We are a team of faculty, doctoral, and undergraduate researchers working together to discover how young children learn math.
Principal Investigators
Associate Professor
More about Dr. Vasilyeva
Dr. Marina Vasilyeva has expertise in the study of spatial and math skills in elementary school children. She investigates how the development of these skills is related to the input children receive from parents and teachers. She has designed assessment tools and training materials that have been used in several countries. Her research has been supported by federal and private foundations. Dr. Vasilyeva has produced more than 60 scientific publications and has organized workshops to share her findings and seek insight from educational professionals.
Associate Professor
More about Dr. Laski
Dr. Elida V. Laski conducts studies examining the cognitive processes underlying learning, producing insights that improve instructional materials with a primary focus on mathematics learning and instruction. Her expertise is in application of cognitive science, experimental designs, and small-scale intervention studies to education. The strategies emerging from its published research have earned attention from media outlets, such as The Wall Street Journal, and contributed to the development of apps, such as the Play and Learn App from PBS.
Professor Emeritus
More about Dr. Casey
Dr. Beth Casey has conducted extensive research on individual differences in spatial skills as well as how these differences impact math achievement. She has been a recipient of numerous grants from the National Science Foundation and private foundations supporting developmental research. She has designed spatial and math interventions, developed a series of spatially based math books, and served on the Math Advisory Board of the PBS Ready to Learn NSF Initiative. Dr. Casey has disseminated her research through more than 70 publications.
Research Assistants
5th Year Ph.D. Candidate
More about Katie:
Hyunyoung, who goes by Katie, is a doctoral candidate in the Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology program at Boston College. Her main research interests are children’s cognitive development and math knowledge. She is currently studying different predictors of children’s learning of arithmetic principles, specifically examining student and task characteristics. Her home is Seoul, Korea, but she has a lot of experience living in different cities growing up! She likes to travel, look for good coffee shops, and collect stationery items.
5th Year Ph.D. Candidate
More about Julia:
Psychology from New York University and an M.E. in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her work focuses on how contextual factors influence young children’s cognitive development, such as home experiences and preschool education. Her current project looks at how specific features of a self-designed storybook influence parental math input during parent-child interaction. Julia enjoys cooking, baking, and traveling in her free time, and she is a huge coffee lover!
4th Year Ph.D. Candidate
More about Jiwon:
Jiwon, pronounced “G1”, graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2019, with her BS in Psychology and a minor in Hispanic Studies. Prior to graduate school, she worked as a lab manager for two years in Dr. Robert S. Siegler’s lab at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she gained an interest in improving numerical magnitude knowledge in middle school students. Currently, her research interests are focused on how early education teachers influence children’s math learning. In addition to research, Jiwon enjoys going to Crossfit and spending time with her dog, Otis!
2nd Year Ph.D. Candidate
More about Kennedy:
Kennedy graduated with a BSc in Psychology from Worcester State University in 2019. He spent a year as a Social Worker with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families before completing his MS degree at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in 2022. At WPI, he worked at the African Community Education as a College Corps Fellow with the Worcester Education Collaborative, providing STEM enrichment activities to elementary school students during after school programs. He’s particularly interested in investigating differences in math cognition across contexts and the factors that influence these differences to improve math learning.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
- Genevieve Madaus
- Merryn Cuoto
- Nanyu Zhang
- Yiling Zhang
- Chelsea Suarez
Alumni
Graduate Students
- Linxi Lu
- Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Chicago
Lab Manager and Undergraduate Students
- Sophie Betar
PhD in Child Studies and Human Development at Tufts University - Lily Steele
Research Assistant at Temple University - Caraline McDonnell
PsyD in Clinical Psychology at Rutgers University - Cara Prunier
- Mia Vitiello
- Faith Drescher
- Katie Benjamin
- Karina Halloran
Lab Members
Fall 2023 Lab Members
Fall 2022 Lab Members