Principal Investigator
nicolo.cesana-arlotti@yale.edu

Nicolò grew up in Milan, Italy, where he completed a BA and MA 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.

Postdoctoral Associate
catherine.holland@yale.edu

Catherine earned her B.S. in Psychology from Yale in 2016 and completed her Ph.D. at Dartmouth in 2025, working with Jonathan Phillips and Matt van der Meer. Her research focuses on how humans represent and reason about what is possible, a key aspect of planning, decision-making, and social cognition. She takes a building-blocks approach to studying possibility reasoning by treating it as a system composed of distinct cognitive processes (e.g., option generation, executive function, episodic memory, theory-of-mind). Her research spans comparative cognition, neuroscience, and developmental psychology. Outside the lab, Catherine is involved in ornithological research and enjoys rock climbing, traveling, and wildlife photography.

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. 

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.

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.

Graduate Student
nicole.xu@yale.edu

Nicole graduated from University of California, Los Angeles in 2025 with a BA degree in Psychology and BS degree in Statistics and Data Science. During her undergraduate years, she worked in multiple labs investigating infants’ and children’s logical reasoning, numerical and spatial cognition, and language acquisition. In graduate school, she is passionate about studying how infants and children develop logical reasoning capacities such as conceptual compositionality, disjunctive inference, and order reversal. She is also interested in studying how children apply these reasoning skills to navigate the social world. Outside of research, she likes bouldering, figure skating, playing ultimate frisbee, and traveling with friends.

Visiting Graduate Student
bartug.celik@yale.edu

Bartuğ graduated from Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, with a BA in Philosophy. During his undergraduate studies, he became interested in cognitive science from a developmental perspective. He completed his MA in Psychology at Bilkent University in 2021 under the supervision of Jedediah W. P. Allen. In the same year, he began his PhD at Central European University in Vienna, where he works with Ágnes M. Kovács on infants’ theory of mind and its relation to domain-general abilities such as logical reasoning. He is currently a visiting doctoral student at Yale, supported by the Marietta Blau Grant. Outside the lab, he enjoys lindy hop dancing, hiking, and climbing.

Postgraduate Associate
c.kwon@yale.edu

Christine received her B.S. in Developmental Psychology and Cognitive & Behavioral Neuroscience from UC San Diego, where she worked as a research assistant in several developmental labs studying children's cognitive and language development. She is broadly interested in how children come to learn about the world around them and how they learn so much from so little. Outside the lab, she enjoys road trips with her family and Greek yogurt bowls.

Research Assistant
angela.ryu@yale.edu

Angela is a senior 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.

Research Assistant ‍ ‍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.

Research Assistant ‍ ‍leilani.eth@yale.edu

Leilani is a senior 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.

Research Assistant ‍ ‍rose.chen@yale.edu

Rose is a senior at Yale (’27) majoring in Cognitive Science with a certificate in Education Studies. Her interest in developmental psychology is shaped by research in mammalian cognition and behavior, which sparked her curiosity about how early human reasoning and communication emerge. Outside the lab, Rose loves spending time with friends, traveling, taekwondo, figure skating, snowboarding, and playing mahjong.

Research Assistant ‍ ‍sophia.l.zhang@yale.edu

Sophia is a junior at Yale ('28) majoring in Computer Science and Psychology. She finds interest in logical reasoning and fallacies, decision-making, and language acquisition of infants and young children. In her free time, she enjoys reading, watching dramas, spending time with friends, and playing the flute.

Research Assistant‍ ‍
ashwina.thorani@yale.edu‍

Ashwina is a sophomore at Washington and Lee University pursuing a B.S. in Cognitive and Behavioral Science. She is currently interested in studying the interaction between logical cognition and linguistic realization in young children. Through the IMC Lab, she hopes to become equipped at handling child participants, and finding the means to organize, conduct and communicate scientific findings. Outside of her academic interests, she loves to spend her time dancing, travelling, and spending time with her friends and family.

Research Assistant ‍ ‍
joy.ni@yale.edu‍

Joy Ni is a sophomore at Yale College (‘29) majoring in Political Science and Psychology. She is interested in legal argumentation, logical reasoning, decision-making, and political philosophy, and hopes to pursue a career in law. Outside the classroom, she is a violinist of 14 years and enjoys listening to music, drawing, and watching video essays on YouTube.

Research Assistant ‍ ‍
avery.lafata@yale.edu

Avery LaFata is a junior at Suffolk University (Class of 2028) majoring in Psychology with a minor in Philosophy. Her interest in developmental psychology is rooted in hands-on experience working with children across nurseries, daycares, and preschools. She plans to pursue a career in public interest law, with a focus on advocating for children in need. Her time at the IMC Lab will deepen her understanding of child development and strengthen her ability to support children through the legal system. Outside of her studies, Avery enjoys reading, staying active, traveling, and conducting advocacy research for individuals living with EDS.‍

Research Assistant‍ ‍
angie.a.liu@yale.edu

Angie is a sophomore at Yale and a prospective Cognitive Science major. Her research interests include developmental cognition and moral psychology. In the IMC Lab, she hopes to explore questions surrounding infants’ logical reasoning and decision-making. Outside of the lab, Angie enjoys playing badminton, practicing yoga, baking, and making matcha lattes.‍

Research Assistant ‍ ‍
joy.kim@yale.edu

Joy Kim is a sophomore at Yale (‘29) majoring in Psychology with a certificate in Translation. Her interests in developmental psychology are broadly in language acquisition and environmental and experiential factors in early neural development. In her future, she hopes to pursue a career in social work or education, where she can help to create more supportive environments for children and families. Outside of class, she enjoys crafting, drawing, and rewatching her favorite sitcoms.

Research Assistant ‍ ‍
julia.diaz@yale.edu‍

Julia is a sophomore at Yale College (’29) majoring in Cognitive Science with an Advanced Language Certificate in Spanish. She is interested in how young children master language and logical reasoning so quickly, and what innate systems might explain it. She hopes her time in the lab will build her hands-on research skills and deepen her understanding of early cognitive development. In her free time, Julia loves to hike, run, travel, and read.

Research Assistant ‍ ‍
samantha.chu@yale.edu‍

Samantha is a sophomore at Yale College ('29) studying Cognitive Science with a certificate in Education Studies. She is interested in studying how the ability to navigate the social world based on others feedback is taught from scratch or is innate and can be strengthened through education and interactions with others. Outside of the lab, Samantha enjoys eating out with friends, watching dramas, and dancing. ‍

Lab Mascot ‍ ‍

Watson is Nathaniel's mini poodle and the IMC Lab's beloved mascot! He loves bones and quickly becomes friends with everyone he meets. You can usually find him being "kidnapped" by lab members for pets and cuddles.