9:00 – 10:30 AM | Rethinking Difficulty: Cognitive Challenges Support Children’s Language Development

Haley Vlach, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and director of the Learning, Cognition, & Development (LCD) Lab. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research is on children’s learning and cognitive development. For more information about Haley Vlach’s research, visit the LCD Lab website: Learning, Cognition, & Development Lab Her research examine the mechanisms underlying children’s learning in order to (1) understand cognition and how cognition develops, and (2) build an empirical base for the design of successful educational and health interventions. Her work spans the following cognitive and developmental processes: memory, memory development, word and category learning, concept learning, conceptual development, inductive learning, and generalization/transfer of learning. A central focus is connecting more traditional psychological research to applied settings, such as the design of cognitive interventions and concept learning in the classroom. For more information, please see her lab website: Learning, Cognition, & Development Lab https://edpsych.education.wisc.edu/staff/vlach-haley/