Welcome to the Cognition & Development Lab!
Our research investigates how infants and young children think, reason, and learn about the world around them, with a focus on the development of early social-cognitive capacities. Some of our current projects explore children’s thinking about skin color inheritance, the influence of parental racial socialization strategies, understanding of racial and ethnic categories, social reasoning in infants and preschoolers, the development of optimism, and the development of and preempting racism in young children.
Current Lab Members Visiting the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum on WashU’s campus. 
Research Assistant Sophie Klein at the 2024 Safe Trick or Treat Event on campus. 
Graduate Student Anj Barrett and Lab Manager Allison Mort at the 2024 Festival of Nations event in Tower Grove Park. 
Current Lab Members at the 2024 Undergraduate Research Symposium. 
Research Assistants Sophie Klein, Natalia Ramos, and Aisha Tangirala (left to right) at the 2024 Safe Trick or Treat Event on campus. 
Research Assistants Mia Wasserman and Asher Raboy at the 2024 Fall Frolic event in Tower Grove Park. 
Graduate Student Anj Barrett at the 2024 Party in the Patch Event at Shaw Park. 
Graduate Student Anj Barrett and Research Assistant Dani Galvez-Cepeda at the Delmar Market Block Party in 2024. 
WUSTL Psychology Building
Research Poster Presentations
Ore Oni presenting her poster titled “Recognizing Bias: Exploring Children’s Evaluations of Racial Discrimination” for the 2024 Undergraduate Research Symposium. 
Kayla Harrington presenting her poster titled “The Impact of Adultification in the Education System” for the 2024 Honor Thesis Symposium. 
Emily Langston presenting her poster titled “The Development of Social Trust in Children” for the 2024 Honors Thesis Symposium. 
Angela Diaz presenting her poster titled “Encouraging Children to Engage in Conversation about Race” for the 2023 Honors Thesis Symposium. 
Ashna Ramiah presenting a poster at the 2023 Mind-Brain-Behavior Research Symposium. 
Sania Mehra presenting a poster at the 2023 Mind-Brain-Behavior Research Symposium. 
Emily Blake presenting a poster at the 2023 Mind-Brain-Behavior Research Symposium.