Developmental & Computational Affective Cognition Lab

Dr. Yang Wu

Lab Director

Yang is interested in how humans reason about emotion or affect, an interdisciplinary domain called Affective Cognition. Yang studies affective cognition in humans from infancy to adulthood and uses a variety of approaches, including behavioral experiments, exploratory play,  eye tracking, and computational modeling.

Yang is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She obtained her Ph.D. in Cognitive Science at MIT in 2018 and received her postdoctoral training at Stanford University from 2018 to 2022. 

Dr. Tiffany Doan

Post Doc

Tiffany’s research focuses on cognitive development in early childhood, specifically social cognitive development. She is interested in how children and adults use probability to infer other people's emotions and the relationship between close counterfactual reasoning and emotion inferences. She’s also interested in children's desire-based reasoning, self-directed learning, and exploration.

Tiffany received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Waterloo.

Sahej Gulati

Lab Manager 

Sahej completed her BSc degree in Psychology at UTSC. She is interested in exploring how children learn from and interpret emotions displayed by others and how it affects their understanding of the social world. She is also interested in learning how emotional cues influence the formation of children's social bonds. In her free time, she likes spending time with her friends and exploring new neighbourhoods and restaurants!

Hanqi Chen

Graduate Student

Hanqi completed her BSc degree in Psychology at UTSC. She is interested in investigating infant-directed emotion, how children perceive emotions, and how it would influence their behaviour. Outside of the lab, Hanqi enjoys cooking and travelling.

Grace Sun

Graduate Student 

Grace completed her undergraduate student completing a Research Specialist program in Psychology. I am interested in how children use emotion as a source of information to guide their learning and reasoning about the world and how this influences their exploration, motivation, persistence, etc. In my free time, I love baking, reading, and playing with my cat!

Marija Bolic 

Graduate Student 

Marija completed her BSc Degrees in Psychology and Computer Science at the University of Ottawa. She is interested in the intersection between developmental and computational methods, with her graduate research specifically focusing on how people integrate verbal and emotional cues in communication and how people use emotions to inform their learning. Outside of research, she also loves spending time with family and friends, playing outdoor sports, and reading.

Julie (Duofei) Liu

Research Assistant

I am an undergraduate student pursuing a double major in psychology and anthropology. I am interested in how social learning and emotion, including empathy, influence children’s development in affective cognition. In addition, I am keen to explore whether children use emotional expression as an inference through intuition or error trials. Outside of academics, I love playing the piano, reading, and snowboarding!

Emilie Broomfield

Summer Research Opportunity  Program (SROP) Student 

Emilie completed her BSc degree in Psychology at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She is interested in children's perception of adult emotions and behavior and their influence on children's cognitive development. Emilie is originally from the Inuit homelands of Nunatsiavut in Northern Labrador and hopes to pursue a career in psychology while working with Indigenous communities. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, baking, exploring vintage shops, and watching movies. 

Gabriela Aguiar Monteiro

Supervised Study Student 

I'm an undergraduate student specializing in psychology at UTSC. I'm interested in how emotional cues and children's perception of other's emotions shape their cognitive development and help them navigate the world. Outside of the lab, I love rock climbing, reading, and spending time with my friends!

Elrion Lee

Research Assistant

Elrion is completing his HBSc in the psychology specialist program at UTSC. He is interested in how the perception of emotion communicated in speech can affect cognition and behaviour in both children and parents. Outside of work, he likes to play music with friends, explore neighbourhoods and seek out good food. 

Amirreza Mirzaei

Research Assistant

I'm Amirreza, an undergraduate student specializing in Neuroscience with a minor in Biology. In general, I am interested in the concept of emotions, especially emotion regulation and the way the dynamic of emotion is affected by the surrounding factors. I am also fascinated by the various brain areas related to this topic. In my free time, I like to read, corchet, play the piano, and listen to my favorite artist Tamino.

Peiyun (Sonia) Song

Research Assistant

Sonia is completing her undergraduate at UTSC in the psychology specialist program. Her primary area of research interest lies in using games and behavioural experiments to engage youths in developmental and cognitive studies, particularly focusing on social influences and cross-cultural variability. Outside of the lab, you can find her enjoying food, chatting with friends, and playing with animals!

Rouchen (Rachael) Lin

Research Assistant

I am an undergraduate student doing a Psychology Specialist and Biology Minor at UTSC. I am interested in how people use emotion as information to modulate harmonious soical interactions, and how children become capable in interpreting emotions as they grow up. In my spare time, I enjoy practicing guitar, gaming, and photography. 

Cheuk (Yannes) Yan-Lam 

Research Assistant

Yannes is an undergraduate student completing her HBSc specialising in psychology at UTSC. She is interested in how emotion from adults communicated through speech affects infant cognition. Outside academics, she likes to play the violin, bake desserts, and ice skate.

Aishwaria Pathmanesan

Research Assistant

My name is Aishwaria, and I am currently an undergraduate student double majoring in Human Biology and Psychology at UTSC. I am interested in social learning specifically how emotions aid children in navigating various settings. Outside of the lab, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, going on bike rides through nature, and baking different treats.