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Psychology Faculty

Jean E Fox Tree
  • Title
    • Distinguished Professor
  • Division Social Sciences Division
  • Department
    • Psychology Department
  • Phone
    831-459-5181, 831-459-5084
  • Email
  • Website
  • Office Location
    • Social Sciences 2, Room 353
  • Office Hours (Spring 2024) Wednesday 11:00 am - 12:00 pm or by appointment
  • Mail Stop Psychology Faculty Services
  • Faculty Areas of Expertise Psycholinguistics, Cognition, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Human Computer Interaction, Language Processing
  • Courses Psych 125: Psychology of Language, Psych 126: Conversations, Psych 139H: Weird Science, Psych 290: Grant Writing for Psychologists

Summary of Expertise

Psycholinguistics: production and comprehension of speech and writing

Research Interests

Jean E. Fox Tree is a cognitive psychologist specializing in psycholinguistics. She studies the production and comprehension of spontaneous speech and writing.

Projects in Professor Fox Tree's lab include studies of discourse markers (such as well, oh, I mean, and you know), enquoting devices (such as said and like), backchannels (such as uh huh and mhm), and computer mediated communication, among other topics.

Professor Fox Tree uses a variety of techniques to explore her areas of interest, including corpora analyses, reaction time experiments, questionnaires, referential communication tasks, and analyses of speech produced under controlled conditions.

Biography, Education and Training

Ph.D., Stanford University
M.Sc., University of Edinburgh
A.B., Harvard University

Selected Publications

  • D’Arcey, J. T., Oraby, S., & Fox Tree, J. E. (2019). Wait signals predict sarcasm in online debates. Dialogue & Discourse, 10(2), 56-78.
  • Tolins, J., Zeamer, C., & Fox Tree, J. E. (2018). Overhearing dialogues and monologues: How does entrainment lead to more comprehensible referring expressions? Discourse Processes, 55(7), 545-565. 
  • Tolins, J., Namiranian, N., Akhtar, N., Fox Tree, J. E. (2017). The role of addressee backchannels and conversational grounding in vicarious word learning in four-year-olds. First Language, 37(6) 648-671.
  • Fox Tree, J. E. (2010). Discourse markers across speakers and settings. Language and Linguistics Compass, 3(1), 1–13.
  • Dunn, A. L. & Fox Tree, J. E.  (2009). A quick, gradient Bilingual Dominance Scale. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12(3), 273-289.
  • Fox Tree, J. E. (2007). Folk notions of um and uh, you know, and like.  Text & Talk, 27-3, 297-314.
  • Fox Tree, J. E. & Weldon, M. S. (2007). Retelling urban legends. American Journal of Psychology, 120(3), 459-476.
  • Fox Tree, J. E. (2006). Placing like in telling stories. Discourse Studies, 8(6), 749-770.