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.
Research Team at a local summer community event 
Research Team preparing for a community event 
Research Team at the 2022 Fiesta in Florissant Event. 
Rachael Silberstein (right) and Kayla Harrington (left) collaborating in the Cognition and Development Lab. 
Former Research Assistant Emily Blake at the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market 2023 
Current and former lab members at the Cognitive Development Society 2019. 
Research Team at the 2022 Tower Grove Farmer’s Market. 
WUSTL Psychology Building
Research Poster Presentations
Grace Reid presenting her poster titled “Children’s and adults’ concepts of skin color inheritance,” at the 2022 Cognitive Development Society Conference. 
Rachael Silberstein presenting her poster titled “Effects of learning about systemic racism on children’s reasoning about unequal outcomes” at the 2022 Cognitive Development Society Conference in Madison, WI. 
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.