Rachel Albert

Dr. Rachel Albert is an associate professor of psychology at Lebanon Valley College and the director of the LVC Baby Lab. She received her Ph.D. in child development from Cornell University and specializes in infant language learning. She studies when and how parents react to infant vocalizations and how infants learn from those reactions. At LVC, Dr. Albert is the faculty advisor of the Psychology Club and Psi Chi International Honor Society.

Publications:

• Zhang, V., Elmlinger, S., Albert, R. R., & Goldstein, M. H. (2024). Caregiver reactions to babbling organize turn-taking interactions: Facilitative effects of vocal versus non-vocal responses. Infancy, 1-24.
• Vallotton, C.D. & Albert, R. (2024). Infants’ contributions to prelinguistic conversations drive language learning. In J.D. Osofsky, H.E. Fitzgerald, M. Keren & K. Puura (eds).  WAIMH Handbook of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. Springer, Cham. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-48627-2_5
• Albert, R. R., Ernst, M., & Vallotton, C. D. (2023). Infant vocalizations elicit simplified speech in childcare. Infancy, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12520
• Albert, R. R. (2021). Teacher talk: Infant vocal cues affect non-lead infant teachers’ responding. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 55, 326-335. https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1cSI-39HNKaTLS
• Albert, R. R., Schwade, J. A., & Goldstein, M. H. (2018). The social functions of babbling: Acoustic and contextual characteristics that facilitate maternal responsiveness. Developmental Science. e12641. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/desc.12641/full

Presentations:

• Crespo, L. ’25, Dintiman, S. ’25, Rjepaj, E. ’28, Wasko, A. ’25, & Albert, R. R., (March, 2025). Does Infant Gaze Influence Inexperienced Caregivers’ Perceptions of Infant Vocalizations? Poster presented at the Eastern Psychological Association’s annual meeting, New York, NY.
• Albert, R. R., Crespo, L. ’25, Dintiman, S. ’25, Wasko, A. ’25, Sweller, N. & Degotardi, S. (March, 2025). Factors Impacting Conversational-Turn-Taking in Infant-Toddler Classrooms. Poster presented at the Eastern Psychological Association’s annual meeting, New York, NY.
• Casella, R., Hartsock, J., & Albert, R.R. (March, 2024). Are Your Eyes Telling Lies? Investigating the believability of AI-generated images of children. Poster presented at the Eastern Psychological Association’s annual meeting, Philadelphia, Pa.
• Hartsock, J., Casella, R., Geary, M. & Albert, R.R. (March, 2024). Do infants’ eyes influence mothers’ ears when interpreting infant vocalizations?  Poster presented  at the Eastern Psychological Association’s annual meeting, Philadelphia, Pa.

Media Coverage:

• Baby Talk, National Public Radio’s Hidden Brain Podcast. https://www.npr.org/2018/05/14/610796636/baby-talk-decoding-the-secret-language-of-babies
• Lebanon Valley College researching how babies learn to talk, WGAL News 8. www.wgal.com/article/lebanon-valley-college-research-how-babies-learn-to-talk/42742802
• Researchers learn the social functions of babies’ babbling, Cornell Chronicle. http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2018/01/researchers-learn-social-function-babies-babbling
• Unlock the Learning Power of Baby Babbling, Scientific American. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/unlock-the-learning-power-of-baby-babbling
• Babies’ Babbling Shapes Social Interactions, Psych Central.
• Student-Faculty Psychology Research Happening in LVC Baby Lab, LVC. https://www.lvc.edu/news/student-faculty-psychology-research-happening-in-lvc-baby-lab/
• Using Multi-Camera to Investigate How Infants Learn to Talk, Swivl Blog. https://www.swivl.com/2017/09/05/using-multi-camera-to-investigate-how-infants-learn-to-talk-by-rachel-albert/
• Students track responses of mothers, ‘others’, UWSP COLS Newsletter. https://www.uwsp.edu/cols/Pages/Reports/Mothers-Versus-Others.aspx

• General Psychology (PSY 110)
• Research Methods in Psychology (PSY 211)
• Lifespan Development (PSY 220)
• Developmental Psychology (PSY 238)
• Analytical Seminar: Human Development. (PSY 320)
• Senior Seminar (PSY 430)
• First-Year Seminar: Crib to College
• Connective Seminar: Myths of Memory