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.
C&D lab members at the Spring 2025 Undergraduate Research Symposium at WashU. 
C&D lab members at the Fall 2024 Undergraduate Research Symposium at WashU. 
C&D lab members visiting the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. 
Research assistant Sophie Klein at the 2024 Safe Trick or Treat event at WashU. 
Graduate student Anj Barrett and lab manager Allison Mort at Festival of Nations 2024 in Tower Grove Park. 
Research assistants Sophie Klein, Natalia Ramos, and Aisha Tangirala at the 2024 Safe Trick or Treat event at WashU. 
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. 
The C&D Lab is located at Somers Family Hall on WashU’s campus.
Research Poster Presentations
Mia Wasserman & Estephanie Salazar-Estrada presenting their poster, “Impact of positive exemplars on racial bias in children” at the 2025 Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium. 
Aisha Tangirala presenting her poster, “Turning the Page on Bias: Does Early Exposure to Diversity Influence Children’s Racial Preferences?” at the Spring 2025 Undergraduate Research Symposium. 
Ore Oni presenting her poster, “Recognizing Bias: Exploring Children’s Evaluations of Racial Discrimination” at the Fall 2024 Undergraduate Research Symposium. 
Kayla Harrington presenting her poster, “The Impact of Adultification in the Education System” for the 2024 Honors Thesis Symposium. 
Emily Langston presenting her poster, “The Development of Social Trust in Children” for the 2024 Honors Thesis Symposium. 
Angela Diaz presenting her poster, “Encouraging Children to Engage in Conversation about Race” for the 2023 Honors Thesis Symposium. 
Ashna Ramiah presenting her poster, “Children’s perception of racial ideologies and willingness to discuss race” at the 2023 Mind-Brain-Behavior Research Symposium. 
Sania Mehra presenting her poster, “What Black and White parents say to their kids about race” at the 2023 Mind-Brain-Behavior Research Symposium. 
Emily Blake presenting her poster, “Teaching children about skin color inheritance” at the 2023 Mind-Brain-Behavior Research Symposium.