Dr. Leonard may accept PhD students for this upcoming year.

We are not currently hiring for this position.

The Leonard Learning Lab is seeking applications for a postdoctoral fellow position in my lab at Yale University starting in 2026 (ideally summer). The postdoc will collaborate on an NSF-funded project investigating over-parenting and young children’s motivation and will also have the opportunity to develop independent projects. Candidates should have a Ph.D. in Psychology, Cognitive Science, or a related field, with a strong background in developmental research, experimental design, quantitative data analysis, working with diverse populations of parents and children, and mentorship. Advanced technical skills (e.g., App creation, knowledge of multiple programming languages, proficiency with Lookit, etc) are desired. The successful candidate will become a core member of the lab as well as the broader psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience intellectual community at Yale.

Duration: 2 years

Salary: $68,500 with benefits

Location: New Haven, CT

Interested individuals should send the following application materials to julia.leonard@yale.edu with POST DOC APPLICATION in the subject line.

Please include a:

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.    Up to two samples of previously published work or preprints.

4.    Names of at least three references (Reference letters will be requested from short-listed applicants)

Review of applications will be ongoing until the position is filled, but candidates are strongly encouraged to apply by February 1st, 2026.

More information can be found here: https://www.learninglab.yale.edu/join

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

• The Leonard Learning Lab is now accepting Research Assistant applications for Spring 2026 through December 11th, 2025.

• Research Assistants in the Leonard Learning Lab will be directly involved in running studies that further our understanding of children’s persistence, motivation, and learning. RAs must receive course credit in our lab for one semester before becoming eligible for federal work-study. 

• GENERAL QUALIFICATIONS

1. Familiar with and interested in developmental psychology. Strong candidates should have taken/be concurrently enrolled in Intro to Psychology and potentially Developmental Psychology.

2. Experience working with children and families. (This can include formal experience, such as volunteering at a school or camp, and/or informal experience, such as babysitting friends’ and relatives’ children.)

3. Basic proficiency with general computer applications, including Zoom, Google Drive, and Box.

4. Basic proficiency with R or other programming languages. Students who have never worked with R will complete a Codecademy course as part of their onboarding.

5. Candidates should be collaborative, organized, responsible, and proactive.

• EXPECTATIONS

  • Research assistants are responsible for conducting studies with infants, children, and teenagers, interacting with parents and guardians, supporting research and stimuli design, doing data management and simple analysis, and actively participating in lab meetings. Each RA is paired with a mentor in the lab: either a graduate student, postdoc, or the lab manager.

  • Expected time commitment: 8-10 hours per week, with at least 2 weekend shifts per month.

• APPLICATION MATERIALS

  • To apply, please send the following materials to lab manager Surya Marimuthu at surya.marimuthu@yale.edu. Please title the subject line of the email as “[YOUR FIRST AND LAST NAME] L3 RA Application”. 

    • Resume/CV (.docx or .pdf)

    • Cover Letter (1-page letter stating why you want to work in the lab and any relevant experiences you want to highlight)

The Leonard Learning Lab is not currently accepting applications for summer research assistants.

The Leonard Learning Lab is not currently accepting senior thesis students. Please check back next year.

Our lab is able to supervise thesis students from the Psychology and Cognitive Science majors. In order to be considered as a potential thesis student for our lab, you must meet the following requirements:

1. You must complete at least 1 semester as a research assistant, unless you receive express permission from the PI.

2. You are generally expected to write your thesis on one of the lab’s already existing projects/datasets. For example, you might write about a project that you have been an RA on previously; or, you might explore data from an older project in a novel way. For instance, Marissa Healy (thesis student 2022-23) did her thesis on Reut Shachnai’s project looking at over-engaged parenting. Although the study primarily focused on parents’ physical actions, Marissa developed a novel research question about parents’ verbal interventions during the study, like providing direct instruction or positive feedback. She coded all of the audio data from the study and worked with Reut to analyze them in R. This is a great example of how you can create an original research question within an already established project, while providing critical help to your research mentor!

3. In some cases, we will supervise a thesis looking at an original question stemming from another project in the lab. In this case, you must secure your own funding (such as the Mellon Grant, or a CIPE fellowship for summer work) to support this work. It is most feasible to do this in cases where you can run a survey online (like on Prolific or MTurk), code your own remote study (like on Lookit), or run a study with Yale undergraduates (SONA).

4. You must set up a meeting with your lab mentor and Julia to discuss your interest in completing a thesis.

5. After the initial meeting with your lab mentor and Julia and before the lab agrees to supervise your thesis, you must write a formal thesis proposal. The proposal will help us (and you) evaluate whether your project is tractable for a one-year thesis timeline. In this proposal, you must provide a compelling overview of your thesis topic (around 5 pages double-spaced, including 2-3 pages of relevant literature and 2-3 pages of proposed methods and hypotheses), plus a 1-2 page timeline for completing your thesis. Generally, this proposal should be submitted by the end of your junior year.

The Leonard Learning Lab (PI: Dr. Julia Leonard) at Yale University has an opening for a research assistant to help with data collection at our partner museum in Philadelphia, PA. 

Responsibilities: The Research Assistant is responsible for conducting studies with preschool-aged children in a museum setting, interacting with parents and guardians, supporting research and stimuli design, assisting with data management, and educating museum visitors about developmental science. The Research Assistant will work directly with a graduate student mentor in the lab and a senior Philadelphia-based RA. The expected time commitment is weekly 8-hour Saturday and/ or Sunday shifts at the museum for the semester (with potential to renew for summer).

This is a great job for individuals hoping to gain hands-on experience interacting with parents and children! This experience could be of value to those interested in applying to jobs or programs in developmental psychology, clinical psychology, counseling, or medical school.

Requirements: The Research Assistant MUST be able to easily transport themselves to the Please Touch museum in Philadelphia, PA on weekends. 

Qualifications: 1) Familiarity with and interest in developmental psychology; 2) Experience working with children and families; 3) Basic proficiency with computer applications (Microsoft suite, Google suite, Dropbox); 4) Candidates should be collaborative, organized, responsible, and proactive.

Start date: Early/ mid January 2026

Pay: $16/ hour.

To apply: please email lab manager Surya Marimuthu (surya.marimuthu@yale.edu) a 1) resume/CV, 2) cover letter, 3) contact information for two references by Dec 8th, 2025 for full consideration (applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis).

Learn more about the lab on our website, and please reach out to Surya Marimuthu (surya.marimuthu@yale.edu) with any questions.

The lab does not currently have any opportunities for high school students to get involved in research. Please check out these other opportunities at Yale for high schoolers in New Haven.

As a lab that studies how children learn and persist, we appreciate your interest in our research and depend on support and input from families like yours.

If you would like your child to be part of our research, we run studies for kids of different ages online, at museums, and schools. Check out this page for more info!

If you would like to learn more about our research, read more about it here and check out media coverage of our work here.

In line with departmental guidelines outlined by the Yale Psychology Committee for Racial Equity and Justice, our lab does not accept volunteers.  All students who wish to work in our lab, both in the academic year and during the summer, must formally apply through the processes outlined above and secure funding (or other compensation) for their work in the lab.