Dr. Samuelson received a BS with honors from Indiana University in 1993 and a joint PhD in Psychology and Cognitive Science from Indiana University in 2000. She is the recipient of the J.R. Kantor Graduate Award, and in 2010, she received the American Psychological Association (APA) Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology in the area of developmental psychology. Her research examines early word and category learning and incorporates neural network and dynamical systems models. She has had continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health since 2004.