Castellana, M.^#, Potter, C.E., & Benitez, V.L. (under review). A triadic model of bilingual shared reading: Contributions of the book, parent, and child in shaping dual language use.

Lee, N., Hernandez Cintron, P., Benitez, V.L., Lucca, K. (accepted). Introduction of a Novel Toy Changes the Contingent Dynamics of Infant-Caregiver Joint Exploration. Developmental Science.

2026

Benitez, V.L. & Potter, C.E. (2026). The promise of bilingual shared reading as a tool for promoting emergent biliteracy. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Advance Online Publication. https://journals.sagepub.com/share/J86RDN5KRUC6SZMBPNFA?target=10.1177/23727322261471417

Kuo, J.E.^#, Li, Y.^#, Yu, C. S.-P., McBeath, M.K., & Benitez, V.L. (2026). The Wham-Womb sound symbolic effect: English-speaking children and adults link phonemes with arousal. Cognition. 75, 106603. 10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106603
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1nF982Hx32zOi

Li, Y.^#, Yu, C. S.-P., McBeath, M.K., & Benitez, V.L. (2026). U.S. English-speaking children and adults exhibit a “Gleam-Glum” sound-symbolic effect linking phonemic vowel sounds with emotional valence. Cognitive Science. 50: e70215. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.70215

Castellana, M.A.^# & Benitez, V.L. (2026). Reconstructing multilingual development research: Shifting from a monolingual bias and toward a developmental systems framework. Behavioral Sciences, 16(3), 473. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16030473

Potter, C.E., Castellana, M.^#, Guerra, M.D., & Benitez, V.L. (2026). The balance of Spanish and English child-directed text in bilingual picture books. The Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 26(1), 138-171.
https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984241257400
(Preprint)(Data & materials)

2025

Castellana, M.^# & Benitez, V.L. (2025). The role of early maternal cultural orientation on Spanish-English child-directed speech and vocabulary knowledge in Mexican-American children. Infancy, 30(2), e70013. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.70013

Li, Y.^# & Benitez, V.L. (2025). Concurrences across time and sensorimotor capacities promote infant learning. Child Development Perspectives, 19(2), 99-107. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12531
(Preprint)

Li, Y.^# & Benitez, V.L. (2025). Probing the role of multilingualism and working memory in cross-situational word learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 51(5), 804-824. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0001361
(Preprint) (Data & materials)

2024

Li, Y.^# & Benitez, V.L. (2024). Lexical tone as a cue in statistical word learning of bilingual input. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 27(5), 886-900. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728923000858
(Open access article) (Preprint) (Data & materials)

Benitez, V.L. & Li, Y.^#  (2024). Cross-situational word learning in children and adults: The case of lexical overlap. Language Learning and Development, 20(3), 195-218. https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2023.2256713
(Preprint) (Data & materials)

2022

Benitez, V.L. & Robison, M.K. (2022). Pupillometry as a window into young children’s sustained attention. Journal of Intelligence, 10(4), https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence10040107 (Paper)(data)

Wojcik, E.H., Zettersten, M., Benitez, V.L. (2022). The map trap: Why and how word learning research should move beyond mapping. WIREs Cognitive Science, 13(4), e1596.

Prather, R., Benitez, V.L., Kendall Brooks, L., Dancy, C.L., Dilworth-Bart, J., Dutra, N.B., Faison, M.O., Figueroa, M., Holden, L.T.R., Johnson, C., Medrano, J., Miller-Cotto, D., Matthews, P.G., Manly, J.J., & Thomas, A.K. (2022). What can cognitive science do for people? Cognitive Science, 46(6), e13167

Clifford, B.N., Tockdale, L.A., Coyne, S.M., Rainey, V., & Benitez, V.L. (2022). Speaking of state of mind: Maternal mental health predicts children’s home language environment and expressive language. Journal of Child Language, 49(3), 469-485.

Benitez, V.L., Castellana, M.^#, & Potter, C. (2022). How many palabras? Codeswitching and lexical diversity in children’s Spanish-English picture books. Languages, 7(1), 69.
(Paper) (data)

2021

Winstone, L.K.^#, Benitez, V.L., Van Huisstede, L.(2021). Patterns of maternal interactive behaviors and dual vocabulary development in low-income Mexican-American children. Developmental Psychology, 57(11), 1866-1879. 

Benitez, V.L., & Saffran, J.R. (2021). Two for the price of one: Concurrent learning of words and phonotactic regularities from continuous speech. PLOS ONE, 16(6), e0253039. (Paper) (data)

McBeath, M. K., S.-P. Yu, C., Barnes, H. , & Benitez, V.L. (2021). Visual-emotional association with vowel phonemes: Support of the gleam-glum effect when paired with visual imagery. Journal of Vision, 21(9), 2126-2126.

2020

Benitez, V.L., Zettersten, M., & Wojcik, E. (2020). The temporal structure of naming events differentially affects children’s and adults’ cross-situational word learning. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 200, 104961. (Preprint, data, and stimuli)

Benitez, V.L.*, Bulgarelli, F.*, Byers-Heinlein, K., Saffran, J.R., & Weiss, D. (2020). Statistical learning of multiple speech streams: A challenge for monolingual infants. Developmental Science, 20(3), e12896. *Equal authorship contribution (Preprint) (Data and stimuli)

2019

Vargas, E.D., & Benitez, V.L. (2019). Latino parents’ links to deportees are associated with developmental disorders in their children. Journal of Community Psychology, 47, 1151-1168.

2018

Benitez, V.L., & Saffran, J.R. (2018). Predictable events enhance word learning in toddlers. Current Biology, 28, 1-7. (link) (Data and stimuli videos)

Zettersten, M., Wojcik, E., Benitez, V.L., & Saffran, J.R. (2018). The company objects keep: Linking referents together during cross-situational word learning. Journal of Memory and Language, 99, 62-73. (link) (Data and materials)

2017

Bulgarelli, F., Benitez, V.L., Saffran, J.R., Byers-Heinlein, K., Weiss, D.J. (2017). Statistical learning of multiple structures by 8-month-old infants. Proceedings of the 41st annual BUCLD, ed. Maria LaMendola and Jennifer Scott, 128-139. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

Benitez, V.L.*, Vales, C.*, Hanania, R., & Smith, L.B. (2017). Sustained selective attention predicts flexible switching in preschoolers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 156, 29-42. (link)

2016

Benitez, V.L., Yurovsky, D., & Smith, L.B. (2016). Competition between multiple words for a referent in cross-situational word learning. Journal of Memory and Language, 90, 31-48, doi: 10.1016/j.jml.2016.03.004 (link)

2015

Morse, A F., Benitez, V.L., Belpaeme, T., Cangelosi, A., & Smith, L.B. (2015). Posture affects how robots and infants map words to objects. PLOS ONE, 10(3): e0116012, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0116012 (link)

2012

Benitez, V.L., & Smith, L.B. (2012) Predictable locations aid early object name learning. Cognition, 125(3), 339-352, doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2012.08.006. (link) 

2011

Yoshida, H., Tran, D.N., Benitez, V., & Kuwabara, M. (2011). Inhibition and adjective learning in bilingual and monolingual children. Frontiers in Developmental Psychology, 2, 1-14. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00210 (link)

2010

Yoshida, H., Tran, D., Benitez, V.L., & Kuwabara, M. (2010). Attentional Control and Early Word Learning. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 32(32).