My research focuses on the neural and cognitive basis of human language processing in linguistically diverse contexts, in L2 learners and monolingual, bilingual and bidialectal speakers. In my Bilingualism and Linguistic Diversity Lab we combine neuropsychological and behavioral techniques to study patterns of cross-language interaction at the lexical and sentence levels, codeswitching, and accented-speech processing. Part of our neurocognitive research takes place with a mobile EEG lab, the 'brain bus'. I serve as PI of the NSF NRT program “Linguistic diversity across the lifespan: Transforming training to advance human-technology interaction”. I also serve as the Director of the Center for Language Science at Penn State, and I am Co-Editor of Language Learning’s Cognitive Neuroscience Series. 

Selected Publications

* denotes student or postdoc author

Zaharchuk*, H. A., Walker, A., Miller*, A. R., Fernandez*, C.B., & Van Hell, J. G. (in press). Expecting a challenge: A behavioral and neurophysiological investigation of talker identify in cross-dialectal speech perception. Laboratory Phonology. 

 

Miller*, A. R., Dickson*, D. S., Jończyk*, R., Lei*, D., Kremer, G. E., Siddique, Z., Beaty, R. E., & Van Hell, J. G. (2026). Critical feedback impacts creative ideation and brain oscillations. Neuropsychologia, 220: 109307. 

Elias, M., Van Hell, J. G., Prior, A., & Degani, T. (2025). Cognate facilitation in different-script trilinguals as a function of task demands. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 51(12), 2009-2032.

 

Giorio*, C., & Van Hell, J. G. (2025). Semantic processing of regional varieties in native Spanish listeners: the role of accent familiarity. Brain and Language, 271, 105638.

 

Lai*, L-F., Van Hell, J. G., & Lipski, J. (2025). Dialect bias in automatic speech recognition: analysis of Appalachian English. American Speech, 100 (2), 190-207.

 

Lei*, D., Tatsumi*, Y., Hsieh*, E., Giorio*, C., & Van Hell, J. G. (2025). Neural mechanisms of face cue predictability and the integration of facial and acoustic cues in native- and nonnative-accented words. Brain and Language, 269, 105621.

 

Miller*, A., Jonczyk, R., Zaharchuk, H., & Van Hell, J. G. (2025). Unlocking second language novel metaphor processing: Behavioral and ERP insights from first- and second-language English users. Psychophysiology, 62 (5), e70066.

 

Patterson, J. D., Pronchick, J., Panchanadikar, R., Fuge, M., Van Hell, J. G., Miller, S. R., Johnson, D., & Beaty, R. E. (2025). CAP: the creativity assessment platform for online testing and automated scoring. Behavior Research Methods, 57(9), 264.

 

Liu*, Y., & Van Hell, J. G. (2024). Neural correlates of listening to nonnative-accented speech in multi-talker background noise. Neuropsychologia, 203, 108968.

 

Pelzl*, E., Jonczyk*, R, & Van Hell, J. G. (2024). Second language knowledge can influence native language performance in exclusively native contexts: An approximate replication of Van Hell & Dijkstra (2002). Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 46, 1457-1474.

 

Tang*, Z. & Van Hell, J. G. (2024). Learning to write rationally: how information is distributed in nonnative speakers’ essays. Proceedings of the 2024 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, 12868–12879. (doi: 10.18653/v1/2024.emnlp-main.715)

 

Morgan-Short, K., & Van Hell, J. G. (2023). The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Neurolinguistics. Routledge.

Van Hell, J. G. (2023). The neurocognitive underpinnings of second language processing: Knowledge gains from the past and future outlooks. Language Learning, 73 (S2), 95-138.

 

 

Van Hell, J. G. (2023). The neurocognitive underpinnings of second language processing: Knowledge gains from the past and future outlooks: Response to open peer commentaries. Language Learning, 73 (S2), 172-181.

 

Jonczyk*, R., Dickson*, D., Kremer, G., Siddique, Z., & Van Hell, J. G. (2022). How stereotype threat affects the brain dynamics of creative thinking in female students. Neuropsychologia, 173, 108306.

 

Lei*, D., Liu*, Y., & Van Hell, J. G. (2022). Novel word learning with verbal definitions and images: Tracking consolidation with behavioral and ERP measures. Language Learning, 72, 941-979.

 

Stoehr*, A., Benders, T., Van Hell, J. G., & Fikkert, P. (2022). Feature generalization in Dutch-German bilingual and monolingual children. First Language, 42 (1), 101-123.

 

Abdollahi*, F., Grey*, S., & Van Hell, J. G. (2021). Foreign-accented sentence comprehension is challenging for older adults: ERP evidence from grammar and semantic processing. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 60, 101023.

 

Bakker-Marshall*, I., Takashima*, A., Fernandez*, C. B., Janzen, G., McQueen, J. M., & Van Hell, J. G. (2021). Overlapping and distinct neural networks supporting novel word learning in bilinguals and monolinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 24 (3), 524-536. 

 

Cohen, C., Nabi, S. W., Higham, C., Putnam, M., Kootstra*, G. J., & Van Hell, J. G. (2021). Individual variation in the structure of bilingual grammars. Language, 97 (4), 752-792.

 

Pelzl*, E., Carlson, M. T., Guo, T., Jackson, C. N., & Van Hell, J. G. (2021). Tuning out tone errors? Native listeners do not down-weight tones when hearing unsystematic tone errors in foreign-accented Mandarin. Bilingualism:Language and Cognition, 24 (1), 215-222.

 

Zaharchuk*, H. A., Shevlin**, A., & Van Hell, J. G. (2021). Are our brains more prescriptive than our mouths? Experience with dialectal variation in syntax differentially impacts ERPs and behavior. Brain and Language, 218, 104949. 

 

Grant*, A., Grey*, S., & Van Hell, J. G. (2020). Male fashionistas and female football fans: gender stereotypes affect neurophysiological correlates of semantic processing during speech comprehension. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 53, 100876. 

Grey*, S., Cosgrove**, A. L., & Van Hell, J. G. (2020). Faces with foreign accents: An event-related potential study of accented sentence comprehension. Neuropsychologia, 147, 107575.

Jonczyk*, R., Kremer, G., Siddique, Z., & Van Hell, J. G. (2020). Engineering creativity: Prior experience modulates electrophysiological responses to novel metaphors. Psychophysiology, 57(10), e13630. 

 

Kootstra*, G. J., Dijkstra, T., & Van Hell, J. G. (2020). Interactive alignment and lexical triggering of code-switching in bilingual dialogue. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1747.

 

Liu*, Y., & Van Hell, J. G. (2020). Learning novel word meanings: An ERP study on lexical consolidation in monolingual, inexperienced foreign language learners. Language Learning, 70, Issue S2, 45-74. 

 

Van Hell, J. G. (2020). Lexical processing in child and adult classroom second language learners: Uniqueness and similarity, and implications for cognitive models. In: K. D. Federmeier & H-W. Huang, Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Volume 72 (pp. 207-234). Elsevier.

 

Fernandez*, C. B., Litcofsky*, K. A., & Van Hell, J. G. (2019). Neural correlates of intra-sentential code-switching in the auditory modality. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 51, 17-41.

 

Grey*, S., Schubel**, L., McQueen, J. M., & Van Hell, J. G. (2019). Processing foreign-accented speech in a second language: Evidence from ERPs during sentence comprehension in bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 22 (5), 912-929.

 

Litcofsky*, K. A., & Van Hell, J. G. (2019). Bi-directional evidence linking sentence production and comprehension: a cross-modality structural priming study. Frontiers in Psychology, 10: 1095.

 

Lorimor, H., Jackson, C. N., & Van Hell, J. G. (2019). The interaction of notional number and morphophonology in subject-verb agreement: A role for working memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72(4), 890-900.

 

Van Hell, J. G., Fernandez*, C., Kootstra*, G. J., Litcofsky*, K. A., & Ting*, C.Y. (2018). Electrophysiological and experimental-behavioral approaches to the study of intra-sentential code-switching. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 8 (1), 144-171. 

 

Fairchild**, S., & Van Hell, J. G. (2017). Determiner-noun code-switching in Spanish-English heritage speakers. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 20 (1), 150-161. 

 

Grey*, S. E., Tanner*, D., & Van Hell, J. G. (2017). How right is left? Handedness modulates neural responses during morphosyntactic processing. Brain Research, 1669, 27-43.

 

Grey*, S. E., & Van Hell, J. G. (2017). Foreign-accented speaker identity affects neural correlates of language comprehension. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 42, 93-108. 

 

Litcofsky*, K. A. & Van Hell, J. G. (2017). Switching direction affects switching costs: Behavioral, ERP, and time-frequency analyses of intra-sentential codeswitching. Neuropsychologia, 97, 112-139.

 

Tanner*, D., Grey*, S. E., & Van Hell, J. G. (2017). Dissociating retrieval interference and reanalysis in the P600 during sentence comprehension. Psychophysiology, 54(2), 248-259.