Trainees

Postdoctoral Fellow
ansarism@iu.edu | CV

Faculty Supervisor:
Amanda Diekman and Natasha Chaku

Research Interests:
Developmental processes for conceptions of social groups and identities; Education research; Effective culture changes that improve experiences in schools and academia.

Postdoctoral Fellow
newaters@iu.edu‍ | CV

Faculty Supervisor:
Emily Fyfe and Natasha Chaku

Research Interests:
Role of early learning experiences in shaping children's academic achievement and associated cognitive processes.

Postdoctoral Fellow
eyearlin@iu.edu | CV

Faculty Supervisor:
Linda Smith

Research Interests:
Memory development and its role in typical and atypical development.

Graduate Student | CV

Faculty Supervisors: Natasha Chaku, Dorainne Green

Research Interests: My research investigates the effects of early life events on adolescents' socioemotional, psychobiological, and cognitive development, focusing particularly on the role of stress in shaping educational trajectories. I am passionate about working with adolescents from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds, including refugees and immigrants, to address their unique challenges and enhance their developmental outcomes.

Graduate Student | CV

Faculty Supervisors: Elizabeth Gunderson, Amanda Diekman

Research Interests: I am interested in how different environmental factors contribute to children's mathematical development. More specifically, I am examining how various parental factors contribute to their child's spatial skill development during parent-child interactions.

Graduate Student | CV

Faculty Supervisors: Bonnie Nozari

Research Interests: I am interested in language processing and production, specifically how speakers unconsciously adapt their speech patterns during interaction and what this reveals about the cognitive representations that guide speech production. 

Graduate Student  | CV

Faculty Supervisor: Alexandra Mousa-Tooks, Brian D’Onofrio, Natasha Chaku

Research Interests: My program of research focuses on understanding the role of early life adversity in the development of psychosis-spectrum phenotypes throughout childhood and adolescence. I use advanced quantitative methods (e.g., data-driven and longitudinal approaches) to model heterogeneity in adverse environmental exposures across sensitive periods (e.g., perinatal and childhood) and test their impact on trajectories of psychosis-spectrum phenotypes and associated intermediary functioning (e.g., sensorimotor functioning, neurodevelopment). 

Graduate Student | CV

Faculty Supervisor: Karin James, Natasha Chaku

Research Interests: Ava is interested in visual imagery and memory across the lifespan. In particular, she is interested in aphantasia, a condition in which someone is unable to visually imagine. 

Graduate Student | CV

Faculty Supervisor: Dan Kennedy, Linda Smith

Research Interests: My research examines how children learn about the world through their multimodal behaviors and how this process of acquiring information shapes their cognitive development. I am interested in the moments and behaviors that contribute to the formation of children's unique developmental trajectories.

Graduate Student | CV

Faculty Supervisors:
Natasha Chaku, Anne Krendl

Research Interests: I investigate the multifaceted dynamics of adolescent social development, focusing on the interplay between individuals’ biology and cognition as contextualized within their peer networks. I am particularly interested in qualities that foster vulnerability to negative social development (e.g., aggression) and promote positive social development (e.g., prosociality). Moreover, I consider how the structure and function of youths’ peer networks amplify or constrain the contagion of social beliefs and behaviors. 

Graduate Student | CV

Faculty Supervisors: Karin James

Research Interests: My research interests include language development along with reading comprehension in children. I also have a side interest in the social-emotional development of young children.

Graduate Student | CV

Faculty Supervisor: Brian D'Onofrio, Patrick Quinn

Research Interests: Broadly, I am interested in studying eary risk factors. I am particularly interested in how pregnancy complications and substance use during pregnancy may influence outcomes.

Graduate Student | CV

Faculty Supervisor: Daniel Kennedy

Research Interests: My research focuses on better understanding the underlying neural differences in typical vs. atypical development, and whether these neural differences can be used as biomarkers for early identification or individualized interventions in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Postdoctoral Fellow
hkarmazy@iu.edu | CV

Faculty Supervisor:
Linda Smith

Research Interests:
My research focuses on the underlying learning mechanism of infants and machines, who are novices in our noisy cluttered world, and yet trying to make connections and knowledge structures for day-to-day functions.

Graduate Student | CV

Faculty Supervisors: Karin James

Research Interests: I am on the Cognitive track, and am planning to study if action or object structure drives visual gaze patterns with novel, 3-D printed objects. I will use eye tracking technology to investigate gaze patterns.

Graduate Student | CV

Faculty Supervisor: Justin Wood

Research Interests: I am particularly interested in complex network structures, specifically the emergence of intelligent behavior from neurons - in vivo and in silica. I aim to build embodied agents to this means which can model the fundamental learning properties of humans and animals. I believe that fundamental questions of intelligence and consciousness can be answered with task performing models supported with advancements in AI research. My current research focuses on the development of newborn chicks raised in virtual environments as a model learners in which all environmental variables are systematically controlled.

Graduate Student | CV

Faculty Supervisor: Emily Fyfe, Amanda Diekman

Research Interests: My research interests lie in the intersection of developmental psychology and education. I am interested in how the use and source of feedback affects educational outcomes such as performance, resilience, and motivation.

Graduate Student | CV

Faculty Supervisors: Karin James

Research Interests: I am interested in the interactive and independent development of attention and motor coordination and the relationship to symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Particularly, I am interested in how these behaviors relate to academic outcomes, such as handwriting fluency. I hope to address my research questions by using multiple methods such as screen-based eye tracking, fMRI, traditional behavioral measures, and naturalistic classroom studies.

Graduate Student | CV

Faculty Supervisors: Emily Fyfe, Karin James, Linda Smith

Research Interests: I'm interested in young children's learning process of math and scientific knowledge. I hope to understand knowledge by looking at how knowledge is built up in children's minds. Specifically, I'm interested in children's patterning skill (e.g., identifying repetitive structures like "A-B-A-B") and its role in math learning.

Erin Anderson
Current Position:
Research and Data Supervisor, Minneapolis Public Housing Authority

Sara Benham
Current Position: 
Assistant Professor, Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Vermont

Jeremy Borjon
Current Position:
Assistant Professor
Developmental, Cognitive, and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Houston

Branden Bryan
Current Position:
Technical Project Manager & Customer Support Specialist
Vyne Medical
Madison, Wisconsin

Jennifer Bush
Current Position:
Medical Student, Indiana University of Medicine

Elizabeth Clerkin
Current Position:
Data Scientist,
Eunice Kennedy Shriver at the National Institute of Child and Health Development

Sarah Cutts
Current Position:
Postdoctoral Researcher,
Yale University

Colin Downey
Current Position:
Attorney, Eagle & Fein, P.C.

Samantha Faber
Current Position:
Research Scientist,
Brighton and Sussex Medical School

Shawn Fagan
Current Position: Senior Research Manager, Campaign Zero

Amanda Grenell
Current Position:
Assistant Professor, The University of Tampa, Florida

Thomas Gorman
Current Position:
Postdoctoral Researcher, Purdue University, Lafayette

Mansi Joshi
Current Position:
Senior Researcher
Veris Insights

Grace Lisandrelli
Current Position:
Occupational Therapist,
Ivy Rehab Physical Therapy

Caitlin Lischer
Current Position:
Indianapolis Teaching Fellows
Indianapolis, IN

Maureen McQuillan
Current Position:
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, IU School of Medicine

Lindsey Nelson
Current Position:
Lead Teacher,
Seven Acres Montessori School

Brittany Rudd
Current Position:
Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health, Michigan State University

Sara Schroer
Current Position:
Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Perceptual Systems
University of Texas, Austin

Sophia Vinci-Booher
Current Position:
Assistant Professor
Vanderbilt University

Andrew White
Current Position:
Assistant Professor,
Ball State University

Kelsey Wiggs
Current Position:
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine

Julia Yurkovic-Harding
Current Position:
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of South Carolina