Makeba Parramore Wilbourn, Assistant Professor

Makeba Parramore Wilbourn

Assistant Professor
PhD, Cornell University, 2008
mailing address: 9 Flowers Drive Durham, NC 27708
office: 208 Sociology-Psychology Building
lab: wild@duke.edu email:
phone: (919) 660-5795

research interests | publications | lab web site | curriculum vita

Research Summary:
 In general, my research examines the relation between gesture, thought, and language in early development. Theoretically, my work provides insight into the nature of the mechanisms underlying language acquisition and how these mechanisms change (or don't change) as a function of the modality of input. Throughout development, gesture and language are tightly coupled and infants' early gestures provide significant insights into their cognitive abilities and subsequent language development. In addition, a manually communicated language like ASL, has been routinely used to augment and enhance the language acquisition of both typical and atypical populations (e.g., prelingual infants, autistic, language-delayed). My research explores how gestures and visual-gestural languages exert their influence on infants' and toddlers' perceptual, cognitive, and language abilities and the developmental trajectory of these abilities as a result of this type of input.

Representative Publications:   (More Publications)

  1. Wilbourn, M.P., & Casasola, M. (in revision) (2009). Developmental changes in infants’ association of gestures versus words with objects: Evidence of general to specific processing.  [abs]
  2. Wilbourn, M.P., & Casasola, M. (in prep). (2009). Six-month-olds’ ability to discriminate among one-handed American Sign Language signs: Are all parameters created equal?.
  3. Wilbourn, M.P., & Casasola, M. (2007). Discriminating signs: Perceptual precursors to the acquisition of a visual-gestural language. Infant Behavior and Development, 30, 153-160.  [abs]
  4. Casasola, M., Wilbourn, M.P., & Yang, S. (2006). Can English-learning toddlers acquire and generalize a novel spatial word?. First Language, 26, 187-205.
  5. Casasola, M., & Wilbourn, M.P. (2004). Fourteen-month-old infants form novel word-spatial relation associations. Infancy, 6, 385-396.
  6. Wilbourn, M.P., Gottfried, A.W., & Kee, D.W. (under review) (2009). Consistency of Hand Preference During the Early Years: Long-Term Relationship to Verbal Intelligence and Reading Achievement in Females.

Lab Personnel: 
Laura Kurtz - Lab Coordinator - lk71@duke.edu Vrinda Kalia - Postdoctoral Associate - vk27@duke.edu