Science of Learning Lab
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Lindsey Richland is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine. Previously, she was an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago, and she received her Ph.D in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Richland's research examines the ways that children develop complex reasoning skills, a crucial tool for success in the 21st century.  She examines children's reasoning development in and out of schools, with her classroom research focusing on teaching and learning mathematics. She examines the mechanisms underpinning children's capacity to think flexibly, with studies focusing on the roles of cognitive maturation and individual differences, primary caregiver language and socialization practices, and school routines. She also examines factors shaping children's tendencies to engage in higher order thinking when opportunities are available. Her classroom work focuses on mathematics, investigating effective teaching practices for increasing higher order thinking and reducing opportunity gaps. Recently, some of her work has shifted to attend to the roles of pressure and anxiety in exacerbating such gaps.    【Curriculum Vitae】
Postdoctoral Scholars and Graduate Students
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Almaz Mesghina is a fifth-year PhD student in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago and a Predoctoral Fellow for the National Institute for Education Sciences. Broadly, her research interests focus on emotional factors in the classroom, such as students’ anxiety, that often contribute to achievement gaps in mathematics. Her current work, an extension of her M.A. thesis, explores when pressure incentivizes or threatens students’ cognitive performance, and whether emotion regulation interventions may mitigate any harmful impacts of pressure on performance and engagement. Concurrently, Almaz leads two other research projects investigating how learning and engagement is impacted by student-teacher and student-student interactions in both preschool and undergraduate math instruction. Almaz received her B.S. both in Child Development and Psychology from Vanderbilt University in 2016, where she taught at a preschool and researched the role of touchscreen interactivity on preschoolers’ word learning. ​
​【Curriculum Vitae】

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Lanye Teska is a third-year PhD student in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. Broadly, Layne is interested in school and home environments as mediating factors in children's cognitive and social-emotional development. Currently, she is investigating the role of individual differences in cognitive resources (i.e., analogical reasoning skills and executive function) and its relationship to learning and problem solving. Additionally, her work examines how pedagogical approaches may facilitate the acquisition of knowledge needed for effective problem solving. Layne also examines these mechanisms of development cross-culturally in Nicaragua and Belize. She graduated from Carleton College in 2014 where she majored in psychology and Neuroscience.     
【Curriculum Vitae】

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Natalie is a first year PhD student in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine, with a specialization in Human Development in Context. She is broadly interested in how individual differences would affect math learning. In particular, she is exploring how bilingualism, executive functions, self-efficacy, and stereotype threat would affect student engagement in higher order thinking in a math learning context. Natalie just graduated from the University of Chicago and obtained an MA in Social Sciences degree with concentrations in Psychology and Comparative Human Development. Before coming to the States, she worked as a high school math teacher and an inspector in the Department of Education in Hong Kong. These experiences have formed her interests in her current interdisciplinary research. 

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Joseph Wong is a doctoral student at the University of California, Irvine who studies Teaching, Learning, and Educational Improvement (TLEI) while specializing in Digital Learning and Educational Technology under his advisor, Dr. Lindsey Richland. He is a researcher motivated by questions at the intersection of science education, digital media, and higher-order thinking. More specifically, he is interested in the cognitive mechanisms underlying how instructional media technologies such as online learning, virtual and augmented reality, and digital interactivity, can improve student motivation, engagement, content acquisition, and foster transferable skills. Through this work, Joseph's career goal is to bridge together his passion for digital media with science education to design effective learning experiences representative of today’s 21st-century student learning behaviors.
Website: https://jw.education.uci.edu/

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Lina Carpenter is a second year Ph.D. student in education at University of California at Irvine, specializing in Human Development in Context (HDiC).  Her research interests include emotional intelligence, promoting “soft skills” in educational contexts, and how social ecology interacts with cognition and mental load.  Lina worked in Los Angeles, CA as a preschool teacher, where her experience with young children was centered around problematic classroom behavior and self-regulation, which in turn formed her current interdisciplinary research interests.  Lina also has a BS in Fine Art from the University of California at Santa Cruz and an MA in Educational Psychology with a concentration in Early Childhood Education from California State University at Northridge.
【Curriculum Vitae】// Website: ​www.linacarpenter.com

Lab Manager
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​Bella Lerner graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2019 where she received a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Applied Psychology. Over the last 10 years she has had the opportunity to work with infants through pre-teens in a variety of contexts, including research, in-school settings, and extracurricular activities. Her interests center around children's social-emotional development, how it is linked to academic achievement and later life outcomes, as well as the ways in which it is impacted by family and parenting styles. 

Research Assistants
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​Alex Wall is a fourth year undergraduate student at the University of California, Irvine. She is majoring in Psychology and minoring in Biological Sciences. Her research interests center around Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience, particularly within the topics of learning and memory. After graduating from UC Irvine, Alex hopes to pursue a PhD in Cognitive Psychology and enter a career in research and academia.

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​Jan Nathan Abestilla is a fourth year undergraduate student majoring in Human Biology and minoring in Psychological Sciences at UCI. His research interests include a wide scope of subjects including learning, music therapy, and communication in relationships. He hopes to pursue medicine after his fifth year at UCI, or pursue a career in research in the fields mentioned previously.

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​Lauren Farias is a current post-baccalaureate student in UCI's School of Social Ecology, Department of Psychological Science.  She completed her bachelor's at the Ohio State University in art and design.  She plans to apply for Ph.D. programs this coming fall in School Psychology.  She's interested in school engagement in underserved populations and its relation to middle childhood and adolescent mental health.

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​​​Maya Joyce received her BA in Applied Psychology and Human Development from Boston College in 2018. While there she minored in Special Education and Women's and Gender Studies. The focus of most of her undergraduate research was on youth purpose development and the effects of mentoring relationships. Her senior honor's thesis was a study of the purpose development of youth in Tanzania. Maya's current interests include developmental and educational psychology, specifically in a cross-cultural context as well as how an individual's environment and relationships impact all parts of their life. 

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Su Thway is a 5th year student in University of California, Irvine, double majoring in Education Science and Psychological Science. While Su is still exploring her options, her current research interests include how children think and their behaviors evolved from parenting styles and the family environment as well as broadly in social psychology of how individuals behave differently in the presence of others. In addition, She hopes to follow her passion in Photography, baking, and Interior Design as her side hobbies.

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