Recent and Ongoing Research Projects

Children’s STEM Learning with Conversational Technologies

This project, headed by Dr. Mark Warschauer and Dr. Ying Xu, and partnered with PBS Kids, investigates the use of conversational agents to support children’s learning during interactive educational television consumption. The end goal of this project is to distribute the conversational videos as publicly accessible content via PBS KIDS platforms to millions of children across the country.

Conversational Agents as Bilingual Reading Partners

To enhance children’s home literacy environments, this project, led by Ying Xu, explores the use of conversational agents to promote language learning through interactive, bilingual English-Spanish storybook reading. Drawing on the principles of dialogic reading, Xu has developed, implemented, and evaluated fully automated smart speaker reading companions that not only narrate stories to children but also engage them in meaningful, open-ended conversations in both languages.

Patterns of Neural Engagement During Reading with AI

This project investigates the neural responses of children during interactions with both AI and human partners. The current study, led by Dr. Chi-Lin Yu of OSU, looks at how children's developing brains process social interactions with both humans and AI, focusing on the differences in neural and behavioral responses. By combining neuroimaging techniques like functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) with naturalistic tasks such as story-listening and real-time verbal interactions, the project aims to uncover the mechanisms underlying children’s social communication in ecologically valid contexts.

Evaluating Automatic Speech Recognition for Young Bilinguals

This project investigates how automatic speech recognition recognizes bilingual speech and what factors drive potential disparities. We are especially interested in how variability in acoustic features of bilingual speech and bilingual language proficiency may influence ASR accuracy.

Understanding AI in K–12 Education Across Latin America

Regional collaboration with Mexico, Panama, and Colombia

This large-scale study investigates how students across Latin America are using and perceiving AI in their everyday learning. The project aims to generate actionable insights to support Ministries of Education in developing inclusive, evidence-based AI integration strategies in schools. My role focuses on survey development, multilingual accessibility, and framing the findings in ways that support ethical and equitable AI adoption in education systems.

Educational Storytelling: The Role of Generative AI in Children's Learning

This research, led By Dr. Ying Xu, aims to explore how large language models (LLMs) and generative AI can impact children's learning. As an initial step, we have launched a study that involves using generative AI to co-create STEM-focused narratives with children. To ensure the AI-generated content is educationally enriching, we experimented with various strategies, including theory-based prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and fine-tuning techniques. These methods help optimize the AI's dialogue output to better support children's educational experiences.

🕰️ Past Research Highlights

  • 2019–2023: Does who you are talking to affect what you remember?

    Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language

    Explored how speaker characteristics affect cognitive processes in attention and memory using behavioral and electrophysiological techniques.

  • 2016–2017: Age-related changes in cognitive and sensory processing

    Indiana University Bloomington

    Investigated links between sensory processing and cognition in aging adults through cognitive batteries and sensory tests.

  • 2014–2017: Phonotactic repairs in L2 learners of English

    Indiana University Bloomington

    Studied the lexical encoding of perceptual epenthetic vowels in English as a second language learners.

  • 2013–2017: Visual perception and chronic cannabis use
    Indiana University Bloomington
    Researched the effects of long-term cannabis use on perceptual, structural, and cognitive processes using EEG and eye tracking data.

📬 Interested in collaborating or learning more about these projects? Contact me to connect.