Journal Articles
Casasola, M. & Wilbourn, M.P. (2004). Fourteen-month-old infants form novel word-spatial relation associations. Infancy 6, 385-396.
Casasola, M., Wilbourn, M.P., & Yang, S. (2006). Can English-learning toddlers acquire and generalize a novel spatial word? First Language, 26, 187-205.
Kalia, V., Daneri, M.P., & Wilbourn, M.P. (2017). Relations between vocabulary and executive functions in Spanish-English dual language learners. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
Kalia, V., Lane, P.D., Wilbourn, M.P. (2018). Cognitive control and phonological awareness in the acquisition of second language vocabulary within the Spanish-English dual immersion context. Cognitive Development.
Kalia, V., Wilbourn, M.P., & Mitchell, C. (2013). Cultural differences in narratives and reading achievement in African American children. Proceedings of the Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD) 37.
Kalia, V., Wilbourn, M.P., Ghio, K.. (2014). 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
Kuhn, L.J., Willoughby, M.T., Wilbourn, M.P., Vernon-Feagans, L., Blair, C.B., & the Family Life Project Investigations. (in press). Early communicative gestures and language development prospectively predict executive function. Child Development
Lucca, K., Wilbourn, M.P. (2016). Communicating to Learn: Infants’ Pointing Gestures Result in Optimal Learning. Child Development. DOI:10.1111/cdev.12707
Lucca, K.R., & Wilbourn, M.P. (under review). The What and the How: Infants’ information-seeking pointing gestures facilitate learning object labels and functions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Robertson, S.R., Watamura, S.E., & Wilbourn, M.P. (2012). Attentional dynamics of infant visual foraging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 109, 11460-11464.
Ruba, A. L., Johnson, K.M., & Harris, L.T., & Wilbourn, M.P. (2017). Developmental changes in infants’ ability to process anger and disgust emotional expressions. Developmental Psychology.
Ruba, A. L., Wilbourn, M.P., Ulrich, D.M., & Harris, L.T. (2017). Constructing emotion categorization: Insights from Developmental Psychology applied to a young adult sample. Emotion.
Ruba, A.L., Harris, L.T. & Wilbourn, M.P. Examining Preverbal Infants’ Ability to Map Labels to Facial Configurations. Affec Sci.
Ruba, A.L., McMurtry, R., Gaither, S.E. et al. How White American Children Develop Racial Biases in Emotion Reasoning. Affec Sci 3, 21–33 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-022-00111-y
Wilbourn, M.P, & Kee, D.W. (2010). Henry the Nurse is a Doctor Too: Implicitly Examining Children’s Gender Stereotypes for Male and Female Occupational Roles. Sex Roles, 62, 670-683.
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.
Wilbourn, M.P., & *Sims, J.P. (2013). Multimodal input facilitates 26-month-olds’ ability to learn symbolic gestures as labels. Journal of Cognition and Development. *student co-author
Wilbourn, M.P., Gottfried, A.W., & Kee, D.W. (2011). Consistency of Hand Preference During the Early Years: Long-Term Relationship to Verbal Intelligence and Reading Achievement in Females. Developmental Psychology, 47, 931-942.
Wilbourn, M.P., Kurtz, L.E., & Kalia, V. (2011). The Lexical Stroop Sort task: A computerized task exploring the relationship between language and executive functioning in school-aged children. Behavior Research Methods, 44, 270-286.
Book Chapters & Conference Proceedings
Gottfried, A.W., Gottfried, A.E., Bathurst, K., Guerin, D.W., & Parramore, M. (2003). Socioeconomic status in children’s development and family environment: Infancy through adolescence. In M. Bornstein & R. Bradley (Eds.), Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child development. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hersberger, S., Marcoulides, G., & Parramore, M. (2002). Introduction to structural equation modeling techniques. In Pugesek, B., Tomer, A., von Eye, A. (Eds.), Structural equation modeling: Applications in ecological and evolutionary research. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Manuscripts Under Review
Kalia, V., Lane, P.D., Wilbourn, M.P. (under review). Role of Cognitive Control and Phonological Awareness in Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition in Spanish-English Dual Immersion Context Cognitive Development.
Kuhn, L.J., Willoughby, M.T., Vernon-Feagans, L., Wilbourn, M.P., Clair, C.B., & the Family Life Project Investigations. (under review). Early symbolic gestures and language development prospectively predict executive function at 4 years of age. Child Development.
Wilbourn, M.P., & Casasola, M. (invited revision under review). The upper hand: Infants’ ability to discriminate between the parameters of American Sign Language one-handed signs.
Kalia, V., Wilbourn, M.P., & *Ghio, K. (under review). Age of second language acquisition and language proficiency interactively influence bilinguals’ cognition. *student co-author
Kalia, V., & Wilbourn, M.P. (under review). Changing frames of reference: Language impacts cognition and memory in Indian bilinguals. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology
Manuscripts in Preparation / In Revision
Wilbourn, M.P., Lucca, K.R., Anderson, L.C., Johnson, K.J., & Mechanik, M.M. (in preparation). To abide or override? A multi-method exploration of 18-month-olds’ reliance on the mutual exclusivity bias with words and gestures.
Wilbourn, M.P., Ruba, A., Johnson, K.M., & Harris, L. (in preparation). Put on a “happy” face: Developmental changes in infants’ ability map labels to emotion facial expressions.
Wilbourn, M.P., Kalia, V., & Seward, M. (in preparation). Perceiving in black and white: African Americans and Whites differ in their perceptions of storytellers based on race, gender, and gesture.
Wilbourn, M.P., Kalia, V., Lane, P.D., & Seward, M. (in preparation). “Talking Black”: The role of African American English on African American children’s academic vocabulary development and achievement motivation.
Wilbourn, M.P., & Casasola, M. (in revision). Hand me a cue: Developmental changes in infants’ ability to learn label-object relations.
Kalia, V., & Wilbourn, M.P. (in revision). Lost in translation: Indian bilinguals switch cultural frames during storytelling. Qualitative Psychology.
Kalia, V., Johnson, K.J., & Wilbourn, M.P. (in revision). From the inside out: Maternal talk about discrete emotions during book reading with toddlers. First Language.
Wilbourn, M.P., Kalia, V., *Daneri, M.P., & *Valdes Martinez, M.L. (in preparation). Exploring the development of executive functioning in emerging bilinguals. *student co-authors
Wilbourn, M.P., Kuhn, L.J., Vernon-Feagans, L., *Sims, J.P., & *Johnson, K.M. (in preparation). The role of race and socioeconomic status on infants’ early gesture use and later language development: Implications for the black and white achievement gap? *student co-author
Wilbourn, M.P., & Kalia, V. (in preparation). Filling in the gaps: Gesture use facilitates memory in monolinguals and bilinguals in a storytelling task.
Wilbourn, M.P., Kuhn, L.J., Vernon-Feagans, L., *Sims, J.P., *Johnson, K., Lucca, K., Willoughby, M., & the Family Life Project Investigators (in preparation). A longitudinal examination of the role of race and income on infants’ early gesture use and later language development.
Wilbourn, M.P., *Johnson, K.M., *Lucca, K.R., *Mechanik, M.M., &*Anderson, L.C. (in preparation). To abide or override? A multi-method exploration of 18-month-olds’ reliance on the mutual exclusivity bias with words and gestures.
Wilbourn, M.P., Ruba, A., Johnson, K.M., Johnson, R., & Harris, L. (in preparation). Anger needs no introduction: Exploring 18-month-olds’ ability to discriminate and categorize anger vs. disgust facial expressions.
Wilbourn, M.P., & Casasola, M. (in revision). The upper hand: Infants’ ability to discriminate between the parameters of American Sign Language one-handed signs.
Media
2023 Featured Article, Makeba Wilbourn is Helping Students Find Their Voice
2022 Featured Article, Innovation to Promote Early Childhood Service Access and Well-Being
2017 Featured Guest, The Art and Science of Code-Switching: Meet Makeba Wilbourn aired on February, 24, 2017 North Carolina National Public Radio, State of Things radio show
2017 Featured Article, Alumna Earns Presidential Early Career Award, CSU Fullerton News Service.
2017 Featured Article, Duke Developmental Psychologist Wins Award from President Obama, Discusses Her Research, The Chronicle.
2015 Featured Guest, Dan Ariely’s Arming the Donkeys, podcast featured on iTunes U.
2013 Collaboration Featured, SI College Athlete of the Year nominee: Duke’s Tyler Thornton, Sports Illustrated.com (5/9/13)
2013 Guest Blogger, Ty’s New Friends, Duke Blue Planet (1/15/13)
2012 Featured Article, Psychology Undergraduates Study How Young Children Learn to Label Emotions – Duke Today (12/21/12)
2012 Featured Article, They Want to Learn, They Want to Achieve – Duke Today (12/5/12)
2012 Invited Guest, Debating Dual Language Immersion Programs aired on May 16, 2012 North Carolina National Public Radio, State of Things radio show (5/16/12)
