(Top Row) Gabor Brody, Amanda Martino, Roman Feiman, Brian Leahy, Patrick Rourke (Middle Row) Laila Johnston, Annika McDermott-Hinman, Ya’el Sarig, Jaclyn Cohen, Josh Jaramillo Lopez, Alyssa Marie Loo Li-Ann
(Bottom Row) Yanwan Zhu, Ariel Stein, Anna Smith, Lucy White
Principal Investigator
Roman Feiman
Roman received his PhD in Psychology from Harvard University in 2015. He completed his postdoctoral work at Harvard and UC San Diego before coming to Brown. His work draws on a variety of approaches and methods from cognitive developmental psychology, language acquisition, psycholinguistics, and formal semantics. Roman directs the Brown Language and Thought Lab.
Lab Manager
Amanda Martino
Amanda received her Bachelor’s degree in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience from Western University in Canada and completed a clinical Master’s of Health Science degree in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Toronto. She is currently the lab manager of the BLT Lab. Outside of the lab, she enjoys cooking, reading, and being outdoors.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Gabor Brody
Gabor’s research explores infants’ and children’s ability to keep track of the identity of objects, agents, and other entities. He defended his dissertation in 2020 at the Cognitive Development Center of Central European University. During his PhD, he also conducted research at the Harvard Lab for Developmental Studies and at RICO (Universitat Pompeu Fabra).
Website: www.gaborbrody.com
Brian Leahy
Brian holds PhDs in Psychology (Harvard) and Philosophy (University of Connecticut). He studies how we know about things that might and might not happen, and how knowledge about mere possibilities differs from knowledge about what is. Outside of work Brian likes to run around, climb on walls, and slide down hills.
Graduate Students
Yanwan Zhu
Annika McDermott-Hinman
Annika received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, where she studied Linguistics, with a secondary concentration in Computer Science. She is interested in understanding how children learn the complex ways that concepts and their linguistic expressions combine to create meaning. Outside of academics, Annika enjoys reading, playing board games, and meeting new people.
Sam McGrath
Sam is a 5th year Ph.D. candidate in the philosophy department (A.B.D.) who has just started a Sc.M. in the department. He is interested in thought, language, and the relation between the two. He did his undergrad at the University of Chicago and an MPhil at Trinity College, Dublin. He has written on Frege, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Quine, Davidson and a number of other central figures in the analytic tradition. In his free time, he likes to play basketball and surf.
Laila Johnston
Laila is a PhD Student in Cognitive Science interested in the computational mechanisms of human question asking. More specifically, how question asking can provide insights into the kinds of knowledge and models humans have of the world. Laila received a B.S. in Mathematics with minors in Computer Science and Philosophy at the University of Central Florida, and is a NSF Graduate Research Fellow.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Julia Ceccarelli
Julia is an undergrad at Brown University, concentrating in Cognitive Science. She is interested in the evolution of language, especially in the context of human development. In her free time, Julia plays the cello and takes pictures of her dog.
Jaclyn Cohen
Jaclyn (’26) is a sophomore from South Florida intending to a concentrate in computer science. She is interested in the intersections between computation, visual arts and design, language, and thought. In her free time, she loves to paint and spend time in nature.
Happy Ruth Jara
Happy Ruth Jara (’25) is an undergraduate student at Brown University intending to study Education, Comparative Literature, and English. Born and raised in the Philippines, Happy speaks English and Tagalog. She is interested in the connections between child development, language acquisition, and multilingual education. In her free time, Happy can be found reading, singing, playing D&D, going on long walks, and improving her knowledge of Spanish and German.
Daniel Kang
Daniel is concentrating in Linguistics and Mathematics – Computer Science at Brown University. He is interested in how language mediates, facilitates, or allows for rational thinking, especially in the context of discourse. He is interested in employing formal tools and computational methods to study such a relationship. Outside of academics, Daniel likes to go for a run, play music, and read poetry.
Martin Pohlen
Martin Pohlen is a student at Brown University, pursuing a concentration in Computer Science & Economics. Martin grew up between Switzerland and England, with German parents, and is therefore fascinated by the role that language acquisition plays in social cohesion. In his free time, Martin is either playing football, running, or joking around with his friends.
Chloe Qiao
Chloe (’27) is an undergrad at Brown University concentrating in Mathematics – Computer Science. She speaks Cantonese at home, English at school, and is learning Mandarin on the side. Her experiences with language-learning sparked her interest in the process of language acquisition. In her free time, Chloe likes to paint and rock-climb.
Alexander Richter
Alexander Richter (‘25) is a student at Brown University, pursuing a double concentration in German Studies and Economics. With multiple languages and cultures contributing an integral part to his upbringing, he is interested in researching language acquisition and its role in society. In his free time, Alex enjoys soccer, hiking, and traveling.
Patrick Rourke
Patrick (’25) is a student at Brown University with interests in education, psychology, and sociology. He enjoys learning about how children think, learn, and behave. Though he is unsure what career he will pursue, Patrick loves finding ways that his interests intersect, and he hopes to use findings in a future education-related career. In his free time, Patrick loves playing basketball, running, playing the saxophone, and hanging out with friends.
Sneha Tallam
Sneha Tallam (’26) intends to concentrate in Cognitive Neuroscience and Economics. She grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and spent a lot of time working with children at occupational therapy sites, literacy initiatives, and mentorship clubs. She is interested in the role that sociocultural factors play in children’s language acquisition and comprehension. In her free time, Sneha likes to explore the many cafes in PVD and have 90s movie nights with her friends.
Before coming to Brown, Yanwan was an undergraduate at Smith College majoring in Linguistics and Statistical & Data Sciences. While working with Prof. Jill de Villiers at Smith, she developed her interest in studying the relationship between language and thought. Currently, she is interested in using experiments and corpus studies to understand how children and adults represent – or learn to represent – complex meanings of linguistic constructions in their mind. When she’s not doing science, Yanwan enjoys everything music-related and spending time with her cat Seraphina.