Justin Lauro, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Justin Lauro, Ph.D. Assistant Professor

Areas of Interest

Dr. Lauro’s research examines the cognitive and psycholinguistic mechanisms that support bilingual word learning and memory. His work focuses on how semantic, linguistic, and episodic contextual factors shape the acquisition, recognition, and real-time processing of newly learned words across two languages. He is particularly interested in how bilinguals form and access lexical–semantic representations, how contextual variability strengthens memory traces, and how cross-language similarity influences learning outcomes.

In addition to his work in bilingualism, Dr. Lauro investigates the effects of episodic specificity induction (ESI) on memory-guided cognition, as well as attentional performance and cognitive advantages in collegiate athletes. Across research programs, he uses experimental methods including eye-tracking, reaction-time paradigms, and memory-based tasks to understand how people learn, store, and retrieve information across contexts and across the lifespan.

Biography

Dr. Lauro is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Barry University. He is a cognitive and psycholinguistic researcher whose work centers on bilingual word learning, contextual variability, episodic retrieval, and attention. His research has been published in leading journals, including Journal of Memory and Language, Neuropsychologia, Child Development, Journal of Learning and Instruction, and Education Sciences.

Prior to joining Barry University in 2020, Dr. Lauro completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Florida Atlantic University, where he examined developmental trajectories in bilingual language acquisition. He also collaborates on projects investigating cognitive performance in athletes, the effects of cognitive training, and the role of episodic specificity induction in attention and memory.

Dr. Lauro teaches courses in cognitive psychology, research methods, and physiological psychology, and is actively involved in mentoring undergraduate and graduate researchers.

Selected Publications

Bilingualism, Language Processing and Novel Word Learning

Lauro, J., Toassi, P. F. P. (under review). Cross-language contextual variation enhances lexical processing: Evidence from eye-tracking during bilingual novel word learning.

Lauro, J., Toassi, P. F. P., & Arêas da Luz Fontes, A. B. (2025). Bilingual Word Learning: Recognizing novel words in context. Journal of Learning and Instruction, 100, 102230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2025.102230

Lauro, J., & Toassi, P. F. P. (2025). Bilingual Contextual Variability: Learning Words in Two Languages. Education Sciences, 15(9), 1264. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15091264

Toassi, P. F. P., & Lauro, J. (2024). Experimental studies on bilingualism and language learning. Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of English Language Literatures in English and Cultural Studies, 76(3), 11-15. 10.5007/2175-8026.2023.e97342

Toassi, P. F. P., Lauro, J., da Silva Gadelha, L. M., & Carthery-Goulart, M. T. (2023). Effect of interlingual homographs and word frequency on bilingual lexical access. Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of English Language Literatures in English and Cultural Studies, 76(3), 67-91. https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2023.e94613

Lauro, J., Core, C., & Hoff, E. (2020). Explaining Individual Differences in Trajectories of Simultaneous Bilingual Development: Contributions of Child and Environmental Factors. Child Development, 91, 2063-2082. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13409

Lauro, J., Schwartz, A. I., & Francis, W. S. (2020). Bilingual novel word learning in sentence contexts: Effects of semantic and language variation. Journal of Memory and Language, 113, 104123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2020.104123

Lauro, J., & Schwartz, A. I. (2019). Cognate effects on anaphor processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 45(3), 381–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000601

Hoff, E., Giguere, D., Quinn, J., & Lauro, J. (2018). The Development of English and Spanish Among Children in Immigrant Families in the United States. Pensamiento Educativo: Revista de Investigación Educacional Latinoamericana, 55(2), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.7764/PEL.55.2.2018.1

Lauro, J., & Schwartz, A. I. (2017). Bilingual non-selective lexical access in sentence contexts: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Memory and Language, 92, 217–233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2016.06.010

Cognitive Training and Attentional Processing

Lauro, J., Papadakis, Z. (under review). The impact of Episodic Specificity Induction on Attentional Processes in DII college athletes.

Lauro, J., Papadakis, Z., & Williams, N. (in press). Attentional Processing in Athletes and Non-Athletes. Sport Sciences for Health.

Lauro, J. (2024). The effect of episodic specificity inductions on cognitive tasks involving episodic retrieval: A quantitative review. Neuropsychologia, 198C. 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.108884

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