Director

HANAKO YOSHIDA, PH.D.

Dr. Yoshida is a Professor in the Department of Psychology. Her central research focuses on language learning mechanisms creating highly specialized learning processes and the cognitive consequences of the language learning. The core idea behind her research is that these specialalized learning processes are derived from domain-general mechanisms and the process involving the fine-tuning and contextual cueing of attention to aspects of the learning environment. Dr. Yoshida studies these processes by studying young children learning different language(s). Her work provides insight into questions of how early learning interacts with regularities in the world, and how this relation feeds into self-sustaining learning.

Curriculum Vitae of Dr. Hanako Yoshida

Areas: Cognitive development (word/language learning, bilingual cognition, cross-linguistic comparison with children's category learning)

yoshida@uh.edu

Graduate students

GIANG LE

Giang is a graduate student in the Cognitive Development Lab. She is interested in early visual and language learning mechanisms in typically developing infants. Her research centers on infant visual attention, object exploration, and early object-related cognitive development. Using eye-tracking methodologies, she investigates how infants allocate attention to visual stimuli and how these patterns change across development. 

ELIZABETH PERKOVICH

Elizabeth is a graduate student in the Cognitive Development Lab. She is interested in atypical development among infants and very young children and how background factors influence language and attention trajectories. Her research focus is on children with autism spectrum disorder and how their behaviors during social interaction relate to their developmental outcomes.

SARA PAREDES

Graduate Student Alumni

LICHAO SUN

Lichao received her Ph.D. in the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Program at the University of Houston in May 2022. Now she is continuing work in the Cognitive Development Lab as a post-doctoral fellow. Her research interests include the multimodal experience under various play circumstances (e.g, object play in the lab and at homes), perceptual characteristics in early visual experience, and the impact of early dual/multi-language learning on visual attention and cognitive flexibility.

Curriculum Vitae of Lichao Sun

CHRISTINA GRIEP

I am a graduate student in the Cognitive Development Lab. I am interested in the discovering how children learn about the world around them through language and their interactions with their parents. My research is focused on the development of language acquisition and the cognitive mechanisms that underlie and facilitate language learning in a bilingual environment and across different languages.  

JOSEPH BURLING

Joseph received his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology (Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Program) at the University of Houston in May 2015. Upon graduation, Joseph accepted a post-doctoral position at UCLA in the Computational Vision and Learning Lab. While at the lab, Joseph investigated cognitive factors that lead to the attentional development.

CRYSTAL TRAN

Assistant Professor at University of St. Thomas

Crystal received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology (Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Program) at the University of Houston in May 2015. She is an assistant professor of Psychology at University of St. Thomas.

BETH WOODS

Assistant Professor at Texas Lutheran University

Beth received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology (Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Program) at the University of Houston in December 2013. She is an assistant professor of Psychology at Texas Lutheran University.

Research Assistants