Early language abilities are one of the best predictors of later cognitive outcomes. For example, toddlers with larger vocabularies are likely to become children who do better in school, better control their behavior, and have better social skills - outcomes which likely will carry on into adulthood. Although these predictive links are well documented, the mechanisms by which language facilitates cognitive development remain unclear. Using well-controlled laboratory experiments, intervention studies, and observational methods my research aims to better understand how language influences cognition. Specifically, my research examines (1) how language influences other cognitive abilities in early childhood, (2) the consequences of individual differences in language to learning and development, and (3) the development of basic cognitive abilities.

How does language influence other cognitive abilities?
My research shows that language can help children hone in on the relevant sources of information by bringing to mind knowledge about the entities to which words refer. Learning and development happen in the real world, which offers many sources of information. By helping children focus on the information that matters - at home, in school, in social settings - words can be a potent driver of learning.

Relevant publications:
Vales & Smith, 2015, Dev. Sci. [pdf]
Vales & Smith, in press, JECP [pre-print]
Vales & Smith, 2017, Cog. Sci. Proc. [pdf]
Vales, Unger, & Fisher, 2017, Cog. Sci. Proc. [pdf]

What are the consequences of individual differences in language to learning and development?
One important consequence of my findings that words help children focus on and process relevant information is that, for children with weaker linguistic abilities, words may not activate prior knowledge as strongly as they do for children with more advanced language skills. Consistent with this idea, I have shown that children with larger vocabularies can take advantage of words to identify a target in clutter, but children with smaller vocabularies do not benefit from labeled targets. These individual differences might also influence how children learn new information, a hypothesis that I am currently investigating.
 
Relevant publications:
Vales, States, & Fisher, 2018, Cog. Sci. Proc. [pdf]
Vales & Fisher, 2018, Cog. Sci. Proc. [poster]

Some of this research is done in collaboration with the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

How do children learn to selectively attend?
We know from prior research that over the first years of life children become much better at ignoring irrelevant information – an important ability to learn in the real world. My research examines the basic processes by which children learn to attend to what matters in the presence of irrelevant information. I have shown that the ability to sustain attention on an item in the presence of irrelevant information is composed of both the ability to maintain information active in order to focus on the task at hand, and the ability to inhibit processing of irrelevant information. Further, individual differences in the ability to focus on the relevant sources of information for the task at hand predict children’s ability to use that information in order to adjust their behavior when the goals of the task change.

Relevant publications:
Benitez, Vales, Hanania, & Smith, 2017, JECP [pdf]
Some of the amazing people with whom I collaborate:

Linda Smith, Indiana University
Anna Fisher, Carnegie Mellon University
Viridiana Benitez, Arizona State University
Rima Hanania, Indiana University
Caitlin Fausey, University of Oregon
Paulo Carvalho, Carnegie Mellon University
Karrie Godwin, Kent State University
Layla Unger, Ohio State University
Patience Stevens, Carnegie Mellon University