Kathleen Eberhard

Kathleen Eberhard is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame's College of Arts and Letters. Her research specializes in psycholinguistics, bilingualism, and the cognitive mechanisms underlying language production and comprehension. She co-developed the visual world paradigm for studying real-time language processing.

She holds a Ph.D. (1993) and M.A. (1991) in Cognitive Psychology from Michigan State University, and a B.A. (1987) in Psychology from the University of Rochester.

Her research investigates bilingual language acquisition, coordination in dialogue, and syntactic processes in language production. Recent work focuses on how first-language structures influence second-language learning and real-time interaction dynamics.

Her publications predominantly explore psycholinguistics, syntax, and bilingualism, with trends showing increased emphasis on cross-linguistic comparisons and computational modeling of language processes.

She advises numerous graduate and undergraduate students, including Ph.D. candidates and capstone projects. Grant support includes funding from the Office of Naval Research and Notre Dame's Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts.

She directs the Language Lab, which uses eye-tracking and experimental methods to study language comprehension and production in collaborative settings.