Michelle Luna
Assistant Research Professor
Biography
Dr. Michelle Luna studies how children develop early language and cognitive skills used to succeed academically. She is particularly interested in how contextual factors influence how children learn and applying research findings in educational settings. Prior to coming to Notre Dame, she studied preschoolers' word and category learning with the Language and Cognitive Development Lab at UCLA. At Notre Dame, she is the managing director of Tutor-ND and works closely with the Center for Educational Research and Action (ERA). Her current work focuses on implementing various shared book reading interventions, supporting design-based research at TutorND, and examining factors at the intersection of language and cognitive development.
Education
Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Notre Dame
Ph.D., M.A., University of California, Los Angeles
B.A., M.A., University of Notre Dame
Representative Publications
Ryan, E., Botter, P., Luna, M. L., Bailey, A, & Darriet, C. (2024). Bilingual Oral Language Development Among Dual Language Immersion Students: Use of a Bayesian Approach with Language Learning Progressions. Applied Psycholinguistics. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716424000067
Shaw, S. T., Luna, M. L., Rodriguez, B., Yeh, J., Villalta, N., & Ramirez, G. (2022) Mathematical Creativity in Elementary School Children: General Patterns and Effects of an Incubation Break. Frontiers in Education, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.835911
Luna, M. L., & Sandhofer, C. M. (2021). Arbitrary but Predictive Cues Support Shifting Attention to Overlooked Features. Journal of Memory and Language, 120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2021.104251
Schonberg, C. C., Russell, E. E., & Luna, M. L. (2019). Effects of Past Language Experience and Present Language Context on the Shape Bias in Spanish-English Bilingual Children. Developmental Science, 23(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12879