julia_a_leonard
@julia_a_leonard
Developmental cognitive scientist | Assistant professor of psychology at Yale | she/her
Wirecutter crowned Ben & Jerry’s the best vanilla ice cream. I scoffed. Our lab managers Surya and Nat ran a blind taste test. Guess what won? Ben & Jerry’s. Science is brutal. @LeonardLearnLab
On 6/21, come to Amant Gallery (NY) for the exhibition On Education and a screening of Baby Group by Emanuel Almborg — with commentary by me! A joyful blend of art and science, the film explores how a group of babies behave in the absence of adults. amant.org/programs/1151-…
Honored to win the 2025 APS Janet Taylor Spence Award! You can read more about my research and journey here psychologicalscience.org/publications/o…
Check out our symposium on *parents' lay theories of cognitive development* at #SRCD2025! How do parents intuitively assume prejudice, ability, and number develop? Ft. work by @Reut_Shachnai and @julia_a_leonard, @domgibs, and yours truly, discussed by @andrewshtulman!
Come check out the lab's research at SRCD this week! @SRCDtweets @LeonardLearnLab
Congrats to my first PhD student Dr @flora_xy_zhang!!!!! Make sure to follow her amazing work on intuitive theories of acquisition!
How do we keep children motivated in learning? 📚 Assistant Professor @julia_a_leonard discusses the importance of encouragement and creating an environment where effort pays off for children’s development. 🌟
How do we think about our future learning curves for a new skill? 💭 Check out our new paper on people's intuitions about skill acquisition @julia_a_leonard @smickdougle
“People accurately predict the shape but not the parameters of skill learning curves” 📢New paper from: @flora_xy_zhang, @smickdougle, and @julia_a_leonard sciencedirect.com/science/articl… 1/10
The call for applications for the Jacobs Foundation Research Fellowship is now open! 🎉 The Program offers #fellowships to early- & mid-career researchers whose work is dedicated to improving the #learning & #development of children worldwide. For information on how to apply,…
There is just over a week left to apply to the MindCORE Postdoctoral Fellowship @Penn. Applications close Sunday, December 1. mindcore.sas.upenn.edu/post-doctoral-… @pennbgs @UPennGAPSA @LingSocAm @PennMINS
MindCORE Postdoc Fellowship @Penn Designed for new(ish) PhDs in neuro, psych, ling, philo, CIS, cog sci+ 3 yrs salary +20K research fund More: mindcore.sas.upenn.edu/post-doctoral-… @PennSAS @PennEngGrad @AnnenbergPenn @PennLinguistics @PennBiology @PennNGG
Overparenting is on the rise and hurts children’s motivation starting in early childhood. How can we help parents step back? Our new paper in Child Dev shows that pointing out learning opportunities reduces overparenting. Led by amazing @Reut_Shachnai srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cd…
For decades, developmental psychologists have observed that optimism declines with age. Why does this seemingly positive behavior diminish over time? In our Nature Reviews Psych article, Jessica Sommerville and I offer an integrated theory. nature.com/articles/s4415…
New preprint with @JessaStegall, Emily Hembacher, @mcxfrank, and @hyogweon: Young children infer the informativeness of others' praise. osf.io/preprints/psya… Adults give children a lot of praise, but do children always trust it?
In 2017, @maxhkw and I worked on a Bayesian model for how children learn to calibrate effort from adult models. We never published the cogsci paper (didn't want to scoop myself at the time), so putting it on PsyArXiv now for all to see! osf.io/preprints/psya…
Loved doing this more personal interview about my research! Read it to find out how my sister sparked my interest in psychology and to learn more about recent work in the lab
“I have found that children learn how hard to try from watching and listening to the adults around them.” @julia_a_leonard on ways to encourage children to persist and problem-solve on their own. #Motivation #Persistence #EdChat @LeonardLearnLab bold.expert/the-cognitive-…
Our lab is hiring a part-time Philadelphia-based research assistant to help with data collection at our partner museum! This is a great opportunity for those interested in applying to jobs/programs in dev psych! For more info, see: learninglab.yale.edu/philly-app
Come join us!
The Yale Psychology Department has just opened a search for a tenure-track open-rank faculty appointment in the area of Developmental Psychology! Click here for more information -> apply.interfolio.com/150733 #jobopening #dreamjob