Developmental & Computational Affective Cognition Lab

Dr. Yang Wu

Lab Director

Yang is interested in how humans reason about emotion or affect, an interdisciplinary domain called Affective Cognition. Yang studies affective cognition in humans from infancy to adulthood and uses a variety of approaches, including behavioral experiments, exploratory play,  eye tracking, and computational modeling.

Yang is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She obtained her Ph.D. in Cognitive Science at MIT in 2018 and received her postdoctoral training at Stanford University from 2018 to 2022. 

Sahej Gulati

Lab Manager 

Sahej completed her BSc degree in Psychology at UTSC. She is interested in exploring how children learn from and interpret emotions displayed by others and how it affects their understanding of the social world. She is also interested in learning how emotional cues influence the formation of children's social bonds. In her free time, she likes spending time with her friends and exploring new neighbourhoods and restaurants!

Hanqi Chen

Graduate Student

Hanqi completed her BSc degree in Psychology at UTSC. She is interested in investigating infant-directed emotion, how children perceive emotions, and how it would influence their behaviour. Outside of the lab, Hanqi enjoys cooking and travelling.

Grace Sun

Graduate Student 

Grace completed her BSc degree in Psychology at the University of Toronto, St. George. She is interested in how children use emotion as a source of information to guide their learning and reasoning about the world, and how this influences their motivation and persistence. Outside of the lab, she enjoys traveling, watching movies, and playing with her cat, Gyoza!

Marija Bolic 

Graduate Student 

Marija completed her BSc Degrees in Psychology and Computer Science at the University of Ottawa. She is interested in the intersection between developmental and computational methods, with her graduate research specifically focusing on how people integrate verbal and emotional cues in communication and how people use emotions to inform their learning. Outside of research, she also loves spending time with family and friends, playing outdoor sports, and reading.

Gabriela Aguiar Monteiro

Research Assistant

I'm an undergraduate student specializing in psychology at UTSC. I'm interested in how emotional cues and children's perception of other's emotions shape their cognitive development and help them navigate the world. Outside of the lab, I love rock climbing, reading, and spending time with my friends!

Elrion Lee

Research Assistant

Elrion is completing his HBSc in the psychology specialist program at UTSC. He is interested in how the perception of emotion communicated in speech can affect cognition and behaviour in both children and parents. Outside of work, he likes to play music with friends, explore neighbourhoods and seek out good food. 

Cynthia Lin

Research Assistant

Cynthia Lin is a third-year undergraduate student completing her BSc in Psychology Research at UTSG. She is interested in exploring how contextual factors (e.g., familial, school, etc.) in childhood influence people's long-term well-being. Outside of the lab, she enjoys volunteering in non-traditional educational settings such as museums and galleries.

Natashia Septirymen

Research Volunteer

Natashia is an English and Psychology double major at the University of Toronto. She is deeply interested in child development and wellbeing, especially in educational contexts. Outside of the lab, you can find her borrowing books at the Toronto Public Library or doing archery at Pan Am!

Zelda Gu

Budding Scholar Student

Zelda is an undergraduate student specializing in Psychology at UTSC. She is interested in social referencing and how children use others' emotional cues as information to navigate uncertainty and understand the world. Outside of academics, she likes to make yummy food and then burn it off at the gym.

Medha Ahuja

Research Assistant

Medha is an undergraduate student in Psychology whose interests span clinical psychology, developmental science, and personality psychology. She is especially fascinated by social learning in early childhood, specifically, how infants and young children use others' emotional expressions as evidence to make inferences about the world around them. Outside of research, she enjoys writing, reading, art, and staying active through swimming and working out.

Sebastiana Leung

Research Assistant

Sebastiana is an undergraduate student specializing in Psychology at UTSC. She is interested in understanding how children acquire, interpret, and use emotional information within their social environments. Outside of the lab, she enjoys watching movies and spending time with friends.