- Roberts, G. , Kuang, J., and Clark, R. (2024) Communicative factors in the emergence of phonological dispersion. In Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Altenhof, A. and Roberts, G. (2023) Quality, not quantity, impacts the differentiation of near-synonyms. Language and Cognition: 1–23. (Data)
- Roberts, G. and Clark, R. (2023) The emergence of phonological dispersion through interaction: An exploratory secondary analysis of a communicative game. Frontiers in Psychology 14: 1130837. (Data)
- Li, A. and Roberts, G. (2023) Co-occurrence, extension and social salience: The emergence of indexicality in an artificial language. Cognitive Science 47(5): e13290. (Data)
- Fedzechkina, M., Hall Hartley, L., and Roberts, G. (2023) Social biases can lead to less communicatively efficient languages. Language Acquisition. 30(3–4): 230–255. (Data)
- Ventura, R., Plotkin, J. B., and Roberts, G. (2022) Drift as a driver of language change: An artificial language experiment. Cognitive Science. 46(9): e13197. (Data)
- White, Y. and Roberts, G. (2022) Variability in speaker expectations of morphosyntactic mutation in Welsh Glossa: A journal of general linguistics. 7(1). (Data)
- Twomey, C. R., Roberts, G., Brainard, D., and Plotkin, J. (2021) What we talk about when we talk about colors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118: 39. (Links to data in paper)
- Altenhof, A. and Roberts, G. (2021) Labels, even arbitrary ones, facilitate categorization. Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Ventura, R., Plotkin, J. B., and Roberts, G. (2021) Regularization of nouns due to drift, not selection: An artificial language experiment. Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Li, A. and Roberts, G. (2021) The emergence of indexicality in an artificial language. Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Roberts, G. and Sneller, B. (2020) Empirical foundations for an integrated study of language evolution. Language Dynamics and Change 10(2): 188–229.
- Fedzechkina, M. and Roberts G. (2020) Learners sacrifice robust communication as a result of a social bias. Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Roberts, G. and Clark, R. (2020) Dispersion, communication, and alignment: An experimental study of the emergence of structure in combinatorial phonology. Journal of Language Evolution 5(2): 121–139. (Data)
- Lai, W., Rácz, P., and Roberts, G. (2020) Experience with a linguistic variant affects the acquisition of its sociolinguistic meaning: An alien-language-learning experiment. Cognitive Science 44(4): e12832. (Data)
- Wade, L. and Roberts, G. (2020) Linguistic convergence to observed vs. expected behavior in an alien-language map task. Cognitive Science 44(4): e12829. (Data)
- Lai, W., Rácz, P., and Roberts, G. (2019) Unexpectedness makes a sociolinguistic variant easier to learn: An alien-language-learning experiment. Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Stevens, J. S. and Roberts, G. (2019) Noise, economy, and the emergence of information structure in a laboratory language. Cognitive Science 43: e12717. (Data)
- Roberts, G., and Clark, R. (2018) Emergence of vowel-like organization in a color-based communication system. Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Galantucci, B., Roberts, G., and Langstein, B. (2018) Content deafness: When coherent talk just doesn't matter. Language and Communication 61: 29–34.
- Roberts, G. and Fedzechkina, M. (2018) Social biases modulate the loss of redundant forms in the cultural evolution of language. Cognition 171C: 194–201. (Data)
- Sneller, B. and Roberts, G. (2018) Why some behaviors spread while others don't: A laboratory simulation of dialect contact. Cognition 170C: 298–311. (Data)
- Roberts, G. (2017) The linguist's Drosophila: Experiments in language change. Linguistics Vanguard 3(1): 20160086.
- Roberts, G., and Stevens, J. (2017) Information theoretic factors in marking linguistic focus: A laboratory-language approach. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. J. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 3004–3009). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Roberts, G. and Galantucci, B. (2016) Investigating meaning in Experimental Semiotics. Psychology of Language and Communication 20(2): 130–153.
- Roberts, G., Langstein, B., and Galantucci, B. (2016) Surprising blindness to conversational incoherence in both instant messaging and face-to-face speech. In A. Papafragou, D. Grodner, D. Mirman, & J. C. Trueswell (Eds.) Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1211–1216). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Sneller, B., and Roberts, G. (2016) Alien species and alienable traits: An artificial language game investigating the spread of cultural variants between antagonistic groups. In A. Papafragou, D. Grodner, D. Mirman, & J. C. Trueswell (Eds.) Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1211–1216). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Roberts, G., Langstein, B., and Galantucci, B. (2016) (In)sensitivity to incoherence in human communication. Language & Communication 47: 15–22.
- Roberts, G., Lewandowski, J., and Galantucci, B. (2015) How communication changes when we cannot mime the world: Experimental evidence for the effect of iconicity on combinatoriality. Cognition 141: 52–66.
- Galantucci, B. and Roberts, G. (2014) Do we notice when communication goes awry? An investigation of people’s sensitivity to coherence in spontaneous conversation. PLoS ONE 9(7): e103182.
- Roberts, G. (2013) Perspectives on language as a source of social markers. Language and Linguistics Compass 7(12): 619–632.
- Roberts, G., and Galantucci, B. (2013) Experimental insights on the origin of combinatoriality. In M. Knauff, M. Pauen, N. Sebanz, & I. Wachsmuth (Eds.), Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 3299–3302). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Roberts, G. and Galantucci, B. (2012) The emergence of duality of patterning: Insights from the laboratory. Language and Cognition 4(4): 297–318.
- Matthews, C., Roberts, G., and Caldwell, C. (2012) Opportunity to assimilate and pressure to discriminate can generate cultural divergence in the laboratory. Evolution and Human Behavior 33(6): 759–770.
- Galantucci, B., Garrod, S. and Roberts, G. (2012) Experimental Semiotics. Language and Linguistics Compass 6(8): 477–493.
- Galantucci, B. and Roberts, G. (2012) Experimental Semiotics: An engine of discovery for understanding human communication. Advances in Complex Systems 15(3–4): 1150026.
- Roberts, G. (2010) An experimental study of social selection and frequency of interaction in linguistic diversity. Interaction Studies 11(1): 138–59.
Reprinted (2012) in Bruno Galantucci and Simon Garrod (Eds) Experimental Semiotics: Studies on the emergence of human communication. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 139–160.
- Roberts, G. (2008) Language and the freerider problem: An experimental paradigm. Journal of Biological Theory 3(2):174–83.