Team
Nicolò grew up in Milan, Italy, where he completed a BA and MA degrees in Philosophy with Alessandro Zucchi. He earned his Ph.D. from the Center for Brain and Cognition at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, studying Developmental Psychology with Luca L. Bonatti. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Cognitive Science at the Central European University with Ernő Téglás and Ágnes M. Kovács and then in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University with Justin Halberda and Chaz Firestone. When he is not investigating the foundations of logical cognition, he loves cooking for friends, visiting new countries, and summer vacations in Italy.
Principal Investigator Assistant Professor nicolo.cesana-arlotti@yale.edu
Nicolò Cesana-Arlotti, PhD
Chiara Saponaro
Visiting Postdoc chiara.saponaro@yale.edu
Chiara grew up in Milan, Italy, before moving to Trento, in the Italian Alps, to get her MA in Cognitive Science. She returned to Milan for a PhD in Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Milano-Bicocca. Her work, conducted in the lab of Professor Maria Teresa Guasti within the ERC Synergy Grant “Realizing Leibniz’s Dream: Child Languages as a Mirror of the Mind”, focuses on language acquisition and cognitive development. She is visiting the Infant Mind and Cognition Lab to study the relation between pre-verbal disjunction and the linguistic label “or” in the early stages of development. Outside the lab, she likes hiking, climbing, baking cakes, and eating them with friends.
Zihan Wang
Graduate Student zihan.wang.zw446@yale.edu
Zihan majored in Computer Science and Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins University, then worked at Dr. Tomer Ullman’s Computation, Cognition, and Development Lab at Harvard University. Zihan is interested in combining computational and experimental approaches to better understand human learning and communication; for example, what rules are easier or harder to learn, how social inferences are made, and how logical capabilities empower learning. Zihan enjoys cooking, watching shows, and taking photos for friends. Zihan is also a certified Latin dance teacher and judge.
Şeref Esmer
Graduate Student seref.esmer@yale.edu
Şeref grew up in Istanbul, Turkey, where he completed his BA and MA degrees in Psychology at Koç University. Under the supervision of Dr. Tilbe Göksun, he studied language development of preterm and full-term children from infancy to preschool period and completed his MA thesis on the interface between relational language and relational reasoning in preschoolers. Upon completing his MA degree, he moved to Connecticut for his PhD studies at Yale under the supervision of Dr. Nicolò Cesana-Arlotti. His primary research interest in the IMC Lab is how children think about possibilities. In his free time, he enjoys cooking and watching sitcom series.
Nathaniel Braswell
Graduate Student nathaniel.braswell@yale.edu
Nathaniel earned his B.A. in Linguistics and Cognitive Science at the Claremont McKenna and Pomona Colleges, where he worked jointly on projects in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience. Previous work includes topics in counterfactual reasoning, unconscious perceptual constancy, and physiological regulation in bilinguals. At Yale, he is interested in the seamless mental interface between visual perception and logical capacities (e.g., disjunctive inference, modal reasoning, and transitivity), studying how these connections arise in humans (through adults and infants) and in nonhuman primates (through wild rhesus macaques). Outside of the lab, Nathaniel enjoys writing, traveling, and drinking coffee.
Mahham Fayyaz
Lab Manager mahham.fayyaz@yale.edu
Mahham received her BA in Psychology from Sarah Lawrence College. There she worked on her thesis with Dr. Kim Ferguson examining the impact of diversity on facial processing in infants. She has previously worked as a coordinator at Columbia University’s Center for Theoretical Neuroscience and as a case manager at the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers. In her spare time, she enjoys painting and long naps.
Leilani is a sophomore at Yale (‘27) pursuing a major in Psychology with a concentration in neuroscience, with a certificate in Education Studies. She finds interest in research of cognition in development within infants and is really interested in the neural correlations of social interactions within brain regions and networks. In her free time she enjoys creative writing, dancing, and traveling.
Leilani Eth
Intern leilani.eth@yale.edu
Grace Pavalko
Intern grace.pavalko@yale.edu
Grace Pavalko is a rising senior at the University of Maryland majoring in Psychology. She is especially interested in cognitive development and hopes to pursue a PhD in psychology to study how children think, learn, and make sense of the world around them. Grace has experience working on research related to language development, child temperament, and trauma-informed care. Outside of academics, she enjoys trying new foods, traveling to new places, and reading mystery novels.
Angela Ryu
Research Assistant angela.ryu@yale.edu
Angela is a sophomore at Yale (’27) pursuing a double major in Psychology and Linguistics with a certificate in Education Studies. She finds interest in research of language acquisition in infancy. Also, she hopes to research intersections of developmental milestones involving speech delays and adverse experiences. In her free time she enjoys dancing, talking with friends, and trying new flavors of iced drinks.
Ethan Thomas
Research Assistant ethan.thomas@yale.edu
Ethan is a high school senior from Miami, Florida. He is interested in using machine learning to study the interaction between physiology and cognition, such as how cognitive states are reflected through properties of the eyes. Some of his work focuses on leveraging computer vision and artificial intelligence to enhance pupillometry capabilities. In his free time, he enjoys programming games, traveling, and spending time with friends.