Join the Lab

The Infant Mind and Cognition Lab at Yale studies logical cognition and its development, with a focus on preverbal infancy and expanding to young children and adults. Our approach combines frameworks and methods from developmental psychology, vision science, psycholinguistics, and philosophy. Primary topics of interest include logical cognition – both in the traditional sense and broadly speaking –, abstract concepts, learning, the interface between perception and cognition, language acquisition, metacognition, comparative cognition, the development of planning and decision-making, and the distinction between discursive and iconic representations in the mind.

  • The Infant Mind and Cognition Lab at Yale University is looking for a postdoctoral researcher interested in the origin and development of high-level cognition. Research topics that are central to the lab include, among others, logical concepts, symbolic structures and compositionality in preverbal cognition and early language acquisition, and the interface between perception, language, and thought.   

    The candidate will have the opportunity to conduct research with infants, young children and adults. Potential research directions are constrained only by shared interests. A strong record in developmental psychology is welcome. We are also open to other backgrounds that can complement the lab’s research, including but not limited to linguistics, philosophy, comparative cognition, and developmental neuroscience. 

    Funding is available for two years with the possibility of extension through fellowships and grants. The base salary is $68,000 with benefits (listed here).  

    If interested, please email Dr. Cesana-Arlotti directly the following: 

    1.    Curriculum vitae 

    2.    A cover letter/research statement describing your interests, prior research, research questions you hope to pursue, and areas of overlap with the lab (2 pages max) 

    3.    Contacts of three references 

    Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. 

    The position will ultimately be filled through Yale University’s internal Human Resources process; strong candidates will be encouraged to submit their application to Yale after an initial review. Women, LGBTQ, and underrepresented minority applicants are encouraged. Yale University is An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. 

  • Dr Cesana-Arlotti is accepting PhD students to start in August 2025. Interested students should apply by Dec 1st, 2024, through the developmental track in Yale’s psychology PhD program. Candidates should indicate Dr. Cesana-Arlotti as a prospective supervisor and articulate in their materials the match between their background and research interests and the topics of interest of the Infant Mind and Cognition lab.

  • Thank you for your interest! We are no longer accepting new applications for this position.

  • The IMC Lab is accepting Research Assistants for Fall 2025! Yale undergraduates and students from other institutions eligible for course credit are welcome to apply.

    In line with departmental guidelines outlined by the Yale Psychology Committee for Racial Equity and Justice, our lab does not accept volunteers.

    Research assistants are responsible for:

    • Conducting both online and in-person studies involving infants, children, and adults.

    • Engaging with parents and guardians.

    • They will be paired with a senior research mentor (either a graduate student or lab manager) who will guide them in developing advanced research skills such as data analysis and literature reviews.

    To apply, please complete this form.

  • Applications for summer 2025 are closed.

Our projects with research assistants opportunities:

Logic in and out of visual perception

Do we use rapid logical computations to understand visual information in our everyday surroundings? In our research, we’re diving into the seamless mental connections between logical inference and visual perception. Imagine you see two objects about to collide: do we use a deductive inference to anticipate the consequences of this event? We are developing a series of infant and adult experiments that test the properties and capabilities of this remarkable vision-logic interface.

Preverbal Logic and Linguistic Logic

How do children develop the ability to make inferences using language? While they can make rich inferences from visual information, they often struggle when similar reasoning is required in a linguistic context. Our research examines when young children begin to draw inferences through language and investigates whether their ability to reason non-linguistically supports the development of linguistic inference skills. We explore whether the cognitive mechanisms guiding these preverbal inferences are the connected with ones that shape linguistic meanings, particularly in young children.

Representation of Possibilities

How do children understand possibilities? For example, do babies predict only a single outcome when observing rolling a dice (e.g., 5)? Or, can they also understand that other options are possible (e.g., 6)? In other words, can they differentiate what actually happened from what might have happened?

Social Inferences

Humans are social animals. To navigate and interact with others in this social world, it is essential to be able to understand others' goals and thoughts through their actions. How early does such social capacity emerge, and how does it relate to, or rely on, the logical capacities infants may or may not have? How do such logical capabilities empower future learning? If you are interested in the interface between logical inference and social cognition through the lens of developmental psychology, come check out the project!