publications

2026

  1. Baby Scale: Investigating Models Trained on Individual Children’s Language Input
    Steven Y. Feng, Alvin Wei Ming Tan, and Michael C. Frank
    arXiv preprint, Mar 2026
    development egocentric videos language machine learning
  2. Continuous Developmental Changes in Word Recognition Support Language Learning across Early Childhood
    Michael C Frank, Virginia A Marchman, Claire A Bergey, Veronica Boyce, Mika Braginsky, and 9 more authors
    eLife preprint, May 2026
    development language vocabulary
  3. Measuring Children’s Early Vocabulary in Low-Resource Languages Using a Swadesh-style Word List
    George Kachergis, Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Virginia A. Marchman, Philip S. Dale, and Michael C. Frank
    Cognitive Science, May 2026
    cross-linguistic development language vocabulary
  4. EgoBabyVLM: Benchmarking Cross-Modal Learning from Naturalistic Egocentric Video Data
    Dongyan Lin, Phillip Rust, Angel Villar Corrales, Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Mahi Luthra, and 17 more authors
    arXiv preprint, May 2026
    development egocentric videos language machine learning multimodal
  5. Acceptability Judgements in Colloquial Singaporean English
    Alvin Wei Ming Tan, and Louise Mycock
    World Englishes, Jan 2026
    language
  6. LEVANTE-bench: Multi-scale Comparison of VLMs to Children Using Cognitive Tasks (or, "Is Your VLM Smarter than a 5th Grader?")
    Alvin Wei Ming Tan, David Cardinal, Tania Lorido Botran, Laura Bravo-Sánchez, Sunny Yu, and 1 more author
    May 2026
    development machine learning multimodal
  7. Characterizing the Visual Representation of Objects from the Child’s View
    Jane Yang, Tarun Sepuri, Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Khai Loong Aw, Michael C. Frank, and 1 more author
    arXiv preprint, May 2026
    development egocentric videos language

2025

  1. Idiosyncratic but Not Opaque: Linguistic Conventions Formed in Reference Games Are Interpretable by Naïve Humans and Vision–Language Models
    Veronica Boyce, Ben Prystawski, Alvin Wei Ming Tan, and Michael C. Frank
    In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, May 2025
    language machine learning multimodal pragmatics
  2. From Screens to Words: Exploring Family Media Ecology and Language Outcomes in Infancy
    Nevena Dimitrova, Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Fabio Sticca, Jalisse Schmid, Eva Unternaehrer, and 3 more authors
    OSF preprint, Jun 2025
    development language vocabulary
  3. Tracking and Mainstreaming Replications in the Social, Cognitive, and Behavioral Sciences
    Helena Hartmann, Flavio Azevedo, Lukas Röseler, Lukas Wallrich, Alaa Aldoh, and 97 more authors
    MetaArXiv preprint, Dec 2025
    meta-science replication
  4. The BabyView Dataset: High-resolution Egocentric Videos of Infants’ and Young Children’s Everyday Experiences
    Bria Long, Robert Z. Sparks, Violet Xiang, Stefan Stojanov, Yin Zi, and 8 more authors
    In Proceedings of the 8th Annual Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience, Jul 2025
    development egocentric videos language machine learning multimodal
  5. Developmental Changes in the Precision of Visual Concept Knowledge
    Bria Long, Wanjing A Ma, Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Rebecca Silverman, Michael C Frank, and 1 more author
    PsyArXiv preprint, Aug 2025
    development language multimodal
  6. Infants’ Social Evaluation of Helpers and Hinderers: A Large-Scale, Multi-Lab, Coordinated Replication Study
    Kelsey Lucca, Francis Yuen, Yiyi Wang, Nicolás Alessandroni, Olivia Allison, and 89 more authors
    Developmental Science, Aug 2025
    development language replication social cognition
  7. Action Anticipation Based on an Agent’s Epistemic State in Toddlers and Adults
    Tobias Schuwerk, Dora Kampis, Nicolás Alessandroni, Nicole Altvater-Mackensen, Natalia Arias-Trejo, and 118 more authors
    PsyArXiv preprint, Sep 2025
    development replication social cognition
  8. Characterizing Young Children’s Everyday Activities Using Video Question-Answering Models
    Tarun Sepuri, Khai L Aw, Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Robert Z Sparks, Virginia A Marchman, and 2 more authors
    In Proceedings of the Data on the Brain & Mind (DBM) Workshop at NeurIPS 2025, Oct 2025
    context development egocentric videos multimodal
  9. The Origins of Syntactic Category Biases: Evidence from Early Vocabularies of Bilingual Children
    Alvin Wei Ming Tan, and Michael C. Frank
    PsyArXiv preprint, Jun 2025
    bilingualism cross-linguistic development language
  10. Assessing the Alignment between Infants’ Visual and Linguistic Experience Using Multimodal Language Models
    Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Jane Yang, Tarun Sepuri, Khai Loong Aw, Robert Z. Sparks, and 4 more authors
    arXiv preprint, Nov 2025
    development language multimodal
  11. Context Informs Pragmatic Interpretation in Vision-Language Models
    Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Ben Prystawski, Veronica Boyce, and Michael C. Frank
    In Proceedings of the Interpreting Cognition in Deep Learning Models (CogInterp) Workshop at NeurIPS 2025, Nov 2025
    language machine learning multimodal pragmatics
  12. DevBench: A Multimodal Developmental Benchmark for Language Learning
    Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Sunny Yu, Bria Long, Wanjing Anya Ma, Tonya Murray, and 3 more authors
    In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, Jan 2025
    development language machine learning multimodal
  13. The Power of the Page: Comparing Richness in Text and Talk during Book Sharing with Two-Year-Old Children
    Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Kirsten Read, Sophia Gamboa, Janet Y Bang, and Virginia A Marchman
    PsyArXiv preprint, Nov 2025
    development language reading
  14. Generics Revisited: Analyzing Generalizations in Children’s Books and Caregivers’ Speech
    Sunny Yu, Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Siying Zhang, Xuhui Miao, Riley Carlson, and 2 more authors
    In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Nov 2025
    development language reading

2024

  1. Cognitive Diversity in Context: US-China Differences in Children’s Reasoning, Visual Attention, and Social Cognition
    Alexandra Carstensen, Anjie Cao, Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Di Liu, Yichun Liu, and 6 more authors
    In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Nov 2024
    cross-cultural development
  2. The Replication Database: Documenting the Replicability of Psychological Science
    Lukas Röseler, Leonard Kaiser, Christopher Doetsch, Noah Klett, Christian Seida, and 92 more authors
    Journal of Open Psychology Data, Sep 2024
    meta-science replication
  3. Characterizing Contextual Variation in Children’s Preschool Language Environment Using Naturalistic Egocentric Videos
    Robert Z. Sparks, Bria Long, Grace E. Keene, Malia J. Perez, Alvin Wei Ming Tan, and 2 more authors
    In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Sep 2024
    context development egocentric videos multimodal
  4. Predicting Ages of Acquisition for Children’s Early Vocabulary across 27 Languages and Dialects
    Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Georgia Loukatou, Mika Braginsky, Jess Mankewitz, and Michael C. Frank
    Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Sep 2024
    cross-linguistic development language vocabulary
  5. The Role of Translation Equivalents in Bilingual Word Learning
    Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Virginia A. Marchman, and Michael C. Frank
    Developmental Science, Sep 2024
    bilingualism development language vocabulary

2023

  1. Effects of Target Age and Genre on Morphological Complexity in Children’s Reading Material
    Nicola Dawson, Yaling Hsiao, Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Nilanjana Banerji, and Kate Nation
    Scientific Studies of Reading, May 2023
    development language reading
  2. Plurality Is a Good Start, but It’s Time for Unification: A Commentary on “Computational Modeling of Bilingual Language Learning: Current Models and Future Directions”
    George Kachergis, Alvin Wei Ming Tan, and Michael C. Frank
    Language Learning, May 2023
    bilingualism development language

2021

  1. Features of Lexical Richness in Children’s Books: Comparisons with Child-Directed Speech
    Nicola Dawson, Yaling Hsiao, Alvin Wei Ming Tan, Nilanjana Banerji, and Kate Nation
    Language Development Research, May 2021
    development language reading