[email protected]

Los Angeles, CA

I am a Research Scientist at McD Tech Labs working to develop artificial systems that communicate using natural language.

Before working at Tech Labs, I was a Postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Communications at the University of California, Los Angeles where I worked with Anne S. Warlaumont in the Emergence of Communication Lab. I completed my PhD at Stanford University, working with Michael Frank in the Language and Cognition Lab and with Anne Fernald and Virginia Marchman in the Language Learning Lab.

Representative publications:

  • MacDonald, K., Marchman V.A., Fernald, A., & Frank, M.C. (under review). Children flexibly seek visual information during signed and spoken language comprehension. [Preprint PDF] [code repository]

  • MacDonald, K. LaMarr, T., Corina, D., Marchman V.A., & Fernald, A. (2018). Real-time lexical comprehension in young children learning American Sign Language. Developmental Science [PDF] [Preprint PDF] [paper site] [code repository]

  • MacDonald, K., Yurovsky, D., & Frank, M.C. (2017). Social cues modulate the representations underlying cross-situational learning. Cognitive Psychology. 94, 67–84. [Preprint PDF] [code repository] [paper site]

  • MacDonald, K., Schug, M., Chase, E. & Barth, H. (2013). My people, right or wrong? Minimal group membership disrupts children’s selective trust in testimony. Cognitive Development, 28, 247-259. [PDF]