Sandra R. Waxman, Ph.D.

Erin Leddon

Email: e-mcmahon@northwestern.edu

Erin is in her second year as a postdoctoral researcher.  In addition to the Project on Child Development, she works on the Cross-Culture Project with Professors Doug Medin and Sandy Waxman.  Erin received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from Northwestern in 2006, where she studied language acquisition and the syntax-semantics interface.  Her current work focuses on conceptual development and how it may be influenced by language.  In one line of research, she examines children’s development of knowledge about the natural world, across different cultures and language communities.  In another line of research, she focuses on word learning and its links to conceptual development. 

Sudha Arunachalam

Email: S-arunachalam@northwestern.edu

Sudha is a post-doc researching how 2-year-olds learn new verbs. She got her PhD in Linguistics in 2007 from the University of Pennsylvania, where she investigated how adults and children map events in the world to new verbs, and how the syntax and Semantics of these verbs are represented in the mental lexicon.

Marian Chen

Email: marian-chen@northwestern.edu

Marian is a first year post-doctoral research associate studying verb learning in young children. Before joining the Project on Child Development, she earned her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at Rutgers University, where her research focused on infants' number representations, and her B.A. in Cognitive Science and Language Studies at Wellesley College.

Ariel Grace

Email: a-grace@northwestern.edu

I am broadly interested in early social cognition and conceptual
development. For example, how do infants and young children learn from and about the people around them? In one line of work, I am currently investigating the nature of social categorization in infancy and early childhood. In studies with infants I am looking at the structure of social categories (e.g. race or gender), and the expectations infants have about them. In studies with preschoolers, I am looking at the effects of language (for example, labeling an individual as a member
of a social group) on children's category-based inductive inferences. In another line of work I am studying the effects of language on categorization in infancy.

Email: p-herrmann@northwestern.edu

I am broadly interested in conceptual development and cognitive flexibility.  My research explores these issues through the development of naïve biology.  In one line of experiments I am studying the effects of culture and age on children's inductions within the category of living things.  In another, I am studying the effects of different kinds of information about living things (e.g. scientific, anthropomorphic) on children's construal of the category.  I am also looking at the effect of learning about a subset of living things (mammals, insects, plants) on the construal of other subsets and the category as a whole.   Finally, I am exploring the effects of language on infants' category formation.

Heather Norbury

Email: norbury@northwestern.edu

I am a fourth year graduate student.  My work centers on the role of language in the formation and maintenance of nonlinguistic representations, with specific focus on the spatial domain.  Under this general topic, I consider such issues as the attention and categorization behaviors of pre-linguistic infants, the place of language in category formation, and mental habits of adults (of different languages).  In a separate line of work, I am investigating the role of religious input on folkbiological reasoning.

Amanda DeLong

I'm Amanda, a Junior Psychology/Global Health student working at PoCD for my second year. PoCD is truly the best job--the babies are great, everyone is so passionate, and we have fun working together too. In fact, because it is so enjoyable it’s almost like a vacation from studying for the MCAT. If only "scheduling" would replace the verbal section.

I am a Junior double majoring in Journalism and Psychology.  Working at Project on Child Development has been a fascinating learning experience.  It's amazing how much 22 month olds can teach you.  I've loved seeing studies developed and run and working with people who have a passion for developmental psychology.  Coming to work never seems like a chore, though, the fact that there's a toy box with singing puppets just waiting to be "organized" makes it pretty enticing too. 

Regina Lee

Hello! I'm Regina, a sophomore year Psych major. I just joined PoCD at the beginning of this year, and working here has been a blast. I think I've discovered the ingredients for a perfect working environment: a relaxed atmosphere, friendly researchers and fellow RA's, and the cutest, most adorable babies ever!

Anastasia Voskoboynik
I am a Junior/Senior currently enjoying the double delight of working in the lab and working on my senior thesis on childhood anthropocentrism and the representation of animals in children's books with Dr. Waxman.  When I am not doing cute baby-related things at the lab, I enjoy writing strange stories, drawing insects, small animals, and eyes, and day dreaming full-length movies in my head.  But mostly, I just like babies.

Praneet Kalkat

Sarah Moser

Mihwa Kim

Melissa Hansen

Debbie Hong

Biru Chen