Welcome to the Emerging Minds Lab!

We are a team of researchers at Arizona State University investigating how infants and young children learn about the world around them. We conduct research on a variety of topics related to early cognitive development, including: social cognition, decision making & problem solving, communication, and reasoning. A large focus of our research is in understanding how children’s early curiosity supports their thinking and reasoning, and what role the social and cultural environment plays in shaping early learning. To conduct this work, we use a variety of methodological approaches (e.g. behavioral experiments, naturalistic observations, looking-based paradigms) across a range of ages (5-month-old infants through adulthood) and diverse cultural groups.

Our lab is part of ASU’s Early Childhood Cognition Research Group, a group of developmental research labs at ASU that share an interest in how infants and children learn, communicate, and understand their environment. We are partners with ASU’s Child Study Lab, a preschool (for 15 months- 5 years) a few doors down from our lab. Our research lab is located in Tempe, Arizona, just outside of the city of Phoenix where we welcome families to participate in our studies. Phoenix is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States (and one of the sunniest!) — with over 1.68 million people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. We work closely with our community partners in the city of Phoenix to conduct and disseminate our research. Families can participate in our research & find our research team at our weekly pop-up “Living Lab” at the Children’s Museum of Phoenix. Beyond Arizona, Our lab is part of the ManyBabies project, a global consortium of developmental researchers.

Lab Values

In the Emerging Minds Lab, we are committed to creating an intellectual environment that is supportive, inclusive, and welcoming to individuals from all backgrounds. Our goal is to foster an environment of scientific excellence and personal development that supports every lab member in reaching their full potential. Our lab is a space where one's race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender identity or expression, sexuality, age, disability, immigrant generation status, veteran status, nationality, citizenship, religion, and political views are respected and valued. The Emerging Minds Lab strives to recruit as well as retain diverse scholars by actively ensuring everyone is provided with the necessary resources and opportunities to succeed both in and out of the lab. We are proud partners of ASU’s ENERGIZE program. The diversity that our team brings to the lab is always viewed as a resource and a strength.