Hi! I am Penny, and I publish under my Chinese name, Dingyi Pan.

I am a fourth-year Ph.D. student in linguistics at UC San Diego, advised by Andy Kehler. My research focuses on psycholinguistcs and pragmatics. I use both computational modeling and behavioral experiments to explore how people comprehend and produce sentences as well as how they make inferences in different contexts. Specifically, I investigate how people and language models draw non-mandated pragmatic inferences to establish intrasentential coherence. In addition, I am also interested in belief verbs, and my work with Rachel Dudley focuses on the acquisition of the Mandarin false-belief verb yiwei.

Prior to my study at UCSD, I completed my B.A. in Cognitive Science with a correlate (minor) in Computer Science at Vassar College, where I was advised by Janet Andrews. Then, I travelled across the country to the west coast and completed my M.S. in Symbolic Systems at Stanford University. During my time at Stanford, I was affiliated with the ALPS lab and advised by Judith Degen.