🧠 scientist @UCLA CA Institute @UCCSUcollab | adolescent brain dev, social learning, decision-making x law, educ systems | PhD @UNC, BA @UCLA | she/her, #FGLI
🌪️ 2024 has been a whirlwind of life, work, and job updates that I'm excited to share (better late than never?) ✨I celebrated my 1st wedding anniversary and honeymooned in Japan, 💀survived the academic and #altcac job market (19 apps, 4 interviews, 2 offers), 1/6
Announcing the 2026 Microsoft Research Fellowship, a program that creates opportunities for faculty, PhD students, and postdocs to collaborate with Microsoft Research on open research challenges that advance science and benefit society. Submit proposals by Dec 2: https://t.co/9WKfiFYtjw
Just published!✨ We tracked families’ experiences of economic hardship over 15+ timepoints & showed that unpredictability – not only severity – shapes young children’s self-regulation. These insights can guide supports that promote stability & adaptation. https://t.co/7VSkEeK73n
As the shutdown stretches on, Head Start programs face a funding cliff:
🗓️ 6 programs serving 6500+ kids are already on emergency local funds
🗓️ by Nov 1, another 134 programs across 41 states + PR (serving 58k+ kids) face closures
https://t.co/Jy6KE9GJPl
So excited to share that my first first-author paper is out in @CommsPsychol 🎉
In a mini-meta analysis of seven studies, we looked at whether loneliness is related to altered expectations of one’s own and others' emotion transitions.
(1/4)
https://t.co/1TzSn20svS
Join us THIS THURSDAY, at 3 p.m. as Drs. Wishard Guerra and Cohen share findings from STYLE, our study using Practice-Based Coaching to help elementary teachers meet the needs of multilingual learners. Register: https://t.co/7DT13Fz2Y7
Join us TODAY at 3 p.m.! Explore how digital habits and constant connectivity impact students’ self-regulation, with our speakers focusing on attention, emotions, and social skills.
Register Here: https://t.co/2SjPQTsjeT
The policy landscape around cell phone use in schools is shifting. Join me & @ctschoolsucla's Dr. Joseph Bishop at the Aug 7th @UCCSUcollab webinar👇 to learn how families, educators, & school systems can best support student learning & healthier digital habits this school year!
Join us August 7 at 3 p.m.! This session explores the intersection of digital habits and self-regulation, with a focus on how constant connectivity can impact students’ ability to manage attention, emotions, and social interactions. Register Here: https://t.co/2SjPQTsR4r
💥 Our new paper (with Lucas Molleman and Björn Lindström) is now out in @NatureHumBehav
🥳 https://t.co/xegdsASvtt
🧠 Here, we advance a novel RL account—the Social Feature Learning (SFL) model—that explains how people learn to learn from others! 🤝
🧵👇
Is risk-taking shaped by decision-making or by learning? In a new @NatureComms paper led by @AlonErdman, we show that in experience-based risk-taking, very little variance is explained by decision-making (top), but a lot is explained by learning (bottom). https://t.co/nhrSNVvNB0
Out in @PNASNews today!! We ran a field experiment with ~1000 high school students & found:
✅ Unsurprisingly, GenAI boosts performance
⚠️ But it hurts learning -- students perform worse on a follow-up exam
🛡️ Careful guardrails can prevent this harm
https://t.co/OZfqE15QOj
Join Dr. Jennie Grammer on June 26 at 3:30 p.m. to explore the science of self-regulation — how we manage thoughts, emotions, and actions — and how it develops and impacts learning. Come gain practical insights on evidence-based strategies!
Register here: https://t.co/EaSfAmlofi
Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.
There are days in life that shake you.
I’m shattered 💔 to share that I just found out that the US Government terminated my 2024 NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (~$2 million), threatening my long-promised assistant professor job at @Columbia & academic career... 1/🧵
So what's happening with medical research in the US? This is the cumulative award count from the NIH for the year.
Doesn't look so good.
But it gets worse.
1/
Join our Spring Webinar Series, focusing on key policies, implementation strategies, and opportunities to promote strong collaboration across systems to support the diverse learning needs of students across CA, by registering at: https://t.co/DKD3DK3UuH
📢 @POST_UK has published a new research briefing analysing evidence relating to children’s wellbeing in schools. Several of our team contributed to the report, which you can read here: https://t.co/2JjFM6IJIe @DrAlexLloyd@TCH__Wu @PascoFearon
Another fascinating graph from @jburnmurdoch
Young adults spend more time alone in 2023 than they did in 2010, while for middle age/older adults it’s similar.
What is the effect on the development of the brain/mind during a sensitive period of social development?
Our study on the TikTok algorithm and eating disorders is finally published (big thx 2 @emilya_harris). We scraped the metadata for ~1 million TikTok videos delivered to users w/ eating disorders versus users w/out eating disorders (i.e. healthy controls) https://t.co/T3CJg0buKo