Makeba Parramore Wilbourn
Associate Professor of the Practice of Psychology and Neuroscience
My program of research explores how the relationship between cognition and language changes over time and the types of input (e.g., gestures, bilingualism) that influence this relationship. In general, my research addresses three key theoretical questions. First, how does cognition influence language early in development? In particular, I am interested in how infants and toddlers’ developing cognitive and perceptual skills lay the foundation for early word learning and how this changes as a function of input and experience. Secondly, how does language come to influence cognition in children and adults? In this line of research, I am interested in determining how various types of linguistic and cultural experiences affect the cognitive abilities of monolinguals and bilinguals throughout development. Finally, how does the use of gesture influence the relationship between cognition and language? This area of research focuses on the relationship between early gesture use and later language development and how this relationship is influenced by socio-cultural factors, such as race and socioeconomic status.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
- Associate Professor of the Practice of Psychology and Neuroscience, Psychology & Neuroscience, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2017
- Affiliate of the Center for Biobehavioral Health Disparities Research, Center on Health & Society, Social Science Research Institute 2014
- Affiliate of the Center for Child and Family Policy, Center for Child and Family Policy, Sanford School of Public Policy 2015
Contact Information
- 214 Reuben-Cooke, Durham, NC 27708
- Box 90086, 417 Chapel Drive, Durham, NC 27708
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makeba.wilbourn@duke.edu
(919) 660-5795
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Makeba Wilbourn's C.V.
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http://wild.psych.duke.edu/
- Background
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Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., Cornell University 2008
- M.A., California State University, Fullerton 2001
- B.A., California State University, Fullerton 1997
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Previous Appointments & Affiliations
- Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Psychology & Neuroscience, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2008 - 2017
- Recognition
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In the News
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JAN 13, 2017 -
NOV 18, 2015 -
APR 27, 2015 Duke Today -
OCT 30, 2013 WNCN-Raleigh
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Awards & Honors
- Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. National Science Foundation. 2014
- Summer Mentored Grant Writing Award. Center for Developmental Science. June 2012
- Elva Knight Research Grant. International Reading Association. 2012
- Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. Oak Ridge Associated Universities. June 2010
- Outstanding Alumna of the Year – Psychology. California State University, Fullerton. May 2009
- Ford Foundation Fellowships/ Predoctoral. National Academies, The. 2003
- Research
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Selected Grants
- Learning to Pay Attention to Language Related Visual Cues awarded by RIKEN Brain Science Institute 2009 - 2023
- REU Site: Lifespan Approaches to Diverse Psychological Science awarded by National Science Foundation 2020 - 2023
- CAREER: Gesture and Learning: Implications for Language Development Across Race and Socioeconomic Status awarded by National Science Foundation 2014 - 2019
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External Relationships
- The College Board
- Publications & Artistic Works
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Selected Publications
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Academic Articles
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Ruba, Ashley L., Vrinda Kalia, and Makeba Parramore Wilbourn. “Happy, sad, or yucky? Parental emotion talk with infants in a book-sharing task.” Infancy : The Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies 27, no. 2 (March 2022): 277–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12448.Full Text
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Lucca, Kelsey, and Makeba Parramore Wilbourn. “The what and the how: Information-seeking pointing gestures facilitate learning labels and functions.” Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 178 (February 2019): 417–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2018.08.003.Full Text
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Kalia, V., M. P. Daneri, and M. P. Wilbourn. “Relations between vocabulary and executive functions in Spanish-english dual language learners.” Bilingualism 22, no. 1 (January 1, 2019): 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728917000463.Full Text
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Kalia, V., P. D. Lane, and M. P. Wilbourn. “Cognitive control and phonological awareness in the acquisition of second language vocabulary within the Spanish-English dual immersion context.” Cognitive Development 48 (October 1, 2018): 176–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2018.08.010.Full Text
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Ruba, Ashley L., Makeba Parramore Wilbourn, Devin M. Ulrich, and Lasana T. Harris. “Constructing emotion categorization: Insights from developmental psychology applied to a young adult sample.” Emotion (Washington, D.C.) 18, no. 7 (October 2018): 1043–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000364.Full Text
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Lucca, Kelsey, and Makeba Parramore Wilbourn. “Communicating to Learn: Infants' Pointing Gestures Result in Optimal Learning.” Child Development 89, no. 3 (May 2018): 941–60. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12707.Full Text
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Ruba, Ashley L., Kristin M. Johnson, Lasana T. Harris, and Makeba Parramore Wilbourn. “Developmental changes in infants' categorization of anger and disgust facial expressions.” Developmental Psychology 53, no. 10 (October 2017): 1826–32. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000381.Full Text
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Kalia, V., M. P. Wilbourn, and K. Ghio. “Better early or late? Examining the influence of age of exposure and language proficiency on executive function in early and late bilinguals.” Journal of Cognitive Psychology 26, no. 7 (October 3, 2014): 699–713. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2014.956748.Full Text
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Kuhn, Laura J., Michael T. Willoughby, Makeba Parramore Wilbourn, Lynne Vernon-Feagans, Clancy B. Blair, and Clancy B. Family Life Project Key Investigators. “Early communicative gestures prospectively predict language development and executive function in early childhood.” Child Development 85, no. 5 (September 2014): 1898–1914. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12249.Full Text
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Wilbourn, M. P., and J. P. Sims. “Get by with a little help from a word: Multimodal input facilitates 26-month-olds' ability to learn symbolic gestures as labels.” Journal of Cognition and Development, 2013.
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Wilbourn, Makeba Parramore, Laura E. Kurtz, and Vrinda Kalia. “The Lexical Stroop Sort (LSS) picture-word task: a computerized task for assessing the relationship between language and executive functioning in school-aged children.” Behavior Research Methods 44, no. 1 (March 2012): 270–86. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-011-0142-4.Full Text
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Kalia, V., M. P. Wilbourn, and K. Ghio. “Age of second language acquisition and language proficiency interactively influence bilinguals’ cognition (Submitted).” Bilingualism: Cognition & Language, 2012.
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Kalia, V., and M. P. Wilbourn. “Changing frames of reference: Language impacts cognition and memory in Indian bilinguals (Submitted).” Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 2012.
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Wilbourn, M. P., and M. Casasola. “Hand me a cue: Developmental changes in infants’ associative word learning abilities (Submitted).” Developmental Psychology, 2012.
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Robertson, S. R., S. E. Watamura, and M. P. Wilbourn. “Attentional dynamics of infant visual foraging.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 109 (2012): 11460–64.
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Wilbourn, Makeba Parramore, Allen W. Gottfried, and Daniel W. Kee. “Consistency of hand-preference across the early years: long-term relationship to verbal intelligence and reading achievement in girls.” Developmental Psychology 47, no. 4 (July 2011): 931–42. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023834.Full Text
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Wilbourn, M. P., and D. W. Kee. “Henry the nurse is a doctor too: Implicitly examining children's gender stereotypes for male and female occupational roles.” Sex Roles 62, no. 9 (May 1, 2010): 670–83. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9773-7.Full Text
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Wilbourn, Makeba Parramore, and Marianella Casasola. “Discriminating signs: perceptual precursors to acquiring a visual-gestural language.” Infant Behavior & Development 30, no. 1 (February 2007): 153–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2006.08.006.Full Text
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Casasola, M., M. P. Wilbourn, and S. Yang. “Can English-learning toddlers acquire and generalize a novel spatial word?” First Language 26, no. 2 (December 1, 2006): 187–205. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142723706060746.Full Text
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Casasola, M., and M. P. Wilbourn. “Fourteen-month-old infants form novel word-spatial relation associations.” Infancy 6 (2004): 385–96.
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Casasola, M., and M. P. Wilbourn. “14-Month-old infants form novel word-spatial relation associations.” Infancy 6, no. 3 (January 1, 2004): 385–96. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327078in0603_4.Full Text
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- Teaching & Mentoring
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Recent Courses
- AAAS 420S: The Role of Race and Culture on Development 2023
- PSY 103: Developmental Psychology: Introduction and Survey 2023
- PSY 103D: Developmental Psychology: Introduction and Survey 2023
- PSY 203: Practicum 2023
- PSY 435S: The Role of Race and Culture on Development 2023
- PSY 493: Research Independent Study 2023
- PSY 494: Research Independent Study 2023
- PSY 496: Distinction Thesis Workshop 2023
- PSY 601S: Psychology Teaching Seminar 2023
- PSY 727S: Theories of Developmental Psychology 2023
- PSY 103D: Developmental Psychology: Introduction and Survey 2022
- PSY 203: Practicum 2022
- PSY 493: Research Independent Study 2022
- PSY 494: Research Independent Study 2022
- PSY 601S: Psychology Teaching Seminar 2022
- PSY 103: Developmental Psychology: Introduction and Survey 2021
- PSY 103D: Developmental Psychology: Introduction and Survey 2021
- PSY 203: Practicum 2021
- PSY 394: Research Independent Study 2021
- PSY 491: Independent Study 2021
- PSY 493: Research Independent Study 2021
- PSY 494: Research Independent Study 2021
- PSY 496: Distinction Thesis Workshop 2021
- Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
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Presentations & Appearances
- Collaboration Featured, SI College Athlete of the Year nominee: Duke’s Tyler Thornton,. December 29, 2013 2013
- Developmental changes in infants’ ability to categorize anger and disgust emotional expressions. December 29, 2013 2013
- Examining 14-month-olds ability to map labels to emotion facial expressions.. December 29, 2013 2013
- From the hands of babes: Parents’ responses to infants’ communicative gestures.. December 29, 2013 2013
- Guest Blogger, Ty’s New Friends. December 29, 2013 2013
- Narrative and vocabulary development in dual-language learners.. December 29, 2013 2013
- Role of Early Gesture Use on Children’s Vocabulary Development: Implications for the Black and White Achievement Gap?. November 1, 2013 2013
- Featured Expert, Children are overexposed to media, study finds,. October 29, 2013 2013
- Exploring Mother-Child Gesture and Language During a Picture-Book Activity: Implications for the Achievement Gap?. October 1, 2013 2013
- Multimodal input in joint book-reading activities facilitates early word learning.. October 1, 2013 2013
- Don’t worry be“happy”: Mother-child emotion talk during a picture-book task.. May 1, 2013 2013
- Examining 18-month-olds’ ability to discriminate and categorize anger and disgust emotional expressions. May 1, 2013 2013
- Exploring Mother-Child Gesture and Language During a Picture-Book Activity: Implications for the Achievement Gap?. May 1, 2013 2013
- Put on a Happy Face:” Developmental Changes in Infants’ Ability Map Labels to Emotion Facial Expressions. May 1, 2013 2013
- The frog jumped on his head” Examining Perspective-Taking, Language Development, and Executive Function in Dual-Language Learners. May 1, 2013 2013
- Emotion, Cognition, and Language: A mixed methods approach to studying developmental changes in infants' discrimination, categorization, and label learning for emotion facial expressions.. March 1, 2013 2013
- Emotion, cognition, and language: Developmental changes in infants’ discrimination, categorization, and label learning for emotion facial expressions. March 1, 2013 2013
- Cultural differences in narrative style and reading achievement in African American and Caucasian children. November 1, 2012 2012
- The Examination of Narratives by Dual-Language Learners. October 1, 2012 2012
- Debating Dual Language Immersion Programs. NC NPR State of Things radio show. July 19, 2012 2012
- Black Mothers, SES, and Language Development. North Carolina Central University. April 21, 2012 2012
- Role of SES and Race on the Relation between Gesture and Language: Implications for the Black and White Achievement Gap?. Peabody School of Education, Vanderbilt University. April 21, 2012 2012
- Exploring Executive Function in Emerging Bilinguals. October 1, 2011 2011
- Get by with a little help from a word: Multimodal input facilitates 26-month-olds' gesture learning. July 1, 2011 2011
- Families, Race, and Language: Implications for the Black and White Achievement Gap. April 1, 2011 2011
- Developmental changes in infants’ association of gestures versus words with objects: Evidence of a narrowing effect towards words.. April 1, 2010 2010
- Get by with a little help from a word: 26-months’ ability to learn gestures as labels when presented with words. April 1, 2010 2010
- Developmental changes in infants’ association of gestures versus words with objects: Evidence of general to specific processing. October 1, 2009 2009
- Early Gestures and Word Learning in Infants and Toddlers. October 1, 2009 2009
- CSUF Alumnae of the Year Keynote Address. June 1, 2009 2009
- Developmental changes in infants’ ability to use multiple sources of input to learn language: Implications for African American children. January 13, 2008 2008
- Talk with the hand: Developmental changes in infants’ ability to associate words and gestures with objects.. January 13, 2008 2008
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Service to the Profession
- Ad hoc Reviewer : NSF College of Reviewers: Developmental & Learning Sciences. April 7, 2014 2014
- Ad Hoc Reviewer : Developmental Psychology. 2013 2013
- Ad Hoc Reviewer : Infant Behavior and Development. 2013 2013
- Ad Hoc Reviewer : Psychological Science. 2013 2013
- Co-organizer : Minority Student Grad School Day. 2013 2013
- Member : Racial/Ethnic Minority Faculty Group. 2013 2013
- Grant Submission Reviewer : International Reading Association. December 2012 2012
- Member : Carolina Consortium on Human Development Committee. 2012 - 2013 2012 - 2013
- Ad Hoc reviewer : Child Development. October 19, 2011 2011
- Ad Hoc reviewer : Cognitive Development. October 19, 2011 2011
- Ad Hoc reviewer : Journal of Cognition and Development. 2011 2011
- Ad Hoc Reviewer : Cognition. 2010 2010
- Ad Hoc Reviewer : Educational and Psychlogical Measurement. 2010 2010
- Ad Hoc Reviewer : Sex Roles. 2010 2010
- Submission Reviewer : International Conference on Infant Studies. 2010 2010
- Ad Hoc Reviewer : Journal of Genetic Psycology: Developmental and Education Psychology. 2009 2009
- Ad Hoc Reviewer : Developmental Science. 2008 2008
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Service to Duke
- Institutional Review Board. 2019 - 2023 2019 - 2023
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