Campus Directory

---

Biography

LaTreese Hall, Ph.D., is an interdisciplinary researcher in psychology with a focus on developmental science and education. She earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Central Michigan University, followed by a master's degree in interdisciplinary studies (psychology and education focus, awarded with high distinction) from Liberty University. She went on to earn both a master's degree in psychology and a doctoral degree in psychology with a specialization in developmental science from Florida International University. 

Research 

Hall's research bridges psychology and education, with current projects examining gamified approaches to teaching, parent–child communication, and the design of tools to support healthy adolescent development. She is the principal investigator of the Gamification, Learning, and Development Lab (GLAD Lab), where she mentors students in research and fosters opportunities for collaboration. She teaches gamified and project-based courses that engage students as active participants in their own learning.

---

---

---

Presentations/Publications/Productions

*Supervised Undergraduate Researcher 

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles 

Hall, L. V., *Rengel, M., *Bowley, H., Alvarez-Vargas, D., Abad, C., *Overton, D., & Pruden, S. M. (under review). Parent math talk during play: The role of social interaction quality.  

Hall, L. V., *Rengel, M., *Bowley, H., Alvarez-Vargas, D., Abad, C., *Overton, D., & Pruden, S. M. (under review). Parent social behaviors and math talk: Does mental rotation ability play a role? 

Rodriguez, K. A., Mattox, N., Desme, C., Hall, L. V., Wu, Y., & Pruden, S. M. (2024). Harnessing technology to measure individual differences in spatial thinking in early childhood from a relational developmental systems perspective. Advances in Child Development and Behavior. 

Hall, L. V., *Rengel, M., *Bowley, H., Alvarez-Vargas, D., Abad, C., *Overton, D., & Pruden, S. M. (2023). “You did a great job building that!” Links between parent–child prosocial talk and spatial language. Developmental Psychology, 59 (9), 1676.  

Cipra, A. & Hall, L.V. (2019). COREMatters: A bullying intervention pilot study. Research in Middle Level Education, 42 (4), 1-13.  

Hall, L. (2019). The authentic athletic-academic model: An interdisciplinary approach to educate and empower alternative high school students. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education, 7 (2), 38-54.

Book Chapters and Encyclopedia Entries 

Hall, L. V., Mattox, N., Pruden, S. M. (in press). LENA Technology. International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 3rd Edition.

Presentations and Conference Proceedings 

*Olivares, G., *Romano, T., *Perez, L., *Ochoa, G., *Castro, G., *Boateng, E., Hall, L.V. (2025, April). Gamified Math Apps for Preschoolers: A Literature Review [Poster]. The 57th Annual Associated Colleges of the Chicago Area Student Scholarship Symposium at Lewis University. Romeoville, Ill. 

Hall, L. V. (2025, August). Gamification Strategies for F2F and Online Courses [Professional Development]. Saint Xavier University Technology Day, Chicago, Ill. 

Hall, L. V. (2025, April). Level Up: Boosting Student Engagement with Gamified Courses [Professional Development]. The 97th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association. Chicago, Ill. 

Hall, L. V. (2024, November). The Game Changer: Leveraging Gamification to Increase Classroom Attendance and Involvement [Professional Development]. 2024 Associated Colleges of the Chicago Area Scholarship of Pedagogy Symposium at Judson University. Elgin, Ill. 

Hall, L. V., *Rengel, M., *Bowley, H., Alvarez-Vargas, D., Abad, C., *Overton, D., Pruden, S. M. (2024, October). Adult Math Talk: Social Behaviors and Task Differences [Poster]. The 2024 National Assembly for Family Engagement in Education. Denver, Colo. 

Hall, L. V., *Rengel, M., *Bowley, H., Alvarez-Vargas, D., Abad, C., *Overton, D., Pruden, S. M. (2023, November). Parents’ Mental Rotation Abilities Predict Verbal Negations During Spatially Demanding Task [Poster]. The 64th Psychonomic Society annual meeting. San Fransisco, Calif.

Hall, L. V., *Rengel, M., *Bowley, H., Alvarez-Vargas, D., Abad, C., *Overton, D., Pruden, S. M. (2023, September). Links Between Parents’ Mental Rotation Abilities and Social Behaviors [Research Talk]. The Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development 2nd International Workshop on Naturalistic Experimentation of Child Development Travel Funding, Birkbeck University of London. 

*Overton, D., Hall, L. V., *Rengel, M., *Bowley, H., Alvarez-Vargas, D., Abad, C., Pruden, S. M. (2022, April). Parent and child math language and relations to child spatial ability [Poster]. Cognitive Development Society conference. Madison, Wis. 

Hall, L. V., *Rengel, M., *Bowley, H., Alvarez-Vargas, D., Abad, C., *Overton, D., Pruden, S. M. (2022, April). Diversity and quantity of parent-child spatial talk: The roles of prosocial talk and negative talk [Poster]. Cognitive Development Society conference. Madison, Wis. 

Hall, L. V., *Rengel, M., *Bowley, H., *Overton, D., Alvarez-Vargas, D., Abad, C., Pruden, S. M. (2022, February). Variability in parent and child prosocial talk during collaborative block building predicts quantity of spatial language production. [Virtual Poster and Flash Talk]. Society for the Study of Human Development Conference Series. 

Hall, L. V., *Rengel, M., *Bowley, H., *Hernandez, D., *Giles, L., Pruden, S. M. (2021, April). A Novel Approach for Spatial Language Analysis: A Supervised Machine Learning Algorithm [Flash Paper Talk]. Society for Research in Child Development Virtual Conference.  

Hall, L. V., *Montogomery, A., Alvarez-Vargas, D., Abad, C., & Pruden, S.M. (2020, July). Individual differences in children’s spatial abilities: Role of parent-child spatial language and parent spatial ability [Poster]. International Congress of Infant Studies Conference, Glasgow, Scotland, U.K. https://infantstudies.org/congress-2020/

Cipra, A. & Hall, L. V. (2019, April). A Bullying Intervention Pilot Study [Paper Talk]. Midwestern Psychological Association Conference, Chicago, IL.

Open Science Publications 

Garcia, N. L., Hall, L. V., & Pruden, S. M. (2021, August 30). Individual Differences in Young Children’s Spatial Ability: A Systematic Review. 

Media Coverage 

SXU Psychology Department Program Highlights Video (2025) 

Interactive language during playtime helps build kids’ spatial skills (2023)

Developmental benefits of playing with Legos (2022)

ABCs to Ph.D. (2020)  

Community Outreach Publications 

Hall, L.V. (2021, July 30). Teaching Kids Spatial Intelligence. Metro Parent.