Our overall goal is to produce developmental scientists who bring new insight into the understanding of developmental process from a multi-leveled approach. We seek to train ethical scientists who are also good mentors and to increase diversity in the scientific community.
This is our 27th year and we are proud to introduce our predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees for the 2021-2022 year.
Erin Anderson, CV Postdoctoral Fellow
Faculty Supervisors: Linda Smith and David Crandall
Research Interests: My research investigates infants' early visual experience with inter-object relations. Using head-mounted cameras to capture the infant's point of view in naturalistic settings, we can understand what the distribution of spatial relations is in the environment and what roles age, context, and parents play in shaping these.
Sara Benham, CV Postdoctoral Fellow
Faculty Supervisors: Linda Smith, Mike Jones and Richard Betzel
Research Interests: My research focuses on the relationship between lexical and phonological bases of word learning in children with typical and atypical language development. I am particularly interested in detecting principles of organization and structure in word and sound learning using network-based approaches.
Amanda Grenell, CV Postdoctoral Fellow
Faculty Supervisor: Emily Fyfe and John Bates
Research Interests: My research focuses on the relation between individual differences in cognitive skills, such as executive function, and science and math learning in early childhood. I am particularly interested in determining how cognition may influence the effectiveness of specific instructional approaches and materials to optimize learning.
Emma Cleary, CV Graduate Student
Faculty Supervisor: Brian D'Onofrio,Psychological and Brain Sciences and Patrick Quinn, School of Public Health
Research Interests: Broadly, I am interested in studying eary risk factors. I am particularly interested in how pregnancy complications and substance use during pregnancy may influence outcomes.
Allison Green, CV Graduate Student
Faculty Supervisor: Daniel Kennedy, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Research Interests: My research focuses on better understanding the underlying neural differences in typical vs. atypical development, and whether these neural differences can be used as biomarkers for early identification or individualized interventions in Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Megan Merrick, CV Graduate Student
Faculty Supervisor: Emily Fyfe, Pyschological and Brain Sciences and Amanda Diekman,Psychological and Brain Sciences
Research Interests: My research interests lie in the intersection of developmental psychology and education. I am interested in how the use and source of feedback affects educational outcomes such as performance, resilience, and motivation.
Joshua McGraw, CV Graduate Student
Faculty Supervisor: Justin Wood, Department of Informatics
Research Interests: I am particularly interested in complex network structures, specifically the emergence of intelligent behavior from neurons - in vivo and in silica. I aim to build embodied agents to this means which can model the fundamental learning properties of humans and animals. I believe that fundamental questions of intelligence and consciousness can be answered with task performing models supported with advancements in AI research. My current research focuses on the development of newborn chicks raised in virtual environments as a model learners in which all environmental variables are systematically controlled.
Rebecca Bove, CV Graduate Student
Faculty Supervisors: Karin James
Research Interests: My research interests include language development along with reading comprehension in children. I also have a side interest in the social-emotional development of young children.
Hellen Kyler, CV Graduate Student
Faculty Supervisors: Karin James
Research Interests: I am on the Cognitive track, and am planning to study if action or object structure drives visual gaze patterns with novel, 3-D printed objects. I will use eye tracking technology to investigate gaze patterns.
Shawn Fagan, CV
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Indiana University (B. Bertenthal, Psychology)
Research Interests:I am interested in eye tracking and psychophysiological measures, development of emotion regulation, individual differences and social decision-making.
Mansi Joshi, CV
Current Position: Gradate Student, Indiana University (A. Diekman, Psychology)
Research Interests: My research interests are centered around gender and racial issues in education. My research focuses primarily on how how face-based traits of real and hypothetical people signal different opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). I am also interested in motivational cultures and artifacts within STEM environments that influence how individuals navigate their role.
Andrei Amatuni, CV
Current Position: Graduate Student, University of Texas, Austin (C. Yu, Psychology)
Research Interests:I am interested in the interaction between learned representations and selective attention processes in the development of semantic knowledge.
Thomas Goldstone, CV
Current Position: Graduate Student, Indiana University, Bloomington (R. Goldstone, Psychology)
Research Interests: My research revolves around issues in the transfer of learning. I conduct experiments to investigate different factors that promote learning transfer in humans, and develop computational models to help us better understanding the underlying processes through which transfer occurs.
Sara Schroer, CV
Current Position: Graduate Student, University of Texas, Austin (C. Yu, Psychology)
Research Interests: My research investigates the dynamics of parent-infant interactions and how infants learn about their social world, through observations of naturalistic toy play and experimental studies that manipulate the statistics of social partner's behavior. Currently, I am studying the effects of parent speech and infant vocalizations on dyadic behavior, as well as how social contingencies impact infant attention.
Sophia Vinci Booher, CV
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Texas, Austin(F. Pestilli, Psychology)
Research Interests: My research focuses on understanding how the brain changes and reorganizes throughout the lifespan. I am particularly interested in how specific sensorimotor training experiences contribute to brain changes and the relationship of these brain changes to learning. I assess brain changes at both functional and structural levels using functional and diffusion MRI and I assess learning through a variety of behavioral measurements.
Hadar Karmazyn, CV
Current Position: Graduate Student, Indiana University, Bloomington (L. B. Smith, Psychology)
Research Interests: I am interested in understanding how children's visual processing relates to language development.
Lindsey Nelson, CV
Current Position: Graduate Student, Indiana University, Bloomington (E. Fyfe, Psychology)
Research Interests: My research interests are rooted in child development, specifically: self-regulated learning, problem-solving, metacognition, executive functioning, motivation, help seeking, private speech, and how these skills are interrelated during early development. Ultimately, I aspire to teach, conduct related research, and continue to dissect early childhood development to provide evidence to inform the design and implementation of interventions that may positively inform what, why, and how we teach our youth in order to optimally facilitate learning during one of the most critical periods of development.
Jeremy Borjon, CV
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Indiana University, Bloomington (L. Smith, Psychology)
Research Interests: My developing research program is aimed at understanding how the autonomic nervous system shapes and guides behavior during development. Using a combination of wireless physiology sensors, motion capture, and head-mounted eye tracking, we will be able to computationally reconstruct and dissect the naturally occurring behavior of human children and their parents.
Julia Yurkovic, CV
Current Position: Graduate Student, Indiana University, Bloomington (D.Kennedy, Psychology)
Research Interests: I am interested in the development of social cognitive processes in typical populations and in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and studying how individual differences in the development of joint attention and engagement within the mother-infant dyad contribute to phenotypic differences in children with and without ASD.
Elizabeth Clerkin, CV
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Indiana University, Bloomington (L. Smith, Psychology)
Research Interests: How children learn object names and how skills such as visual processing, attention and memory aid and impact word learning.
Colin Downey, CV
Current Position: Graduate Student, Indiana University, Bloomington (R. Candy, Vision Science Optometry)
Research Interests: Infants' dynamic accommodation and vergence tracking of an unpredicted stimulus.
Kelsey Wiggs, CV
Current Position: Graduate Student, Indiana University, Bloomington (B. D'Onofrio, Psychology)
Research Interests: Etiology and treatment of neurodevelopmental problems (e.g. symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, seizures, and autism spectrum disorders) across multiple levels of analysis and time scales.
Grace Lisandrelli, CV
Current Position: Lab Manager/Project Coordinator, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Interests: Developmental origins of various social cognitive processes in typically developing individuals and individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Samantha Faber, CV
Current Position: Graduate Student, Indiana University, Bloomington (E. Newman, PNS)
Research Interests: Using graph and information theoretic approaches to characterize information flow and processing in neural networks derived from effective connectivity of in vitro organotypic cultures.
Brittany Rudd, website
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Clinical, University of Pennsylvania
Research Interests: Impact of divorce and non-marital separation on the development of parent and child psychopathology.
Eugene Kim, CV
Current Position: Graduate Student, Indiana University, Bloomington (B. Bertenthal, Psychology)
Research Interests: Investigating the developmental processes/mechanisms underlying the emergence of complex social abilities in humans.
Caitlin Lischer, CV
Current Position: Indianapolis Teaching Fellows, Indianapolis (Further Training)
Research Interests: Development of visual attention and social attention in infancy and how motor development influences visual attention.
Maureen McQuillan, CV
Current Position: Graduate Student, Indiana University, Bloomington (J. Bates, Psychology)
Research Interests: The Roles of parent-child interactions, home environment, and sleep on self regulation, attention, school readiness, and behavioral outcomes.
Current Position: Medical Student, Indiana University of Medicine (Further Training)
Research Interests: Social development and social impairments in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
Current Position: Technical Problem Solver, Epic, Madison, Wisconsin
Research Topic: Pedagogical efficacy of diagrams for models in Bayesian data analysis
Linger Tian Xu
Current Position: Research Scientist, Psychology, Indiana University
Lisa Byrge
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Psychology, University of North Florida
Lauren Slone
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Psychology, Hope College, Holland, Michigan
Drew Abney
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Psychology, University of Connecticut
Greg Kohn
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Psychology, University of North Florida
Alexis Barton
Current Position: Research Manager, Truth Initiative, Washington D. C.
Umay Suanda
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Psychology, University of Connecticut
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Psychology, Sacramento State
Viridiana Benitez
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Psychology, Arizona State University
Daniel Yurovsky
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Psychology, University of Chicago
Kelly Donahue
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine
Joanne Jao Keehn
Current Position: Research Assistant Professor, Psychology, San Diego State University
Quetzal ClassCurrent Position: Research Associate Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology Director, Resident Research Program, University of Illinois, Chicago
Claire Coyne
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine
Julia Li
Current Position: Researcher, Rockman, et al, Research and Evaluation
Isaac Peterson
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Clinical Psychology, University of Iowa
Jessica Montag
Current Position: Assistant Research Psychologist, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
John Franchak
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside
Richard Prather
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology, Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland
Alexa Romberg
Current Position: Assistant Research Scientist, Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, College of Education, University of Maryland
Caitlin Fausey
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon
Sandra Street
Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater
Paul Williams
Current Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University, Bloomington
Meagan Yee
Current Position: Adjunct Faculty, Xavier University
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Eastern Michigan University
Alice Schermerhorn
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Developmental Psychology, University of Vermont
Jennifer Miller
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Lewis College of Human Sciences, Illinois Institute of Technology
Thomas Baker
Current Position: Scientist, Clinical Research Management, Inc., Silver Spring, Maryland
Hilary Kalagher
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Drew University
Elaine Augustine
Current Position: Instructor at College of Science and Engineering, Texas Christian University, Ft. Worth, Texas
Leonidas Doumas
Current Position: Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh
Thomas Hills
Current Position: Associate Professor, Psychology, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
Ji Son
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, California State, LA
Nitya Sethuraman
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan
Aarre Laakso
Current Position: Research Scientist/Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan
Hunter Honeycutt
Current Position: Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Bridgewater College, Virginia
Jennifer Lanter
Current Position: Dean of General Studies, Fox Valley Technical College, Appleton, Wisconsin
Joshua Goldberg
Current Position: Software Engineer, Space Telescope Science Institute
Jae Paik
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, San Francisco State University
Jill Villarreal
Current Position: Research Scientist/Senior Manager at Big Heart Pet Brands
Adam Sheya
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Psychology, University of Connecticut
Cathy Sandhofer
Current Position: Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, UCLA
Julie Gros-Louis
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Iowa
John Green
Current Position: Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Vermont
Pat Buchanan
Current Position: Associate Professor, Physical Therapy Program, Des Moines University
William Farrell
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Developmental Psychology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Jennifer Schwade
Current Position: Research Associate, Department of Psychology, Cornell University
Melissa Clearfield
Current Position: Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Whitman College
Jana Iverson
Current Position: Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh
Larissa Samuelson
Current Position: Associate Professor, School of Psychology, University of East Anglia
Richard Andreatta
Current Position: Associate Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences & Division of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Kentucky
Donald Finan
Current Position: Associate Professor, Audiology and Speech Language Sciences, University of Northern Colorado
Alan Kersten
Current Position: Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University
Emily Wickelgren
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Sacramento State
Rosa Angulo-Barroso
Current Position: Associate Professor, Department of Kinesiology, California State University Northridge
Merry Sleigh
Current Position: Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Winthrop University
Teresa Mitchell
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Jennifer Bush 
Branden Bryan