Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser

Learning Research and
Development Center (LRDC)

Message from LRDC Director Charles Perfetti


The Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) is home to multidisciplinary research on human learning and education. Our research spans a wide range from the neural bases of learning and memory, through literacy, language, reasoning, and STEM learning, the social and developmental contexts that affect educational attainment and equity, and to large-scale efforts for educational improvement. We are pleased to share some of our research with the University of Pittsburgh community and the wider learning and educational sciences communities through these occasional reports of the LRDC Research News, prepared by Elizabeth Rangel, LRDC Director of Communications.

September 2023

 
research news heading with yellow text and blue backsplash

Early Childhood Influences on Learning in African American Children


Daphne Henry and colleagues explore how early childhood environments can have lasting consequences for children’s achievement through their school years. Summary of article on the LRDC website.

 Early Childhood Influences on Learning in African American Children

Explaining Legalese  with GPT-4


ChatGPT-4’s ability to understand and respond to natural language makes it a powerful tool. Kevin Ashley and his co-authors explore whether GPT-4 can be used to explain legal concepts. Summary of article on the LRDC website.  

 Explaining Legalese with GPT-4

Analyzing Classroom Discussions with ChatGPT


Analyzing discussion quality in a deep and nuanced way in a large number of classrooms is not feasible for most researchers. Read more on how a team of LRDC researchers propose to use ChatGPT to tackle this challenge. Summary on the LRDC website.

 Analyzing Classroom Discussions with ChatGPT
recent news and awards heading with yellow text and blue backsplash.
Young family together

In the News

Positive parenting can help protect against the effects of stress in childhood and adolescence, new study by Jamie Hanson and Isabella Kahhalé shows, featured in The Conversation.
Tim Post plaque

2023 Tim Post Award Recipient

Linsah Coulanges, Developmental Psychology, has received the 2023 Tim Post Award for "Examining Profiles of Children's Screen Time and Associations with Academic Skills." More on the LRDC website.

Tim Post history here.
Yiden Prize symbol

Alum Micki Chi Wins Yidan Prize

LRDC Alum Michelene “Micki” Chi has been awarded the 2023 Yidan Prize for Education Research. The award recognizes her work to help teachers design lessons and activities that engage students. Read more on the website.
LRDC Learning Sciences Video Series artwork

LRDC Learning Sciences Videos

Highlighting the importance of research for improving classroom environments, these exciting new videos aim to improve learning outcomes for all students. 

Watch the videos here. 

Read more about the creation of the series.

Recent Publications


Van Doren, N., Mahlobo, C. T., Galla, B. M., et al. (2023). The role of mindfulness and compassion in early adults’ subsequent mental health, coping and compliance with health guidelines during the Covid-19 pandemic: A prospective longitudinal study. Social and Personality Psychology Compass.

Seider, S., Henry, D. A., Huguley, J., Diaz, B., & Daza, K. (2023). Investigating the relation between youth critical consciousness and academic achievement for BIPOC and White adolescents. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology.

Koch, G. E., & Coutanche, M. N. (2023). Unpacking how Context Reinstatement Aids Memory Using Virtual Reality. Proceedings of the 2023 Annual Meetitng of the Cognitive Science Society.

Afrin, T., & Litman, D. (2023). Learning from auxiliary sources in argumentative revision classification. Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education. 

Su, M., Ha, J., Pérez Cortés, L.E., Bernier, J., Yan, L., Nelson, B., Bowman, J., & Bowman, C. (2023). Museum visitors’ question-asking through a mobile app. Educational Technology Research and Development.

Tan, L. H., Perfetti, C. A., Ziegler, J. C., McCandliss, B. (2023). Editorial: Neural bases of reading acquisition and reading disability. Frontiers in Neuroscience.

Rottman, B. M., Caddick, Z. A., Nokes-Malach, T. J. & Fraundorf, S. (2023). Cognitive perspectives on maintaining physicians’ medical expertise: I. Reimagining Maintenance of Certification to promote lifelong learning. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications.

Schneider, W., Wu, Y., Watson, A., Kedziora, K., Pathak, S., Zhao, Y., et al. (2023). Fasciculus axonal connective tissue multiscale imaging (FACTMI): connectome mapping of optic nerve with 16 µm MRI at 14T and 0.1 µm histology. IISMRM & ISMRT Annual Meeting & Exhibition (ISMRM 2023).

Nelson, T. & Steiner, M.A. (2023). Chapter 15; Where You Stand and Why You Stand There: Cultural Competency as a Lens for Understanding Climate Change in the Minds of Rural Pennsylvania Fairgoers. In Diamond, J., & Rosenfeld, S. (eds.) Amplifying Informal Science Learning: Rethinking Research, Design, and Engagement. Routledge.

Tokowicz, N. (2023). The translation ambiguity disadvantage in language processing. In I. Lacruz (ed.), Translation in Transition: Human and machine intelligence. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

*LRDC researchers' names appear in boldface
University of Pittsburgh