(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 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.
Roman Feiman
Lab Manager
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.
Amanda Martino
Postdoctoral Fellow
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
Gabor Brody
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.
Brian Leahy
Graduate Students
Aaron Traylor
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.
Yanwan Zhu
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.
Annika McDermott-Hinman
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.
Sam McGrath
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.
Laila Johnston
University of Bath Interns
Lucy is an undergraduate Psychology student from the UK’s University of Bath, working as a student intern in the BLT lab. Through exploring how children adapt to diverse learning environments as an outdoor education instructor, Lucy has gained a strong interest in how children develop their thinking and communication abilities – notably when under pressure! In her free time she is found either performing on the piano or enjoying the outdoors (weather permitting).
Lucy White
Anna is an undergraduate Psychology student at the University of Bath. In the third year of her degree, she is on placement as a research assistant at the BLT lab. Through her work studying English Language in school, shadowing Speech and Language Therapists with the NHS and working as a carer during the pandemic, she has developed an interest in language and cognitive processes and is excited to explore these from an early development perspective. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, writing, running, and thrifting!
Anna Smith
Undergraduate Thesis Students
Alyssa ’24 is a Linguistics and Computer Science concentrator from Singapore. She’s interested in the intersection of computational language models and cognitive models of language processing, in terms of what we can learn about humans from machines.
Alyssa Marie Loo Li Ann
Ariel Stein (’24) is studying cognitive neuroscience and linguistics at Brown. In addition to psycholinguistics and language acquisition, her interests include neurolinguistics, language and gender, neuropathology, and legal history. She enjoys cooking and learning about food history, and she’s an avid appreciator of limericks.
Ariel Stein
Undergraduate Research Assistants
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.
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.
Yael Sarig
Yael Sarig (’24) is a student at Brown University concentrating in Medical Anthropology. Yael was raised by Israeli parents in America, and thus grew up speaking both Hebrew and English, developing an interest in language and etymology along the way. She has previously worked as an assistant Hebrew teacher in high school, and this is her first linguistics research position at Brown. Outside of her studies, she can likely either be found in the Nelson powerlifting, or in the kitchen trying new recipes (and most likely burning the food).
Joshua Jaramillo Lopez
Josh Jaramillo (’25) is a student at Brown University studying both Mechanical Engineering and Psychology. He was born and raised in Austin, Texas as the oldest of two sons, and was always in charge of babysitting all of the younger kids in the family! He loves learning about how kids interact with their environment, and want to work with them more in the future! In his free time, Josh enjoys playing and watching soccer, playing guitar for Brown’s Mariachi group, hanging out with friends, catching up with family, and listening to all sorts of music!
Revyn Kim
Revyn Kim (’24) is a student at Brown University, with an interest in East Asian languages and linguistics. She enjoys learning different languages and is fascinated by how language affects perception, as well as the intersection between culture and language. She is a part of the PLME (Program in Liberal Medical Education) at Brown, and later plans to become a doctor. In her free time, Revyn loves to read, design clothes, knit, and dance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Aaron is a PhD student advised by Ellie Pavlick and Roman Feiman. Aaron is interested in research at the intersection of computer science and cognitive science. He asks questions such as: what tasks are trivially easy for adult humans and very challenging for modern neural networks?