Postdoctoral Students and Graduate Students
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)
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.
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
Click here for former Research Assistants
K. KELLY MEINE
Summer 2017 - Present
I graduated from UH with a B.S. in Psychology, minor Quantitative Social Science.
In addition to being a research assistant with the lab, I am also the website administrator.
My research interests include how language is developed and processed in the brain,
and how social factors affect cognitive development.
NIKITA GIDH
Fall 2018 - Present 
I joined the UH Cognitive Development Lab under Dr. Yoshida as I was interested in
neuroscience and pediatrics. While working with a place called SIRE where I help disabled
kids learn how to ride a horse as well as teaching children how to play the violin
as a violin teacher, I learned the importance of learning development in children
and wish to see how parent and social interactions aid in this for babies and toddlers.
In the future, I hope to go to medical school and become a pediatric neurosurgeon,
and my work here in lab will help me fully understand cognitive development.
URVI SAKHUJA
Spring 2019 - Present
I joined the Cognitive Development Lab because I am interested in the neuroscience
and psychology of children, and wanted to gain firsthand experience of the entire
research process. Specifically, my research interests include the development of neuro-divergent
children and how they interact with the world around them. In the future, I am hoping
to attend medical school and eventually specialize in psychiatry or neuroscience,
expanding on my knowledge and experiences from this lab.
JO-ANNE PHAM
Summer 2019 - Present
I joined the Cognitive Development Lab because I was interested in learning about
how infants' learn to understand and interact with their surroundings. I currently
work on the home studies at the lab to better understand contextual setting effects
in parent child play behaviors. In the future, I hope to expand my knowledge and research
in studying learning experiences from infancy to adulthood. After undergrad, I plan
on pursuing a Ph.D. and becoming a professor.