Research Team

Graduate Assistants

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Hannah Lunkenheimer

I am a cross-cultural researcher studying children's understanding and explanatory reasoning regarding significant misfortune (e.g., death, illness, natural disasters). My research focuses on using cognitive, social, and evolutionary theories to explain how beliefs and rituals are cross-culturally recurrent and how those beliefs and rituals impact grief, coping, and psychological well-being over the lifespan.

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James Daly

I am interested in learning and motivation in children and adults. My current research focuses on intrinsic motivation to pursue future learning activities based on past experience. My previous work includes research on temporal cognition, memory integration, bilingualism, conceptual development and generic language.

Katie Steele

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Broadly I am interested in how language influences our understanding of the world and how language shapes biases and beliefs about social identities throughout development. In my research, I investigate children’s attitudes and beliefs towards individuals with mental health disorders and the factors that contribute to the development of stigmatizing beliefs and essentialist thinking in childhood.

Susan Kruglinski

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I am a mid-career student with experience in science journalism and mental healthcare studying the influence of social media on child development, with a focus on social contagion, magical thinking, unusual niche cultures, and young people's susceptibility to maladaptive conformity. I am interested in how these issues are novel in the digital age, as well as how they relate to what is already known about the psychological development of children, adolescents, and young adults.

Taryn Crone

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I am a first-year graduate student and my research has focused on the different domains of creativity, how they develop in young children, and what benefits they have. My research interests also include determining how children differentiate between fantasy and reality, specifically through their beliefs in luck and superstitions, and how those beliefs can affect their day-to-day lives.

Lab Manager

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Emily Myers

I am a Departmental Honors Psychology student in my fourth year at The University of Texas at Austin. I am currently the Principal Investigator for the study "Overtime" in the Imagination and Cognition lab. Some of my research interests include mental health improvements in sports, athletic recovery after injury, parental interaction in early childhood, psychopathology in children and adults, and forensic psychology.

Research Assistants

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Fall 2024 lab members
  • Aarushi Gupta
  • Angie Kim
  • Anna Havner
  • Aubrey Clayton
  • David Floral
  • Ella Rous
  • Harsha Ketavarapu
  • Irene Kim
  • Jude Stewart
  • Julia McMahon
  • Maya Vemulapalli
  • Natalie DeMario
  • Ruba Siddiqi

Collaborators

  • Beth Boerger
  • Louis Bunce
  • Rebecca Dore
  • Jean Dunham
  • Lili Ma
  • Art Markman
  • Amanda Rhoads
  • Ansley Tullos

Former Graduate Students

  • Jenny Nissel
  • Kelsey Kelley
  • Katrina Phelps
  • Marc Bruell
  • Debra Davis
  • Beth Boerger
  • Ansley Tullos
  • Gabriel Lopez-Mobilia
  • Chelsea Cornelius
  • Maliki (Kiki) Ghossainy
  • Brooke Miller

Former Postdoctoral Fellows

  • Hui Li
  • Lili Ma

Interested in joining our lab? We may not be accepting new RAs for the upcoming semester, but you can apply using this form to be considered for current/future position availability.