Dr. Lany studies early cognitive development, with a focus on language. Our lab here at Notre Dame addresses the intriguing question of how infants learn language.

Dr. Lany studies infants’ sensitivity to the frequency and co-occurrence of words. This is called “statistical learning,” and it can help infants to learn about complex patterns in their environment. 

Her work has addressed the role that such learning mechanisms play in the fundamental aspects of language development. These aspects include learning words, categorization, and grammatical patterns.