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Caroline Hornburg

Caroline Hornburg, Assistant Professor

Caroline Hornburg, Assistant Professor
Caroline Hornburg, Assistant Professor
Curriculum Vitae

Learning and Development Lab

Department of Human Development and Family Science
401-A Wallace Hall
295 West Campus Drive
Blacksburg, VA 24061
540-231-2664 | chornburg@vt.edu

Caroline Byrd Hornburg is an assistant professor of Human Development and Family Science at Virginia Tech, and director of the Learning and Development Lab. She has published in top-tier academic journals such as Child Development, Journal of Educational Psychology, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, and Learning and Individual Differences. Her research program focuses on children’s learning, primarily in the domain of mathematics, from PreK to 6th grade. She focuses on skills that are foundational for understanding of later math concepts, as data on early skills can provide insight into identification of children at risk for later difficulties. Her research also provides a framework for optimal design of interventions to improve children’s understanding. Hornburg’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Society for Research in Child Development. Recently, she was awarded an AERA-SRCD Early Career Fellowship in Middle Childhood Education and Development (2019-2021). Hornburg received her doctorate and master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Notre Dame and her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Accepting new grad students: Yes; Research team; can serve on student committees
In need of students for research team: Yes
Name of research team: Learning and Development Lab

  • Cognitive Development
  • Learning Sciences
  • Mathematical Cognition
  • Educational Psychology
  • Child Development
  • PhD in Psychology, University of Notre Dame, 2017
  • MA in Psychology, University of Notre Dame, 2014
  • BS in Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2011
  • Member, Association for Women in Science
  • Member, Cognitive Development Society
  • Member, International Mind, Brain, and Education Society
  • Member, Providing Opportunities for Women in Education Research (POWER)
  • Member, Psi Chi International Honor Society
  • Member, Psychonomic Society
  • Member, Society for Research in Child Development
  • Member, Women in Cognitive Science
  • AERA-SRCD Early Career Fellowship in Middle Childhood Education and Development, 2019
  • Society for Research in Child Development Dissertation Award, 2016
  • Finalist, University of Notre Dame Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition, 2016
  • Psi Chi Graduate Student Research Grant, 2014 
  • University of Notre Dame Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts Research Award, 2013
  • National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2013

Journal Articles

McNeil, N. M., Hornburg, C. B., Brletic-Shipley, H., & Matthews, J. M. (2019). Improving children’s understanding of mathematical equivalence via an intervention that goes beyond nontraditional arithmetic practice. Journal of Educational Psychology, 111, 1023-1044. doi.org/10.1037/edu0000337

McNeil, N. M., Hornburg, C. B., Devlin, B. L., Carrazza, C., & McKeever, M. O. (2019). Consequences of individual differences in children’s formal understanding of mathematical equivalence. Child Development, 90, 940-956. doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12948

Gaylord, S. M., O’Rear, C. D., Hornburg, C. B., & McNeil, N. M. (2018). Preferences for tactile and narrative counting books across parents with different education levels. Early Childhood Research Quarterly. Advance online publication. doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.07.010

Hornburg, C. B., Schmitt, S. A., & Purpura, D. J. (2018). Relations between preschoolers’ mathematical language understanding and specific numeracy skills. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 176, 84-100. doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2018.07.005

Hornburg, C. B., Wang, L., & McNeil, N. M. (2018). Comparing meta-analysis and individual person data analysis using raw data on children’s understanding of equivalence. Child Development, 89, 1983-1995. doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13058

Hornburg, C. B., Rieber, M. L., & McNeil, N. M. (2017). An integrative data analysis of gender differences in children’s understanding of mathematical equivalence. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 163, 140-150. doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.06.002

Fuhs, M. W., Hornburg, C. B., & McNeil, N. M. (2016). Specific early number skills mediate the association between executive functioning skills and mathematics achievement. Developmental Psychology, 52, 1217-1235. doi.org/10.1037/dev0000145

Byrd, C. E., McNeil, N. M., Chesney, D. L., & Matthews, P. G. (2015). A specific misconception of the equal sign acts as a barrier to children’s learning of early algebra. Learning and Individual Differences, 38, 61-67. doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2015.01.001

Chesney, D. L., McNeil, N. M., Matthews, P. G., Byrd, C. E., Petersen, L. A., Wheeler, M. C., Fyfe, E. M., & Dunwiddie, A. E. (2014). Organization matters: Mental organization of addition knowledge relates to understanding math equivalence in symbolic form. Cognitive Development, 30, 30-46. doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2014.01.001

Book Chapters & Refereed Publications in Proceedings

Johannes, K., Davenport, J., Kao, Y., Hornburg, C. B., & McNeil, N. M. (2017). Promoting children’s relational understanding of equivalence. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 600-605). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [link]

McNeil, N. M., Hornburg, C. B., Fuhs, M. W., & O’Rear, C. D. (2017). Understanding children’s difficulties with mathematical equivalence. In D. C. Geary, D. B. Berch, R. Ochsendorf, & K. Mann Koepke (Eds.), Mathematical cognition and learning (Vol. 3, pp. 167-195). San Diego, CA: Elsevier Academic Press. doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-805086-6.00008-4

Byrd, C. E., McNeil, N. M., D’Mello, S. K, & Cook, S. W. (2014). Gesturing may not always make learning last. In P. Bello, M. Guarini, M. McShane, & B. Scassellati (Eds.) Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1982-1987). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [link]

 

  • HD 1004: Human Development I (Fall 2019)

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