Curriculum Vitae
Kalil Warren
PhD candidate in Psychology (Cognitive and Neural Sciences) at the University of South Carolina. I study how people understand language, and I teach psychological statistics, learning and memory, and the cognitive psychology lab.
Contact
Email
ORCID
Research Interests
Primary
Psycholinguistics, Computational Modeling, Language and Spatial Cognition, Cognitive Neuroscience of Language, Linguistic Reference Processing, Language and Discourse
Secondary
Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism; French language expertise
Education
Expected Spring 2029
Ph.D. in Psychology
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Concentration: Cognitive and Neural Sciences
Doctoral Minor: Quantitative Psychology
Advisor: Amit Almor, Ph.D.
Fall 2024
Master of Arts in Linguistics
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Concentration: Psycholinguistics
Spring 2022
Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Magna Cum Laude
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Minor: Linguistics
Spring 2020
S.C. Governor's School for Science and Mathematics
Hartsville, SC
Concentration in Humanities, With Honors
Honors & Grants
2026
J. Frank Yates Student Travel Award
Psychonomic Society
2024 – 2028
Presidential Fellowship (Doctoral)
University of South Carolina
Fall 2023
"Thank a Teacher" Certificate of Appreciation
University of South Carolina
2022 – 2023
Dr. Yung-Fa Chang Grant
University of South Carolina
2020
Corey Claytor Scholarship
S.C. Governor's School for Science and Mathematics
Publications
2026
Fridriksson, J., Newman-Norlund, R. D., Ahmadi, S., Willis, R., Salman, N.,
Warren, K., … & Rorden, C. (2026).
Stroke lesions as a Rosetta Stone for language model interpretability.
arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.04074.
2025
Warren, K., Nichols, C., Petersen, D., Shalin, V. L., & Almor, A. (2025).
Stylistic language drives perceived moral superiority of LLMs.
Scientific Reports, 15(1), 39168.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-25046-9
Under review
Nemati, S., Newman-Norlund, R. D., Ahmadi, S., Guan, X., Warren, K., Yang, Y., Nelakuditi, S.,
Rorden, C., Bonilha, L., & Fridriksson, J. (under review).
Head-level lesion-symptom mapping of picture naming in vision-language models.
Neuroscience. Submitted September 2026.
Under review
Warren, K., Newman-Norlund, R. D., Ahmadi, S., Salman, N., Yang, Y., Willis, R., Guan, X.,
& Fridriksson, J. (under review).
Cross-task lesion-symptom mapping in chronic aphasia.
Brain Communications. Submitted May 2026.
Under review
Ahmadi, S. S., Salman, N., Newman-Norlund, R. D., Warren, K., Willis, R., Yang, Y., Guan, X.,
Kristinsson, S., Bonilha, L., & Fridriksson, J. (under review).
The elicitation effect in aphasic naming.
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Submitted April 2026.
Under review
Visikamalla, H., Riccardi, N., Rangus, I., Warren, K., Nichols, C., Horacek, K.,
Newman-Norlund, S., Fridriksson, J., & Bonilha, L. (under review).
Tip-of-the-tongue word-finding phenomenon: The significance of the white matter language network.
Neurobiology of Language. Submitted March 2026.
Under review
Warren, K. (under review).
StatTeacher Toolkit: A browser-based application for generating and practicing
psychological statistics problems.
Journal of Open Source Education. Submitted March 2026.
In prep
Newman-Norlund, R. D., Warren, K., Ahmadi, S., Salman, N., Guan, X., Yang, Y., Nelakuditi, S.,
Bonilha, L., & Fridriksson, J. (in prep).
Patient-specific digital twins of aphasia from lesioned and retrained language models.
In prep
Newman-Norlund, R. D., Warren, K., Ahmadi, S., Salman, N., Guan, X., Yang, Y., Nelakuditi, S.,
Bonilha, L., & Fridriksson, J. (in prep).
Perturbation profiles in language models resemble human aphasia.
In prep
Guan, X., Newman-Norlund, R. D., Yang, Y., Ahmadi, S., Willis, R., Salman, N., Warren, K.,
Nelakuditi, S., Desai, R., Rorden, C., Bonilha, L., & Fridriksson, J. (in prep).
PRISM: A causal framework for layer-resolved subtraction analysis in perturbed language models.
In prep
Newman-Norlund, R. D., Warren, K., Ahmadi, S., Willis, R., Salman, N., Guan, X., Yang, Y.,
Nelakuditi, S., Desai, R., Bonilha, L., Rorden, C., & Fridriksson, J. (in prep).
Inverse symptom-lesion mapping in human aphasia: Predicting left-hemisphere damage location
from behavioral phenotype.
In prep
Yang, Y., Newman-Norlund, R., Guan, X., Ahmadi, S., Willis, R., Salman, N., Warren, K.,
Arheix-Parras, S., Nelakuditi, S., Desai, R. H., Bonilha, L., Rorden, C., & Fridriksson, J. (in prep).
Recovering internal perturbations from behavioral error profiles in large language models.
In prep
Warren, K., Ahmadi, S. S., Guan, X., Salman, N., Yang, Y., Willis, R., Newman-Norlund, R. D.,
Nelakuditi, S., Desai, R., Bonilha, L., & Fridriksson, J. (in prep).
Modeling aphasic taxonomic and thematic errors in a lesioned LLM.
In prep
Wilson, S. C., Langley, S., Warren, K., den Ouden, D. B., & Almor, A. (in prep).
Transcranial direct current stimulation of the superior parietal cortex modulates reference
processing during reading comprehension.
In prep
Warren, K. & Almor, A. (in prep).
Hearing where they were: Spatial indexing as a modality-general discourse mechanism.
Research Acknowledgments
2022
Scucchi, S. (2022). The variation of metaphor processing strategies and the effects on
reading skills in L2 English learners. (Order No. 28969555, University of South Carolina).
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 89.
ProQuest →
2022
Wilson, S. C. (2022). Lexical and syntactic priming in dialogue.
(Order No. 28769220, University of South Carolina).
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 74.
ProQuest →
Presentations
2026
Warren, K., Xie, A., Fahey, D., & Tasseva-Kurktchieva, M. (2026, September–October).
Orthography outweighs phonology in bilingual cognate similarity judgments
[Poster]. Society for the Neurobiology of Language 2026, Geneva, Switzerland.
2026
Warren, K., Newman-Norlund, R. D., Ahmadi, S., Salman, N., Yang, Y., Willis, R., Guan, X.,
Bonilha, L., & Fridriksson, J. (2026, September–October).
Neural–behavioral dissociations in cross-task lesion–symptom mapping of naming errors in chronic aphasia
[Poster]. Society for the Neurobiology of Language 2026, Geneva, Switzerland.
2026
Newman-Norlund, R. D., Warren, K., Ahmadi, S., Salman, N., Yang, Y., Willis, R., Guan, X.,
Bonilha, L., & Fridriksson, J. (2026, September–October).
Inverse symptom–lesion mapping in human aphasia: Predicting left-hemisphere damage location from behavioral phenotype
[Poster]. Society for the Neurobiology of Language 2026, Geneva, Switzerland.
2026
Newman-Norlund, R. D., Warren, K., Ahmadi, S., Salman, N., Yang, Y., Willis, R., Guan, X.,
Bonilha, L., & Fridriksson, J. (2026, September–October).
Severity scores blur, error types reveal: Behavioral choice shapes lesion–language mapping
[Poster]. Society for the Neurobiology of Language 2026, Geneva, Switzerland.
2026
Newman-Norlund, R. D., Warren, K., Ahmadi, S., Salman, N., Guan, X., Yang, Y., Willis, R.,
Bonilha, L., & Fridriksson, J. (2026, September–October).
A universal bidirectional model of aphasic behavior and left-hemisphere lesion in 296 patients
[Poster]. Society for the Neurobiology of Language 2026, Geneva, Switzerland.
2026
Warren, K. & Almor, A. (2026, March 27).
Spatial memory of auditory sources in language comprehension
[Poster]. Human Sentence Processing 2026 (HSP), Cambridge, MA.
2025
Warren, K. & Almor, A. (2025, November 22).
Spatial memory of auditory sources in language comprehension
[Poster]. Psychonomics, Denver, CO.
2025
Warren, K. & Almor, A. (2025, November 15).
Spatial memory of auditory sources in language comprehension
[Talk]. Graduate Students in Linguistics Student Research Symposium, Columbia, SC.
2023
Wilson, S. C., Langley, S., Warren, K., den Ouden, D., & Almor, A.
(2023, October 25).
Reference processing modulation during HD-transcranial direct current stimulation
[Poster]. Society for the Neurobiology of Language, Marseille, France.
2023
Wilson, S. C., Langley, S., Warren, K., den Ouden, D., & Almor, A.
(2023, April 21).
Reference processing modulation during HD-transcranial direct current stimulation
[Poster]. Discover USC, Columbia, SC.
2022
Warren, K., Bury, H., & Weist, M. D. (2022).
Comparing clinicians' and graduate students' multicultural knowledge and awareness
in school psychology and clinical community programs at the University of South Carolina
[Poster]. Southeastern School Behavioral Health Conference, Myrtle Beach, SC.
2020
Che, B. & Warren, K. (2020).
Air cleaning drone feasibility: Designing a mobile filtration unit to reduce indoor
particulate matter [Poster]. South Carolina Junior Academy of Science. 140.
https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/scjas/2020/all/140
Teaching Experience
Instructor of Record
Spring 2027
PSYC 455: Introduction to Neuroscience
University of South Carolina — Columbia
1 section
Fall 2026
PSYC 572 / LING 505: Cognitive Psychology Lab
University of South Carolina — Columbia
1 section
Summer 2026
PSYC 400: Survey of Learning & Memory
University of South Carolina — Columbia
1 section
Spring 2026
PSYC 220: Psychological Statistics
University of South Carolina — Columbia
1 section
Fall 2025
PSYC 220: Psychological Statistics
University of South Carolina — Columbia
1 section
Spring 2024
ENGL 102: Rhetoric and Composition
University of South Carolina — Columbia
2 sections
Fall 2023
ENGL 101: Critical Reading and Composition
University of South Carolina — Columbia
1 section
Guest Lectures
Spring 2025
PSYC 405: Cognitive Psychology
University of South Carolina — Columbia
Fall 2024
LING 301: The English Language
University of South Carolina — Columbia
Fall 2024
PSYC 405: Cognitive Psychology
University of South Carolina — Columbia
Teaching Assistant
Spring 2025
PSYC 572: Cognitive Psychology Lab
University of South Carolina — Columbia
1 section
Spring 2025
PSYC 405: Cognitive Psychology
University of South Carolina — Columbia
1 section
Fall 2024
PSYC 405: Cognitive Psychology
University of South Carolina — Columbia
2 sections
Spring 2024
PSYC 405: Cognitive Psychology
University of South Carolina — Columbia
1 section
Fall 2023
PSYC 506: Psychology of Language
University of South Carolina — Columbia
1 section
Service
University and Departmental Service
2026 – 2027
Graduate Representative, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee
Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina
August 2026
Panelist, TA Orientation and Training
Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina
April 2026
Invited Talk, "StatTeacher Toolkit: Turning a Problem into Research"
Psychology Department Instructor Retreat, University of South Carolina
November 2024
Organizer, Graduate Students in Linguistics Student Research Symposium
University of South Carolina
Outreach and Mentoring
July 2026
Panelist, Summer Seniors Recruitment Program
Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina
June 2026
Statistics Workshops (Parts 1 and 2), SOAR Program
University of South Carolina School of Medicine
June 2026
Panelist, First-Generation Graduate Student Panel
Ronald E. McNair Program, University of South Carolina
January 2026
Invited Speaker, Peer Perspective on Individual Development Plans and Professional Development
Grad Launch (GRAD 700), University of South Carolina Graduate School
November 2025
Panelist, Graduate Student Panel
Psi Chi Psychology Honor Society, University of South Carolina
Skills
Languages
English (native), French (fluent)
Research Methods
EEG, fMRI/MRI, HD-tDCS, lesion-symptom mapping, experimental psycholinguistic design
Programming
Python, R, JavaScript, Java, SAS, HTML5, CSS
Software
E-Prime, SPSS, Qualtrics, REDCap