People | Cognitive Development Lab @ NYU

Current members

Former members

Professor of Psychology

Dr. Andrei Cimpian

Lab Director

PhD, Stanford University

New York University
Department of Psychology
6 Washington Place, room 330
New York, NY 10003

Email: andrei.cimpian@nyu.edu

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndreiCimpian

Phone: +1-212-998-3551

Graduate Student

Sophie Arnold

Email: sa5850@nyu.edu

Sophie graduated from the University of Chicago in 2018 with degrees in Psychology and Economics before working as the Yale Social Cognitive Development Lab manager from 2018-2020. She is primarily interested in understanding the reasons behind the development of behaviors and preferences that lead to societal gender disparities like the wage gap. She is also interested in questions at the intersection of moral reasoning and group membership. Outside of the lab, Sophie enjoys playing cards, reading fiction and hiking.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Eliana Avitzour

PhD, Tel-Aviv University

Email: eliana.avitzour@nyu.edu

Eliana is interested in the psychological mechanisms that lead to gender-biased behavior in adults, and in the origins of gender stereotypes in children. One strand of her research focuses on implicit and explicit gender stereotypes (of adults) and their different roles in predicting gender discriminatory behavior towards children. The other deals with the origins of gender stereotypes in children focusing on objectification – specifically, the role of physical appearance in defining the identify of young girls. In both strands of research, she is interested in exploring the social phenomena as well as in finding evidence-based methods to alleviate them.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. April Bailey

PhD, Yale University

Email: ab9490@nyu.edu

In her research, April integrates social cognition with intergroup relations. Much of her work focuses on gender. In one line of work, she investigates the androcentric tendency to default to thinking of people as men. Her work also addresses other related gender and racial biases, intersectionality, person perception more generally, nonverbal behavior, moral psychology, and essentialism. In the Cognitive Development Lab, she is studying the development of androcentric bias in children and its consequences for children's psychological well-being and achievement.

Visiting Scholar

Dr. Mark Bowker

PhD, University of St. Andrews

Email: markalanbowker@gmail.com

Mark is a philosopher by training, working on issues at the intersection of philosophy of mind/language and psychology. He is particularly interested in the connection between language, stereotypes, and prejudice, as well as the relation between philosophical and psychological descriptions of mind and language.

Lab Coordinator

Natalie Hutchins

Email: natalie.hutchins@nyu.edu

Natalie is a 2020 graduate from Franklin & Marshall College with a degree in psychology. Her prior research interests focused on differences in social learning and attention between typically developing children and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Natalie hopes to learn more about gender stereotyping across development in her time at CDL. In her free time, Natalie enjoys playing board games, reading, and being outside.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Jillian Lauer

PhD, Emory University

Email: jillian.lauer@nyu.edu

Jillian is interested in the origins of gender disparities in STEM achievement and interests. Her research has examined various aspects of spatial and mathematical development between infancy and adulthood, with a particular focus on gender-linked correlates of performance in these cognitive domains using behavioral, eye-tracking, and meta-analytic techniques. She is excited to be working with the Cognitive Development Lab, where she is studying the development of gender stereotypes, including those relevant to math achievement.

Graduate Student

Rachel Leshin

Email: rachel.leshin@nyu.edu

Rachel graduated from Northwestern in 2015 with degrees in psychology and gender studies, and served as CDL's lab manager from 2016-2018. Rachel is primarily interested in the development of social bias and stereotyping. In CDL, her focus is on the developmental roots of gender disparities in political leadership. Outside of the lab, Rachel enjoys cooking (and eating), seeing shows, and capitalizing on NYU student discounts throughout the city.

(Primary advisor: Marjorie Rhodes)

Graduate Student

Vivian Liu

Email: vl845@nyu.edu

Vivian graduated from Wesleyan University with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. She is interested in the overlap of different social identities in children and adults, the development of essentialist thought, as well as practical applications of strategies to reduce stereotyping and bias. Outside of lab, Vivian loves to bake desserts, eat desserts, and read fiction.

Graduate Student

Melis Muradoglu

Email: melis.muradoglu@nyu.edu

Melis is interested in the cognitive underpinnings of essentialist thought and social behavior. She is also interested in explanatory processes and how they inform beliefs about social categories in children and adults.

Lab Coordinator

Natalie Toomajian

Email: nt2190@nyu.edu

Natalie is a 2019 graduate from the University of Michigan with a degree in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience. She's excited to work at CDL as lab coordinator and continue exploring the complexity of children's development through the lab's research. Her past research focuses include children's understanding of consciousness and conceptualization of Theory of Mind in non-human subjects. Natalie hopes to broaden her understanding of children's self-perceptions and how they impact motivation in school and social behavior. Outside the lab, Natalie enjoys reading, writing, and watching movies.