Core Lab Team
CORE Lab Team
Dr. John D. Coley
Lab Director | Principal Investigator
Dr. Coley is Associate Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, and Director of the CORE Lab. He is interested in the basic cognitive processes underlying how people organize and use their knowledge of the world, how those processes develop and change over time, and how differences in culture and experience lead to differences in the organization and use of knowledge. He is also committed to cross-disciplinary translational research, and to exploring the concrete consequences of conceptual organization and reasoning in areas like science education, social conflict, and ecological awareness. Dr. Coley sees his lab as an environment in which smart, motivated, people have the opportunity to work together while learning about research, exploring these issues in lots of different ways, making genuine contributions to cognitive science, and having fun along the way.
Joan Kim
Doctoral Candidate, 1st year
Catie Nielson
Doctoral Candidate, 5th year
Research interests: Education, Anthropic thinking, Neuroscience learning, Dualism
Favorite Secondary Character: Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter)
Emma Pitt
Doctoral Candidate, 2nd Year
Research Interests: Anthropic thinking in animal cognition, biology education, social categorization/essentialism & its relationship to history and politics
Favorite Secondary Character: Elizabeth Swann (Pirates of the Caribbean franchise)
Eloise Davenport
Doctoral Candidate, 1st year
Research interests: Intuitive explanations for conceptions of social identity, especially in digital environments; decision-making within health behavior contexts
Favorite secondary character: Emily Gilmore (Gilmore Girls)
Tobe Chima
Research Coordinator
Research interests: Conceptual organisation of thought, social categorization, neurodegenerative diseases, human exceptionalism, racial disparities in healthcare
Favorite Secondary Character: Summer from One Tree Hill
Kyleigh Watson
Research Assistant
Research Interests: Health literacy, intuitive language used in public health communications
Ritu Amarnani
Research Assistant
Research Interests: Abnormal Psychology, Emotion, Criminal Psychology, Development, Biochemistry, Biology
Favorite Secondary Character: Marge Simpson (The Simpsons)
Christopher Strasser
Research Assistant
Research interests:
Favorite Secondary Character:
Cat Cullina
Research Assistant
Research Interests: Moral and Clinical Psychology
Favorite Secondary Character: Abu (Aladdin)
Maya Mastro
Research Assistant
Research Interests: Developmental Psychology, Psychology related to the health care system, and Social Psychology
My favorite secondary character: Holly from the Polar Express
Laetitia Pierre-Louis
Research Assistant
Kelly Marchese
Research Assistant
Research Interests: Educational Psychology, and how studying cognitive construals can inform teaching and learning
Favorite Secondary Character: Winston (New Girl)
Jasmine Ho
Research Assistant
Research Interests: Psychological disorders (Anxiety & Depression), Child & Adolescent Development, Cultural/Racial Understanding and Treatment of Mental Health
Favourite Secondary Character: Amy Santiago (Brooklyn 99)
Alec Rutherford
Research Assistant
Research Interests: Essentialism, social psychology, and racial disparities in healthcare
Favorite Secondary Character: Sohla El-Waylly (Bon Appétit)
Bailey Kossow
Research Assistant
Nicole Shiu
Research Assistant
Rachel Mutombo
Research Assistant
Research interests: how environmental science/ climate change taught in school impacts the life of students and their immediate families (does being taught younger influence family members to live a greener lifestyle)
Favorite secondary character: Killua from Hunter x Hunter