I am an Assistant Professor at the Psychology Department at California State University East Bay.  I run the Cognitive Development Lab (CoDeLab). We study how humans reason about context-sensitive systems, across development. 

One line of my research examines cognitive representations of interactive relationships, or associations that depend on the states of background variables. I study how acknowledging instability, or lack of robustness of causal and categorical relationships across background circumstances affects learning, inductive inference, language, and decision-making. Grasping the interactive nature and complexity of many real-world associations is an important element of learning natural and social sciences. 


Another line of my work examines how people reason about agents embedded in complex structures that constrain or facilitate agents’ behaviors, depending on their position within the structure. I study how reasoning about social structures develops, how different cognitive mechanisms contribute to it, what behavioral consequences it has, and how language both shapes and reflects it.


I am excited to co-lead  two interdisciplinary NSF-funded research and mentorship projects: ​"Generics in context: Examining mental biases and resources in social and science communication and learning" with Dr. Kate Ritchie, and "How educators and decision-makers reason about complex causal models and the adoption of evidence-based practices" with Dr. Tania Lombrozo.

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