Lab Members
Dr. Hanako Yoshida, Director
Dr. Yoshida is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. Her central research focuses on language learning mechanisms
creating highly specialized learning processes and the cognitive consequences of the language learning.
The core idea behind her research is that these specialized learning processes are derived from domain general mechanisms and the process involving the fine-tuning and contextual cuing of attention to aspects of the learning environment. Dr. Yoshida studies these processes by studying young children learning different language(s). Her work provides insight into questions of how early learning interacts with regularities in the world, and how this relation feeds into self-sustaining learning.
Area: Cognitive development (word/language learning, bilingual cognition, cross-linguistic comparison with children's category learning)
Poorna Kushalnagar, Ph.D., Research Scientist
Dr. Kushalnagar completed her Ph.D. in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Houston. She was awarded a two-year NIH Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research and NIH Pediatric Research Loan Repayment Award to support her postdoctoral research training with the Seattle Quality of Life group at the University of Washington. She is the project co-investigator for Texas site, where she conducts assessment of quality of life study with deaf youths from Spanish speaking families. Dr. Kushalnagar also collaborates on Dr. Yoshida's head camera research project with young deaf children.
Area: Neurocognitive and quality of life outcomes among deaf and hard of hearing children; early cognitive development (attention and executive function)
Crystal Tran, Graduate Student
Lab Management
I am interested in the effects of cross-cultural languages and how children utilize these learned languages to guide them in their perception of the world. I hope to gain not only experience, but grasp a better understanding how information begins to be process, how words are initially learned, and how perceptions are formed.
Joseph Burling, Graduate Student
Equipment Systems Management
I joined the Cognitive Development Lab not only to become
familiar with the inner workings of the research process, all while obtaining
valuable research experience, but to also contribute in any way that I can to
the field of cognitive and developmental psychology. I am grateful to be a
part of the search for the mechanisms behind early learning, and look
forward to the possible applications of such research in the future.
Kevin Darby, Honors Thesis Student
I joined the Cognitive Development team out of a desire to
contribute to our understanding of the psychology of children. If we
understand how children learn then we can implement new strategies to
facilitate higher levels of cognition in this critical stage of development. I
enjoy working with children and appreciate this opportunity to enhance my
education.
Maria Arredondo, Honors Thesis Student
I joined this team to further my knowledge in Cognitive Psychology and to gain experience working in a lab setting. I am a Research Assistant for the studies comparing monolinguals and bilinguals. As a member of the Cognitive Development Lab, I hope to learn more about language, which is a big factor in shaping our thinking and behavior.
Jaymie Allen, Research Assistant
I joined the Cognitive Development Lab to gain research experience and knowledge. I am interested in how humans learn, store, and retrieve information and how those cognitive processes affect our conception and perception of the world. I think it's very important to research children to optimize the critical stages in development.
Lauren Baker, Research Assistant
I am interested in attention processes and how it shapes a child’s perception of his or her environment. Working in the lab has helped me hone my interests in the cognitive field. My experience in the lab has turned my attention to the many exciting questions being asked in the developmental field.
Lauren McElroy, Research Assistant
I joined the Cognitive Development Lab to further my education in the field of child psychology. I am interested in information processing among infants and children, specifically how this population conceptualizes visual information.
Justin Jerkins , Research Assistant
I joined the Cognitive Development Lab to gain valuable experience and insight in Cognitive Psychology. Understanding the origins of cognition will complement any further research I do with bilingualism and perception and, with this, I hope to contribute to my colleagues and the field of psychology as a whole.
Paul Mariano, Research Assistant
I am interested in the fields of learning and memory and, in particular, how the human brain performs these tasks. The Cognitive Development Lab simultaneously offers me knowledge about the field of learning and familiarization and allows me to gain important hands-on experience.
Sarah Brannon, Research Assistant
I joined the Cognitive Development Lab to gain valuable experience in a research setting and to further my education in the field of child psychology. I am interested in the development of human brain and hope to gain further knowledge on the cognitive processes in early childhood development.
Cognitive Development Alumni
Viridiana Benitez, Honor thesis student
Viridiana is now a doctoral candidate for the Graduate Program in Developmental Psychology at the Indiana University. While at the Cognitive Development Lab, Viridiana worked on projects concerning the effect of redundancy in early learning.
Maria Guerrero, Research Assistant
Maria is currently a candidate for an M.A. and LPC degree from the Graduate Program in Psychology and Counseling at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. While at the Cognitive Development Lab, Maria worked on projects concerning how children learning multiple languages have different word learning processes.
