Haskins Laboratories · Yale School of Medicine

Jinglei Ren 任晶磊

How people learn the hidden regularities of language, and how that shapes reading.

I am a postdoctoral associate at Haskins Laboratories, Yale School of Medicine, working with Ken Pugh and Vince Gracco. I received my Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Maryland in 2024, advised by Min Wang, and my B.Sc. from the University of Waterloo. In December 2026 I will join Hong Kong Baptist University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education and Psychology.

Research

My research focuses on reading, language learning, and how humans compare with language models:

01 / READING
Learning to read
Statistical learning, print–speech integration, and the brain mechanisms of reading (fNIRS, EEG, fMRI)
02 / LANGUAGE
Language learning
Regularities in spoken and written language: lexical stress, morphology, phonology & bilingual processing
03 / HUMANS & LLMS
Humans & language models
How humans and LLMs process language and learn from experience: repetition priming, and when acting, thinking, and predicting make interaction more useful for learning

What's new

Dec2026
Joining Hong Kong Baptist University as an Assistant Professor.
2026CoLM
Our paper on repetition priming in base LLMs, instruct LLMs, and humans is ranked in the top 1% by review scores at CoLM 2026.
2026NPh
Our simultaneous fNIRS–EEG study of long-lag repetition learning is accepted at Neurophotonics.

Recent publications

* Equal contribution

CoLM 2026 HUMANS · LANGUAGE MODELS

Automatic or Controlled? Repetition Priming Reveals Divergent Processing in Base LLMs, Instruct LLMs, and Humans

Jinglei Ren, Yuyue Wang
Conference on Language Modeling, 2026. Ranked top 1% by review scores.

Classic repetition priming shows that base LLMs, instruction-tuned LLMs, and humans diverge in whether repeated input is processed automatically or under control.

Neurophotonics 2026 READING · NEUROIMAGING

Multiscale Neural Signatures of Long-Lag Repetition Learning: A Simultaneous fNIRS–EEG Study

Jinglei Ren, Adam Noah, Xian Zhang, Vincent Gracco, Marc Joanisse, Aahana Bajracharya, Jay G. Rueckl, Augusto Buchweitz, Nabin Koirala, Joy Hirsch, Ken Pugh
Neurophotonics, accepted, 2026.

Simultaneous fNIRS and EEG reveal hemodynamic, electrophysiological, and neurovascular-coupling signatures of learning from words repeated across long lags.

Dev. Cogn. Neurosci. 2026 READING · NEUROIMAGING

Audiovisual Integration in Reading Among School-Aged Children: Evidence from Combined fMRI and EEG

Jinglei Ren*, Haiwa Wang*, Nicole Landi, Marc F. Joanisse, Vincent Gracco, Dan Kleinman, Kelly Mahaffy, Aahana Bajracharya, Roeland Hancock, Kenneth Pugh, Fumiko Hoeft
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 101729, 2026.

Combined fMRI and EEG show how children integrate print and speech, and how this integration relates to reading efficiency, fluency, and spelling.

Reciprocal relationship

J. Educ. Psychol. 2026 READING · STATISTICAL LEARNING

Unraveling the Reciprocal Relationship Between Statistical Learning and Reading Development

Jinglei Ren, Min Wang, Xianglin Zhang
Journal of Educational Psychology, advance online publication, 2026.

Longitudinal evidence that statistical learning and reading skill shape each other over development.

J. Exp. Child Psychol. 2025 READING · STATISTICAL LEARNING

Statistical Learning as a Buffer: Investigating Its Impact on the Link Between Home Environment and Reading Achievement

Jinglei Ren, Min Wang, Xianglin Zhang, Rachel R. Romeo, Joanne Arciuli
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 253, 106201, 2025.

Stronger statistical learning weakens the association between home literacy environment and children's reading achievement.

Meta-analysis

J. Educ. Psychol. 2024 STATISTICAL LEARNING · META-ANALYSIS

Can Explicit Instruction Boost Statistical Learning? A Meta-Analytical Review

Jinglei Ren, Min Wang, Christopher M. Conway
Journal of Educational Psychology, 116(7), 1215–1237, 2024.

A meta-analysis of when and how explicit instruction improves learning of statistical regularities.

Invited talks

JUN 2026
Cracking the code: How learners extract structure from written languageDept. of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
JUN 2026
How children learn from regularities in spoken and written languageDept. of Educational Psychology, CUHK · University of Macau
JUN 2026
How language experience shapes children's learningEast China Normal University
OCT 2025
Audiovisual integration in readingYale Child Study Center
MAY 2025
How learning mechanisms shape language and readingUniversity of Oslo
DEC 2024
Statistical learning: How humans acquire language and learn to readZhejiang University
JUL 2024
The role of explicit instruction in statistical learningShanghai Jiao Tong University
NOV 2023
Statistical learning: How humans acquire language and learn to read?East China Normal University

Grants & awards

2025
Sheila E. Blumstein Travel AwardSociety for the Neurobiology of Language
2024
Ann G. Wylie Dissertation FellowshipUniversity of Maryland
2024
Beaumont Dissertation FellowshipUniversity of Maryland
2023
Faculty-Student Award (with Min Wang)University of Maryland
2023
Graduate School Summer Fellowship · Bruce W. Sorter Endowed FellowshipUniversity of Maryland
2021
J. Frank Yates Student Conference AwardPsychonomic Society
2020–22
Dean's FellowshipUniversity of Maryland
2019
Outstanding Undergraduate Research Assistant AwardUniversity of Waterloo

Teaching

2023–24
Research Methods in Human DevelopmentInstructor of record, University of Maryland
2021–23
Teaching assistantResearch Methods in Human Development · Science and Controversies on Bilingualism · Reading in the Early Childhood Classroom · Human Development Through the Lifespan

Service

Reviewer for NeuroImage, Imaging Neuroscience, Cognition, Developmental Psychology, Child Development, Journal of Educational Psychology, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, JEP: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, Journal of Memory and Language, npj Science of Learning, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Scientific Studies of Reading, and Annals of Dyslexia.
Member of AERA, APA, Society for the Neurobiology of Language, Psychonomic Society, Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Women in Cognitive Science, and Psi Chi.

Contact

Prospective students interested in statistical learning, reading, or the neuroscience of language are welcome to get in touch.
jinglei.ren@yale.edu · +1 240-733-6788
Haskins Laboratories, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT