People


Research Publications Information for Parents Information for Students Contact Us Home	Child Cognition Lab! Lab Party Fall 2008 Back row (left to right): Professor Deb Kelemen (with Ali!), Holly Jacobs, Samantha Barry, Missy Goldberg, Meredith Taylor, Dana Schmohl, Kristy Bondi Front row (left to right): Anna Kyritsis, Becca Seston, Jennifer Ontaneda, Megan Baumgarten, Carina Wind, Juliana Gorian Not pictured: Josh Rottman
		Faculty/Staff
		Deb Kelemen, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology, Lab Director [CV] Within the field of conceptual development, fundamental questions concern how children acquire knowledge and how children's beliefs about the world relate to adults' beliefs. My research program has been devoted to examining these questions and, in particular, to exploring the degree to which children's and adults' conceptions of human-made objects and natural phenomena truly differ. Recent projects include studies of how children think about the origins of living and non-living natural objects and the reasons why people find some ideas (e.g., natural selection) so difficult to grasp. Much of our current research is also devoted to studying how children learn about unfamiliar objects. For example, we know that, as a species, human beings are unique in their abilities to create and use tools but how do very young children learn about artifacts? What kinds of social and physical information do they use when trying to categorize something unfamiliar? In related work, we are exploring the processes by which children acquire the social norms and cultural conventions of their community: Are children primed to just blindly trust anything that an adult does or are they discriminating about what they are being shown and who is showing them?
		Laure Saint Georges Lab Manager I graduated from Trinity University (San Antonio, TX) in 2009 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Spanish. Previously, I was working in the Children’s Lab at Trinity University on language acquisition. I love working with children, especially in developmental research. I am very excited about working in the Child Cognition Lab here at BU and I plan to go to Graduate school in Psychology working with children in the future.
		Graduate Students
		Becca Seston Graduate Student, Fall 2009 I graduated from Wellesley in 2005 with a B.A. in psychology and have loved being the lab manager for the Child Cognition Lab since 2006. I am thrilled to begin my graduate work here in Fall 2009! I'm interested in studying how, when and under what circumstances, children acquire conventional and scientific knowledge from others. When I'm not in the lab, I like playing board games, watching movies, singing, and hanging out with my nieces and nephews.
		Josh Rottman Graduate Student, Fall 2009 After growing up in Colorado, I moved east to study cognitive science at Vassar College, graduating with a B.A. in 2008. I am primarily interested in the metaphysical intuitions that people have in regard to religious phenomena, especially pertaining to morality and teleology. As a graduate student, I plan to explore the ways in which people infer purpose and design in their own lives and in the lives of humans more generally. When I'm not immersing myself in psychology, I enjoy hiking, acting, and scuba diving.
		Research Assistants 2009-2010
		Megan Baumgarten B.A. 2010

		Mariana Boia B.A. 2011

		Missy Goldberg B.A. 2011

		Anna Kyritsis B.A. 2010

		Rachel Lissandrello B.A. 2011

		Meredith Taylor B.A. 2010
		Former Graduate Students
		Brenda Caldwell Phillips, Ph.D. Post-Doctoral Fellow, Novick Lab Department of Psychology Vanderbilt University

		Krista Casler, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Director, Child Development Lab at F&M Department of Psychology Franklin & Marshall College

		Cara DiYanni, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Psychology Rider University

		Elizabeth Donovan, Ph.D. Research Scientist Inflexxion, Inc.

		Evelyn Rosset, Ph.D. Boston University Child Cognition Lab Aboutmind

	Former Research Assistants
	Monica Anand Boston University B.A. 2008	Christine Mihal Boston University M.A. 2008
	Emily Babb Boston University B.A. 2007	Yannos Misitzis Boston University M.A. 2007

	Stephen Bandini University of Virginia B.A. 2010	Jennifer Ontaneda Boston University B.A. 2009

	Samantha Barry Boston University B.A. 2009	Cassie Pestana Boston University B.A. 2007
	Kristy Bondi Boston University B.A. 2009	Annie Putnam Boston University B.A. 2006
	Eva Cassedy Brandeis University B.A. 2009	Tasha Ramanayake Boston University B.A. 2007

	Sabrina De Los Santos Boston University B.A. 2009	Julia Rubin Beaver Country Day School Class of 2008

	Maelyn Entwhistle Boston University B.A. 2006	Evan Schinell Boston University B.A. 2007

	Narien Guul Boston University B.A. 2008	Dana Schmol Boston University B.A. 2009

	Kristin Hammond Providence College B.A. 2009	Yael Stern Tufts University B.A. 2010

	Holly Jacobs Boston University B.A. 2008	Michelle St. Paul Boston University B.A. 2009

	Tracy Kilcoyne Boston University B.A. 2009	Carina Wind Boston University B.A. 2008

	Alissa Makarovskaya Boston University B.A. 2009	Melissa Yanovitch Mount Holyoke College B.A. 2009

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