People
Lab Director
Dr. Ramani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology. Before coming to University of Maryland in 2008, Dr. Ramani received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Ramani teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in cognitive development. Her research centers around social influences on cognitive development, namely mathematics and problem solving.
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Graduate Students
Mary DePascale
mdep@terpmail.umd.edu
Mary is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from Wesleyan University. Before graduate school, she worked for two years as a research assistant in the Early Childhood Cognition Lab at MIT and as an education intern at the Children’s Museum of NH. Mary is interested in children’s mathematical and social learning, and how children learn through play, games and informal social interactions.
Raychel Gordon
rjgordon@umd.edu
Raychel is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology. Before becoming a Terp, she earned her B.A. in Psychology from Boston University, and then spent two years working as a lab manager at the Boston College Infant and Child Cognition Lab. Raychel is primarily interested in how children can use embodied practices and gestures to learn new math concepts (such as pointing while counting), as well as how children can more broadly learn from informal or play-based interactions.
Gillian Grose
ggrose@umd.edu
Gillian is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology. She earned her B.S. in Human Development from Cornell University. Gillian is interested in the impact of parental beliefs on children’s math learning, and how children learn through informal social interactions.
Lab Alumni
Fatou Gaye
Fatou worked as lab coordinator in the ECI lab until 2020. She is currently in graduate school pursuing a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Florida State University.
Nicole earned her Ph.D. in Human Development and Quantitative Methodology at UMD in 2019. She is currently completing her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Irvine.
Nadia Tavassolie
Nadia worked as lab coordinator in the ECI lab until 2019. She is currently in graduate school pursuing a Ph.D. in Psychology at Temple University.
Emily earned her Ph.D. in Human Development and Quantitative Methodology from UMD in 2018, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Rutgers University-Newark. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the department of Psychology at the University of Hawaii Mānoa.
Alaina Wodzinski
Alaina worked as lab coordinator in the ECI lab until 2018. She is currently in graduate school pursuing a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Montclair State University.
Erica Zippert
Erica earned her Ph.D. in Human Development and Quantitative Methodology in 2016. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Vanderbilt University.
Sarah earned her Ph.D. in Human Development and Quantitative Methodology at UMD in 2015, then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago. She is currently an assistant professor in the Human Development and Family Studies Department at Purdue University.