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The focus of my research is on causal learning, with an emphasis on domain-general mechanisms of causal inference. Causal knowledge is both critical and mysterious: critical, because causal knowledge allows us to change the outcome of events, mysterious because causal relations must be inferred rather than observed. This work bridges my interest in a variety of areas, including philosophy of science, conceptual development, and theory of mind.
Adele Kaufman-Schulz
I am an extremely intelligent causal learner! I am interested in observing and engaging people and objects in my environment, acquiring knowledge, forming (and revising) theories, and of course being an adorable distraction to other ECCL members.
Claire Cook
I am interested in how we learn to appreciate the relations mapping evidence to inference (or beliefs). We know many important, and impressive, things about what this development looks like in the "forward" direction-- when we draw an appropriate (and, maybe, true) inference from our observations, even in infancy (and when we revise our beliefs in light of new evidence, etc.). What does this development look like in the opposite direction, when we start with the belief and must select facts that collectively suffice to license that belief (e.g. when we persuade or deceive others, when we justify our own beliefs to ourselves, or when we explain to someone else why something is true/false about the world)?
How are these two "directions" of competence related? What role does our Theory of Mind play in these abilities? How does our abstract knowledge -- for example, appreciating the distinction between necessity and contingency, or informative interventions versus uninformative interventions -- facilitate or constrain these abilities? Because causal knowledge is so central to our parsing and interpretation of what we observe in everyday life, I would like to tackle these questions as they apply to causal beliefs and evidence in particular.
Hyowon Gweon
My research interest broadly lies in conceptual development, especially in causal reasoning, as well as how this capacity may further be connected to understanding other people's minds. To pursue this interest, I plan to look at how babies and children deal with tasks that involve causal reasoning and social cognition.
Postdoctoral Researchers
I approach the study of mind with a combination of formal (mathematical) analysis, philosophical orientation, and empirical grounding. My research focuses on concepts and causality: what is the nature of causal and conceptual knowledge? how do we acquire this knowledge, and how do we use it?
Paul Muentener
My research explores the development of causal reasoning in infancy and early childhood. What is the range of events that we are able to reason about causally early in development? What kind of information enters into these causal representations? I am particularly interested in the role that representations of intentional agency play in causal reasoning. In my infant studies, I employ looking time measures and action-based tasks to explore our earliest causal reasoning skills. I also study children’s descriptions of causal events to investigate the relationship between children’s conceptual and linguistic representations of causality across development.
Research Assistant/Lab Coordinator
Ali Horowitz
Many adults don’t realize just how intelligent young infants and children are! Children are constantly learning about the world around them through their accumulated experience with their environments. I am intrigued by the way these seemingly simple interactions form the basis for their mature concepts. Children have as much to teach us as adults as we have to teach them!
Caroline Huang
As a summer camp counselor and former babysitter, I have seen firsthand how smart children are at very young ages. I am excited to have the opportunity to examine child development, especially Theory of Mind, from a scientific standpoint. Most of all, I love that the ECCL allows me to think critically about child cognition and play with kids at the same time!
Sam Marquart
I am an undergraduate in the Brain and Cognitive science department here at MIT. I am very interested in learning more about child development. I like working with kids and love having fun interacting with people. I think working in the ECCL will be a great experience.
Hannah Pelton
I was thrilled when I realized that the UROP program allowed me to combine two things I love, learning through science and working with children. Working with ECCL has been awesome because I feel like I am involved in every aspect of the projects, including building the stimuli beforehand, recruiting participants, conducting tests, and coding the data at the end. I especially love being able to explain my projects to my friends, because everyone likes hearing about cute little kids. I am interested in the aspects of cognition, such as Theory of Mind, that adults take for granted but are very different in children, because I want to know how and why children's minds change as they grow into adults, and why we are not born with an adult's mind.
Maggie Renno
I am an undergraduate majoring in psychology at Boston University, and I am especially interested in infant and child cognition. Having spent many summers as a camp counselor, I've always enjoyed the interest and excitement that comes with being around children. I'm so excited to work at the ECCL as I'll have the opportunity to spend time with children, and continue to better understand how the mind develops.
Steph Tong
I'm an undergraduate majoring in course 9 and am particularly interested in the cognitive science aspect of the course. Working at the ECCL is great especially because children constantly surprise me with how quickly they learn and develop! It's always so interesting to witness how plastic and agile the young human mind is.
ECCL Alumni
My research program explores causal learning from the perspective of two research traditions: developmental psychology and computational modeling. Specifically, I'm interested in understanding how causal theories are learned and how these theories affect the aquisition of new evidence via children's inferences, actions, and explanations.
Tayyba Anwar - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Stephanie Brenman - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Brendan Callahan - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Isabel Chang - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Catherine Clark - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Clifton Dassuncao - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Camille Doykan - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Kristin Falciglia - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Darlene Ferranti - Research Assistant/Lab Coordinator
Adina Fischer - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Michelle Garber - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Sarah Gumlak - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Zahra Ghadyali - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Irene Headen - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Kallie Hedberg - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Kate Hooppell - Graduate Student
Jordan Horowitz - High School Research Assistant
Anna Jenkins - Research Assistant/Lab Coordinator
Mariam Kandil - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Sydney Katz - Research Assistant
Anuja Khettry - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Danbee Kim - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Olivia Kim - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Cheryl Kwinn - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Suejean Lim - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Renee Lizcano - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Mike Obilade - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Phoebe Neel - High School Research Assistant
Kiersten Pollard - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Andrew Shtulman - Postdoctorate Researcher
Shyamli Sinha - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Holly Standing - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Chris Watson - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Yunji Wu - Undergraduate Research Assistant