Overview

During the first year of life, infants learn about the sights and sounds in their surrounding world. They learn to tell their mother and father apart from strangers and to recognize familiar and sometimes comforting objects. Similarly, adults acquire perceptual expertise through professional training. For example, radiologists train to be highly skilled at analyzing radiological scans, or bird watchers become very good at identifying and differentiating different species of birds.

But how does this learning happen? What aspects of the environment or training are important? Researchers in the Brain, Cognition and Development Laboratory are working to answer these questions and to better understand how the brain supports learning throughout the lifespan.

 Our research is inherently multidisciplinary and resides at the intersection of neuroscience, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, social psychology, and early childhood education.