Research

The human ability for linguistic productivity and flexible forms of learning and planning is unparalleled in the natural world. All of this requires a domain-general cognitive system that integrates a plurality of logical operations: a "logic of thought". Yet, despite its importance for human cognition, we know little about the origins of logic in the ontogenesis of the mind: what are the developmental foundations of our logical capacities? To understand how infants and children become able to think and talk as we do, we study logical cognition and its development.

Our research focuses on infant logic and expands to young children and adults. We are especially excited to study how early logical resources can empower infants’ and children’s striking learning potentials. Our research also looks at how maturation, experience, and the acquisition of language contribute to the flourishing of planning and decision-making across the preschool years. Finally, we explore how developmentally basic logical computations serve as an interface between language and perception (e.g., vision) in adults.