Meet Our Team!

JULIA LEONARD

Principal Investigator

Dr. Leonard is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Yale. She received her B.A. in Neuroscience and Behavior from Wesleyan University, her Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from MIT, and completed a MindCore funded postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Leonard wants to understand the factors that support both children’s approach to learning and their capacity to learn. She addresses these questions with the tools of cognitive science, developmental psychology, and neuroscience, with a focus on early childhood and educational implications.

Email: julia.leonard@yale.edu, Website, Twitter, CV

MIKA ASABA

Postdoctoral Associate

Mika is a postdoctoral researcher in the Leonard Learning Lab and the Computational Social Cognition Lab. She received her B.A. in Neuroscience from Wellesley College and her Ph.D in Psychology from Stanford University, where she worked primarily with Hyowon Gweon. Mika investigates how social cognition supports children’s understanding of who they are and what they can do, as well as the behavioral consequences on children’s learning decisions and social interactions. Her research uses developmental and computational methods to tackle these questions, with the ultimate goal of helping children develop healthy self-concepts.

Email: mika.asaba@yale.edu, Website, Twitter

BRANDON CARRILLO

PhD Student

Brandon is a second-year graduate student in the Leonard Learning Lab at Yale. He received his B.A. in Psychology and in Studio Art from Carleton College. Prior to graduate school, he worked in the nonprofit world at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and as a research coordinator at Stanford University. Brandon is wildly fascinated about how kids think about and regard their own cognitive capacities, specifically how and why they learn. He hopes his research will follow a trail of metacognitive questions that, in the end, will help develop our theories of young children’s motivation to see and understand themselves better as fulfilled learners.

Email: brandon.carrillo@yale.edu, Twitter

REUT SHACHNAI

PhD Student

Reut is a second-year PhD student in the lab. Before joining Yale, she completed an M.A. in developmental psychology at Cornell University. Reut wants to understand what factors prevent children from reaching their full potential. In particular, she is fascinated by the ways in which well-intentioned social input (e.g., helping, feedback, role models) can inadvertently suppress young children's motivation and learning. Importantly, her work interweaves basic science with translational research, with the ultimate goal of helping children – especially those from marginalized groups – become the best version of themselves.

Email: reut.shachnai@yale.edu, Twitter

FLORA ZHANG

PhD Student

Flora is a fourth-year grad student in Psychology. She is here because she finds humans puzzling and fascinating. In her research, she asks what makes us — kids and adults — want to explore and learn more about the world around us. More specifically, Flora is interested in how our metacognitive beliefs of learning and exploration could affect our decision to explore more (or, give up). Flora has a B.A. in Philosophy and History of Mathematics and Science from St. John’s College, and a M.A. in Computer Science and Informatics from The University of Chicago.

AARTHI POPAT

PhD Student

Aarthi is a first-year PhD student in the Leonard Learning Lab and the Social Cognitive Development Lab. Before coming to Yale, she received her B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University and worked as a lab manager at UCSD. Aarthi's research in the Leonard Learning Lab focuses on the cognitive mechanisms that underlie children's imposter syndrome and identity-based self-doubt. She ultimately hopes to identify and intervene on backfiring efforts to increase the representation of women and minorities in STEM.

ELAINE WANG

PhD Student

Elaine is a first-year PhD student at the Leonard Learning Lab. She recently graduated from the University of Toronto with a BSc in psychology and neuroscience. Elaine's research focuses on exploring both internal (e.g., cognitive mechanisms) and external factors (e.g., caregiver praise) that influence children's persistence behaviors and she hopes to further understand how the reward incentives present in informal and pedagogical environments alter children's intrinsic motivation. Ultimately, Elaine is passionate about studying how we can build contexts that promote the value of effort and boost optimism towards lifelong learning.

Email: elaineyilin.wang@yale.edu, Twitter

NATALIE MASETTI

Lab Manager

Natalie is the lab manager for the Leonard Learning Lab. She received her B.S. in Psychology from Haverford College, where she completed a thesis with Dr. Ryan Lei. Her thesis investigated how white parents talk to their children about whiteness and race after reading a picture book together. She is fascinated by what factors encourage children’s learning and how these factors can differentially affect children with disabilities or who are from minoritized backgrounds.

Email: natalie.masetti@yale.edu

Research Assistants