Dr. Shain uses computational and experimental methods to study language and the mind, particularly (1) the cognitive processes that allow us to understand the things we hear and read so quickly, (2) the learning signals that we leverage as children to acquire language from the environment, and (3) the role played by real-time information processing constraints in shaping language learning and comprehension.

Dr. Shain often builds deep learning models to investigate these questions, and is actively developing machine learning techniques to help scientists understand complex dynamical systems like the human mind and brain. His work intersects machine learning, cognitive science, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, statistics, and (psycho)linguistics.