Graduate Students

Xiaohan (Hannah) Guo

I am broadly interested in how students learn, think, and apply knowledge in novel situations. My current research examines the mechanisms behind gestures that promote STEM learning and the development of image memory among children.

Email: hannahguo@uchicago.edu

Michelle Madlansacay

I am interested in exploring the relationship between language and learning, and identifying the verbal and nonverbal characteristics of human language that can be considered universal. My current work investigates the role of parent interactions in the communicative development of deaf and hearing children.

Email: mmadlansacay@uchicago.edu

Emilia Szmyrgala

I am a doctoral student in the Department of Comparative Human Development. I completed my undergraduate studies at University of California, Los Angeles in 2018 where I obtained my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and minor in Applied Developmental Psychology. Before coming to University of Chicago, I was an educator in Chicago Public Schools for three years. Broadly, my research interests include trauma-informed teaching practices and how schools can support oral language development among young children. I am supporting the Getting on Track project, which is developing a pre-k oral language and literacy assessment to support teachers in understanding their students’ oral language and literacy skills.

Email: eszmyrgala@uchicago.edu

Üliana Solovieva

Broadly, I am interested in children’s development of social biases, nonverbal communication, and person perception. Specifically, how children may internalize, endorse and respond to stereotypes beyond spoken words – through gesture and face nonverbal modalities. My work also explores the mechanisms behind impression formation in children and adults.

Email: uliana@uchicago.edu

Marine Wang

I’m broadly interested in exploring children’s understanding towards multimodal information during conversations and learning processes. My work also focuses on the neural and psychophysiological mechanisms underpinning these cognitive processing activities.

Email: marinewang@uchicago.edu

Yihan Qian

I am broadly interested in the early emergence and consequences of social stereotypes; and how children think about and learn the social world within and across the boundaries of nonverbal and verbal modalities. Specifically, I examine how stereotypes are transmitted and mitigated through gestural and linguistic cues. My work shows that the equal gesture counteracts gender stereotypes conveyed through subtle, yet biased language. Moving forward, I aim to investigate the mechanisms by which equal gestures counteract stereotypes in language, and explore contexts where these gestures could serve as interventions against stereotype transmission.

Email: yihanq@uchicago.edu