Viridiana L. Benitez, Ph.D.

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University and direct the Learning & Development Lab. I also co-founded the Early Childhood Cognition Research Group at ASU.

My research focuses on understanding how cognition, context, and experience shape language learning across development. I study this question by working with infants, children, and adults from monolingual and multilingual backgrounds using experimental and observational methods. The ultimate goal of my research is to identify the factors that support language learning in order to promote the success of children growing up across diverse learning environments.

As a bilingual first generation student from an immigrant household, I am also dedicated to expanding access to psychological science for students, families, and communities.