust, B., Blume, M, Kedar, Y. , Yang, S. and Flynn, S. (in prep). A Glossary of Language Acquisition.
Kapur, S., Lust, B., & Martohardjono, G. (in prep). On the Language Faculty and Learnability Theory: Intensional and Extensional Principles in the Representation and Acquisition of Binding Domains.
Papers in prep
Cohen Sherman, J., Flynn, S., Gair, J., Henderson, C., Shabo, L, Gutz, S. and Lust, B. (in prep) Three Words Mean a Lot: A New Bricolage Task informs a Language Prodrome in Alzheimer’s Disease
Cordella, C., Cohen Sherman, J., Flynn, S., Tilsen, S., Gair, J., Henderson, C and Lust, B. Atypical Temporal Patterns Distinguish Speech in Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease and Healthy Aging. (APS 2015).
Lust, B., Yang, S., Park, S.W., Flynn, S. (in prep). Assessing the Rolels of Maturation and Learning: A Case Study of the Acquisition of English by a young Korean Child without direct input. DGFS 2010.
Dye, C., Foley, C. and Lust, B. (in prep). On the universal dissociation of finiteness and morphology: Evidence from the acquisition of verbal inflection in French.
Chien, Y-C., Flynn, S. and Lust, B. (in prep). Testing Universal Grammar in Second Language Acquisition: A Study of Chinese ESL High School Students’ Interpretations of Pronouns. (Presented at SRCD, 1999).
Dye, C., Kedar, Y., Foley, C., Kim, A., Pactovis, J., and Lust, B. (in prep). Links Between LF and PF: New Evidence from First Language Acquisition of VP Ellipsis.
Kim, A., Henderson, C., Flynn, S and Lust, B. (in prep) Examining the Parallel Development of Bilingual Ability Among Preschool Children Using Narrative, Vocabulary and Grammar Tasks.
Student Project Presentations
2015 (February 4-7). Cohen Sherman, Flynn S., Henderson, C., Mancuso, S, Gair, J. Shabo, L., Capelli, K-L, Behrendt, J. and Lust, B., Pronoun Problems in MCI: New Research Begins to Reveal the Source of Difficulty”. 43rd Annual Meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society (INS). Denver, Colorado.
2015 (March 12). Disintegration of the Syntax-Semantics Interface May Reveal Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease. Lust, B., Flynn, S., Cohen Sherman, J., Gair, J., Henderson, C., Shabo, L., Harrison, M and Mancuso, S. International Convention of Psychological Science (ICPS). Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2015 (March 19) Kang, C., Yow, W.Q. and Lust, B . Patterns in English-Chinese Children’s Code Switching in Singapore. Paper presented at 2015 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Symposium. “One-Size-Fits All? Variations in Bilingual Children’s Code-switching/mixing behavior. Philadelphia, Pa.
2015 (April) Gutz, S, Behrendt, J and Bae, H. Detecting Linguistic Signs in Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease: new analyses of the ‘Bricolage’ task. Presented at Cornell Undergraduate Research Forum. CURB. Ithaca, NY
2015 (April) Janmohamed, A., Park, J., and Sullivan, C. Comparing the Relative Power of Clinical Cognitive Tests: Assessing Memory Capacity in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment. Presented at Cornell Undergraduate Research Forum. CURB. Ithaca, NY
2015 (May 24-25) Kang, Carissa, Yow, W.Q., Li, N., and Lust, B. Code Switching in Singaporean English-Mandarin 5-6 year olds reveals grammatical interaction. 10th International Symposium on Bilingualism . Rutgers, New Jersey (May)
2015 (May) Kang, C., Martohardjono, G., & Lust, B. Underlying cognitive mechanism for code-switching differs across bilinguals. Poster to be presented at the Workshop on Bilingualism and Executive Function: An Interdisciplinary Approach, New York City, NY.
2015 (May) Cordella, C., Cohen Sherman, J., Flynn, S., Tilsen, S., Gair, J., Henderson, C. and Lust, B. Atypical temporal patterns distinguish speech in prodromal Alzheimer’s disease and healthy aging. Poster presented at APS, New York City.
2015 (May) Kim, A. and Lust, B. Language Acquisition and Timing of Early Language Exposure: A study of four year old Korean-English bilinguals in the US. Poster presented at APS, New York City.
2015 (July) Kang, C., Yow, W.Q., & Lust, B. Code-switching patterns in Singaporean Mandarin-English 5-6 year old children. Poster presented at the 2015 Linguistic Summer Institute Conference, Chicago, IL.
2015 (July 25-26) Lust, B. with Maria Blume and Antonio Pareja Lora. Development of Linguistic Linked Open Data (LLOD) Resources for Collaborative Data-Intensive Research in the Language Sciences. Workshop at Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute. University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
2016 (Feb 3-5) Sherman, J., Flynn, S., Gair, J., Henderson, C., Shabo, L, and Lust, B. Language in Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease: Advancing Clinical Examination.44th Annual Meeting of International Neuropsychological Society. Boston, Ma.
2016 (Feb 3-5) Lust, B., Flynn, S., Gair, J., Henderson, C., Shabo, L., Harrison, M. and Sherman, J.C.. Interdisciplinary Studies Begin to Reveal Language Deficit in Prodromal AD and to Predict Corollary Neural Degeneration in Brain Network Connectivity.44th Annual Meeting of International Neuropsychological Society. Boston, Ma.
2016 (April 28-29) Kim, Alicia and Lust, Barbara. Examining Parallel Bilingual Ability of Preschool=aged Bilingual Children. 2016 CCERBAL Conference, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
2016 (April 28-29) Kang Carissa and Lust Barbara. The Relationship between Code-switching and Executve Function in 8-year-old English-Chinese Singaporean Children. 2016 CCERBAL Conference, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
2016 (July 24-28) Sherman, J., Flynn, S., Henderson, C., Gair, J., Shabo, L, Janmohamed, A, Mancuso, S. and Lust, B. Assessing Symptoms of Cognitive and Linguistic Decline in Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease: A New Study of Mild Cognitive Impairment. Alzheimer’s Association International Conference. Toronto, Canada.
2106 (November 14) Kang, C. and Lust, B. Bilingual proficiency influences the relationship between code-switching and task-switching in 8-year-old English-Chinese Singaporean children. 41st Boston University Conference on Language Development.
2017 (February 16-20) Lust, B. and Flynn, S. Windows into Language Loss in Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease. Symposium. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Boston, Mass. (with J.C.Sherman, G. Martohardjono, J.Berko Gleason)
2017 (February 16-20) Lust, B., Flynn, S., Sherman, J., Gair, J., Henderson, C. Last in first out? Does Language Loss Reverse Language Acquisition? American Association for the Advancement of Science, Boston, Mass.
2017 (April 8) Kang, C. and Lust, B. Code-Switching and Executive Function in 8-year-old English-Chinese Singaporean Children Reveals an Indirect Relation . Symposium organized by C. Kang: Code-switching in Children: Cross-linguistic Studies Reveal No Cost to Language Processing or Linguistic Competence. Biennial SRCD meeting, Austin, Tex.
2017 Sherman, J.C., Flynn, S., Henderson, C., Gair, J., Shabo, L., Mancuso, S and Lust, B. New Analyses of Language Processing Reveal That Semantics Dissociates from Syntax in Mild Cognitive Impairment. Alzheimer’s Association International Conference. London.
2018 (June 21) Lust, B. Linked Open Data in Linguistics: Preserving and Extending the Work of James W. Gair on Sinhala First Language Acquisition. Paper to be presented at: South Asia Llinguistics Association (SALA), South Asia in Generative Grammar: A Workshop in Memory of Alice Davison and James Gair. Konstanz, German
2019 (March 8) Lust, B. (chair), Kedar, Y.(co-chair). International Convention of Psychological Science (I33S), Paris. Symposium: The Origins of Language in the Child: Functional Categories are Foundational Primitives in Language Acquisition.
2019 (May 23-26) Kim, Ahyoung Alicia, Henderson, C., Flynn, S and Lust, B. Comparison of Korean Language Development in Korean Monolingual and Korean-English Bilingual Preschool Children Indicates both Similarities and Differences. 31st APS, May 23-26, 2019, Washington DC.
2019 Lust, B., Flynn, S., Cohen Sherman, J. and Henderson, C R H. On the Architecture of the Language Faculty: Experimental Studies of Language Deterioration Implicate the Conceptual-Intentional (C-I) Interface. Brain, Learning and Language 2019. University of Siena, Italy.
2020 (May 21-24) Sherman, J.C., Flynn, S., Henderson, C. and Lust, B. Sentence Structure, Not Memory, Determines Complex Sentence Production in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment. American Psychological Association annual meeting, Chicago, Ill.Virtual Poster Showcase June 1-September 1, 2020.
2020 (July 27-31) Sherman, J., Flynn, S., Henderson, C and Lust, B. New evidence reveals weakening of association between language and thought in aMCI versus in Normal Aging. Alzheimer’s Association International Conference Virtual Poster Showcase
2021 (January 8) Flynn, S., Sherman, J., Henderson, C., Gair, J and Lust, B. Binding and Coreference Dissociate in Mild Cognitive Impairment. 95th annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. Virtual Poster Presentation.