Principal Investigator


Mike Frank Mike Frank Baby
Mike Frank (Blog , Twitter)

Mike did his undergraduate degree at Stanford in Symbolic Systems and his PhD work at MIT. He is broadly interested in the relationship between language and cognition, especially as it relates to children's early language development.

Postdocs


Kat Adams Shannon Kat Adams Shannon Baby
Kat Adams Shannon

Kat completed her PhD in developmental psychology at NYU in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She broadly studies how young children adapt their attention and learning behaviors to best match different early environments, with particular focus on understanding variability and strengths in contexts of early adversity. A key aim of her research is to create and collaborate on innovative uses of technology and statistical methods to support education and developmental science.

Rebecca Zhu Rebecca Zhu Baby
Rebecca Zhu

Rebecca received her B.Sc. from the University of Toronto and her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. Her research program investigates when and how children learn about - and consequently learn from - symbolic systems, such as language and pictures. Specifically, her postdoctoral work investigates the development of picture comprehension across cultures and contexts.

Mira Nencheva Mira Nencheva Baby
Mira Nencheva

Mira completed her PhD in psychology at Princeton University. Her research examines how the dynamics of emotion and language shape learning in infancy.

Graduate Students


Rondeline Williams Rondeline Williams Baby
Rondeline Williams

Rondeline received her B.A. in Psychology from Cornell University in 2017 before completing an NIH-funded research project at The Ohio State University. She is interested in the impact of auditory noise on young children's processing efficiency and language development.

Anjie Cao Anjie Cao Baby
Anjie Cao (Twitter)

Anjie received her B.S. in Cognitive Science with an additional major in Philosophy from Carnegie Mellon University in 2020. She is interested in using experimental methods and computational modeling to understand human information-seeking behavior.

Veronica Boyce Veronica Boyce Baby
Veronica Boyce

Veronica received her BS in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT in 2019 where she did work on incremental language processing. She is interested in adaptation and convention formation in conversation.

Julio Martinez Julio Martinez Baby
Julio Martinez

Prior to the PhD, Julio received his BS with a double major in Mathematics and Structural Engineering from UC San Diego and an MS in Computational and Mathematical Engineering from Stanford University. He has ongoing work on computational modeling of human physical intrinsic motivation. His more recent interests are in the area of modeling multi-agent/social learning and theory of mind.

Alvin Tan Alvin Tan Baby
Alvin Tan

Alvin received a BA in Psychology and Linguistics from Oxford in 2020, and an MS in Symbolic Systems from Stanford in 2022. He is interested in language learning in young children.

Samah Abdelrahim Samah Abdelrahim Baby
Samah Abdelrahim (Twitter)

BSC in electrical engineering from University of Khartoum, MSc in cognitive science from Columbia University. Interested in the study of cognitive development and language development in particular. Intrigued by the intersection between language and cognition from a cross-cultural perspective.

Steven Feng Steven Feng Baby
Steven Feng (Twitter)

Steven is a Computer Science PhD student, working with the Stanford AI and NLP groups. He completed a master's at Carnegie Mellon University and an undergrad at the University of Waterloo. He wishes to advance AI with multidisciplinary knowledge, mainly by enhancing machine understanding and generation of human language and vision. This includes exploring methods to improve the controllability and reasoning of language and visual models, and investigating cognitive strategies to align human and machine learning.

Research Staff


Bobby Sparks Bobby Sparks Baby
Bobby Sparks (BlueSky)

Bobby is the current lab manager. He received his B.S. in Symbolic Systems with a focus in Cognitive Science from Stanford University where he was a research assistant in the Social Learning Lab. He is interested in our early ecology as a source of variability in cognitive & social development and how context & cognition interact with the effects of early adversity. He is also interested in mechanisms for supporting resilience, early learning, and positive functioning across diverse contexts.

Grace Keene Grace Keene Baby
Grace Keene

Grace is a Research Coordinator. I graduated from UC Berkeley where I completed my BA in philosophy and a minor in early childhood development and learning science. I was a research assistant in the Gopnik Lab where I engaged with studies that seek to understand the factors that influence children's decisions to explore or exploit their environment. I am broadly interested in expanding my understanding of different approaches in the field. Children's development of morality and beliefs about right and wrong also interests me. I am excited to learn more about children’s learning, behavior, and beliefs.

Meesha Ryan Meesha Ryan Baby
Meesha Ryan

Meesha is a Research Coordinator. They graduated from Skidmore College with a BA in Psychology and a minor in English Literature. During their undergraduate studies, they worked in Dr. Jess Sullivan's Language and Cognition Lab and Dr. Corinne Moss-Racusin's Social and Intergroup Dynamics Lab. Meesha is interested in researching the intersections of children's emotional development, social development, and language acquisition (particularly acquisition of words pertaining to abstract concepts).

Heidi Baumgartner Heidi Baumgartner Baby
Heidi Baumgartner (ManyBabies , BlueSky)

Heidi was an undergrad at Stanford, did her graduate work at UC Davis, and was a postdoc at Brown University. She's happy to be back at Stanford working as the Executive Director of ManyBabies, a global consortium of developmental psychology labs.

Mika Braginsky Mika Braginsky Baby
Mika Braginsky

Mika is a software developer working on tools that enable data sharing and promote open science practices. Previously they received their PhD from MIT, where they studied children's early language learning, specifically data-driven analyses of lexical and morphological development.

Amy Lightbody Kuhns Amy Lightbody Kuhns Baby
Amy Lightbody Kuhns

Amy is a Senior Research Scholar. She completed a B.A. in Psychology and M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychological Studies in Education, all at UCLA. Amy has spent many years at the intersection of neuroscience, genetics, cognition, emotion, and behavior studying developmental trajectories in children with conditions such as fragile X syndrome. More broadly she is interested in research designed to improve learning, educational, and social-emotional outcomes, particularly for vulnerable populations.

Senior Research Assistants


Denis Ness Arikan Denis Ness Arikan Baby
Denis Ness Arikan

Ness is a current Research Assistant. She is an undergraduate student pursuing a B.A. in Psychology and a B.A. in Data Science & Social Systems. She is currently engaged with a study investigating auditory noise on children’s language development. She is excited by learning more about research in cognitive psychology and computational methods.

Malia Perez Malia Perez Baby
Malia Perez

Malia is a current research assistant. Malia is a junior at Stanford pursing a B.S. in Human Biology with a concentration in Psychological Development, Ethics, and Healths throught the human life. She is interested in social impacts upon language development.



Lab Alums


Bria Long (Postdoctoral Scholar) -- Assistant Professor, UC San Diego

Georgia Loukatou (Research Fellow)

Eva Portelance (Graduate Student) -- Postdoctoral Scholar, McGill University

Jessica Mankewitz (Lab Manager) -- Graduate Student, UW Madison

Sama Radwan (Research Coordinator)

George Kachergis (Research Scientist) -- SkillPrint

Angeline Tsui (Postdoctoral Fellow) -- Research Data Scientist, Huawei Technologies

Yang Wu (Postdoctoral Fellow) -- Assistant Professor, University of Toronto

Alex Carstensen (Postdoctoral Fellow) -- Postdoctoral Fellow, UC San Diego

Joseph Outa (Research Coordinator) -- Graduate Student, John Hopkins University

Charles Murray (Research Coordinator)

Megan Merrick (Research Coordinator) -- Graduate Student, Indiana University

Hang Jiang (Graduate Student) -- Graduate Student, MIT

Ben Peloquin (Graduate Student) -- Data Scientist, Apple

Pooja Paul (Postdoctoral Scholar)

Benny deMayo (Lab Manager) -- Graduate Student, Princeton University

Vivian Zhang (Research Coordinator) -- Graduate Student, Cornell University

Erica Yoon (Graduate Student) -- Teaching Coordinator for Symbolic Systems Program, Stanford University

Judith Fan (Postdoctoral Scholar) -- Assistant Professor, UC San Diego

Manuel Bohn (Postdoctoral Scholar) -- Postdoctoral Scholar, Leipzig Research Center for Early Childhood Development

Abdellah Fourtassi (Postdoctoral Scholar) -- Assistant Professor, Aix-Marseille University

Kyle MacDonald (Graduate Student) -- Postdoctoral Scholar, UCLA

Tom Hardwicke (Postdoctoral Scholar) -- Postdoctoral Scholar, Meta-Research Innovation Center, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Alessandro Sanchez (Research Coordinator) -- Software Engineer, Atomwise

Emily Hembacher (Postdoctoral Scholar) -- Data Scientist, Nextdoor

Danielle Kellier (Lab Manager) -- Medical Student, University of Pennsylvania

Gabe Doyle (Postdoctoral Scholar) -- Assistant Professor, San Diego State University

Veronica Cristiano (Research Coordinator) -- Graduate Student, Gallaudet University

Molly Lewis (Graduate Student) -- Research Faculty, CMU

Dan Yurovsky (Postdoctoral Fellow) -- Assistant Professor, CMU

Rose Schneider (Lab Manager) -- UX Researcher, Blink

Mika Braginsky (Research Coordinator) -- Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford University

Ann Nordmeyer (Graduate Student) -- Assistant Professor, Southern New Hampshire University

Sarah James (Research Coordinator)

Andrew Weaver (Research Coordinator)

Alexandra Horowitz (Graduate Student) -- UI Researcher, Facebook

Ally Kraus (Lab Manager) -- Analyst, Education Elements

Janelle Klaas (Research Student)

Theresa Hennings (Research Coordinator) -- Graduate Student, University of Washington

Stephan Meylan (Research Coordinator) -- Postdoctoral Fellow, Duke University and MIT

Chigusa Kurumada (Graduate Student) -- Assistant Professor, University of Rochester

Marisa Casillas (Graduate Student) -- Assistant Professor, University of Chicago

Alex Stiller-Shulman (Master's Student) -- Assistant Professor, San Diego Miramar College


Former Research Assistants


Kaitlyn Leahy (Graduate Research Assistant)

Chloe Haydel Brown (Graduate Research Assistant) -- Fulbright English Teaching Program


Honors Students


Khuyen Le (2021) -- Symbolic Systems

Gloria Yi (2021) -- Symbolic Systems

Hannah Marshall (2021) -- Psychology

Claire Baker (2021) -- Human Biology

Elizabeth Swanson (2021) -- Human Biology

Isabella Duan (2021) -- Human Biology

Tania Dhaliwal (2020) -- Symbolic Systems

Sophie Regan (2020) -- Symbolic Systems

Benjamin deMayo (2018) -- Psychology

Tamara Mekler (2017) -- Human Biology

Allison Dods (2016) -- Symbolic Systems

Sarah Lucy Case (2015) -- Human Biology

Rachel Chung (2015) -- Science, Technology, and Society

Nicholas Moores (2015) -- Linguistics

Elise Sugarman (2014) -- Symbolic Systems

Laura Soriano (2014) -- Human Biology

Kaia Simmons (2013) -- Human Biology

Stephanie Muscat (2013) -- Human Biology

Rebecca Chung (2012) -- Symbolic Systems


Summer Interns


Sadio Abdi (2024) -- Stanford University Psychology

Karen Barrera (2024) -- Stanford University Psychology

Caleb Benz (2024) -- Stanford University Linguistics

Lauren Burch (2024) -- Stanford University Human Biology

Ayan Dalmar (2024) -- Stanford University Human Biology

Brooke Ho (2024) -- Grinnell College

Yannick Mofor (2024) -- Stanford University Symbolic Systems

Rebecca Pizzitola (2024) -- Stanford University Symbolic Systems

Zoe Wu (2024) -- College of San Mateo

Ilaria Chen (2023) -- Stanford University Symbolic Systems

Meghan Dontha (2023) -- Stanford University Psychology

Bella Fontanilla (2023) -- College of San Mateo

Abigail Maldonado (2023) -- Stanford University Human Biology

Alissa Pascual (2023) -- Stanford University Human Biology

Malia Perez (2023) -- Undergraduate Intern

Katya Sander (2023) -- Stanford University Human Biology

Naiomi Solomon (2023) -- Stanford University Symbolic Systems

Brittany Linus (2022) -- Stanford University Symbolic Systems

Deba Elaiho (2021 & 2022) -- Stanford University Human Biology

Jason Miranda (2022) -- Stanford University Human Biology

Mary Markley (2022) -- Stanford University Linguistics

Minh Khổng Bùi (2022) -- University of California Fullerton

Morgan Wyatt (2022) -- Stanford University Psychology

Renaecia Mae Deleon Guerrero (2022) -- Stanford University Human Biology

Isaac Bever (2021) -- Stanford University Symbolic Systems

Grace Butler (2021) -- San José State University

Qi Han (2021) -- Stanford University Linguistics

Ummara Khan (2021) -- Stanford University Human Biology

Hannah Marie Matteson (2021) -- Stanford University Psychology

Brennan Nick (2021) -- Stanford University Linguistics

Isobel Taylor (2021) -- Stanford University Psychology

Jiayi Wang (2021) -- Boston University

Ruby Ru (2020) -- Smith College

Yiling (Elaine) Ren (2020) -- Trinity College

Naiti Bhatt (2020) -- Scripps College

Elizabeth Swanson (2020) -- Stanford University Linguistics

Hannah Marshall (2020) -- Stanford University Psychology

Claire Baker (2020) -- Stanford University Human Biology

Isabella Duan (2020) -- Stanford University Human Biology

Gloria Yi (2020) -- Stanford Univeristy Symbolic Systems

Sophie Regan (2020) -- Stanford University Symbolic Systems (M.S.)