Laura Schulz

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Laura Schulz
Alma materUniversity of Michigan (BA)
University of California, Berkeley (MA, PhD)
Websitebcs.mit.edu/laura-schulz

Laura E. Schulz is a professor of cognitive science at the brain and cognitive sciences department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the principal investigator of the Early Childhood Cognition Lab at MIT. Schulz is known for her work on the early childhood development of cognition, causal inference, discovery, and learning.

Education[edit]

Schulz received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in philosophy from the University of Michigan in 1992. She received a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy both in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002 and 2004, respectively.[1]

Career[edit]

While at Berkeley, she worked closely with Alison Gopnik, researching computational models of cognition.[2] In 2005, Schulz joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). There, alongside Pawan Sinha, she runs the post-baccalaureate Research Scholars Program in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, working to prepare disadvantaged students for graduate school.[3]

Schulz is the principal investigator of the Early Childhood Cognition Lab at MIT, studying learning in early childhood.[4]

Research[edit]

Schulz's research focuses on children's cognition, specifically how children begin to form their world-views from the facets of information they obtain every day. Her work focuses on three main topics within children cognition. One of the topics is how children process the information they've gained in order to better infer, interact, and explain the world around them. Another topic is on the factors that allows children express curiosity and explore their environment, which also allows them to strengthen their cognition. Finally, how the information gained from the previous points will interact with one another to form their social cognition and ultimately build their sense of self and their interactions with others.[4] Her data and observations come from two laboratories, one at the Boston Children's Museum and the other at the Discovery Center in the Museum of Science, Boston. At these laboratories she uses infant-looking time methods and free-play paradigms, as well as other methods, to study babies and children. She chooses to observe these subjects in particular, because in order to understand the origins of knowledge and fundamental principles of learning in humans, one must start at the beginning when babies have limited prior knowledge.[5]

As of 2020, she has 95 publications including articles, data, and papers, 20 of which were completed during her time at The Center for Brains, Minds and Machines (CBMM) at MIT.[6] In March 2015 she gave a TED talk called "The surprisingly logical minds of babies", which has since had almost 2 million views.[7]

Personal life[edit]

Schulz is the daughter of teacher Margot Schulz and lawyer Isaac Schulz.[8] Her sister, Kathryn Schulz, is a staff writer for The New Yorker.[8] She is married to Sue Kaufman and has four children: Henry Philofsky, MJ Kaufman, Rachel Novick, and Adele Kaufman-Schulz.[2]

Awards and recognition[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Laura E. Schulz PhD – Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). Massachusetts Institute of Technology Early Childhood Cognition Lab. 2018-01-26. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-02-19. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
  2. ^ a b Laura E. Schulz: Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology. (2014). American Psychologist, 69(8), 749-751.
  3. ^ Traughber, Rachel (2017-01-31). "Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences launches post-baccalaureate program". MIT News. Archived from the original on 2019-08-16. Retrieved 2019-08-26.
  4. ^ a b "The Early Childhood Cognition Lab ~ People". eccl.mit.edu. Archived from the original on 2015-04-17. Retrieved 2015-04-17.
  5. ^ "Laura Schulz | The Center for Brains, Minds & Machines". cbmm.mit.edu. Archived from the original on 2020-11-17. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  6. ^ "Laura Schulz". ResearchGate. Dec 2020.
  7. ^ Schulz, Laura (2 June 2015), The surprisingly logical minds of babies, archived from the original on 2020-11-28, retrieved 2020-12-04
  8. ^ a b "ISAAC SCHULZ's Obituary". The Plain Dealer. 2016-09-20. Archived from the original on 2017-08-30. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
  9. ^ "APA Distinguished Scientific Awards for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology". www.apa.org. Archived from the original on 2018-12-04. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  10. ^ "Four professors named 2013 MacVicar Fellows". MIT News. 2013-03-15. Archived from the original on 2019-07-30. Retrieved 2019-08-26.
  11. ^ "Troland Research Awards". Archived from the original on 2013-01-26. Retrieved 2013-03-02., Troland Research Awards Recipients.
  12. ^ "SRCD Early Career Research Contributions Awards". Society for Research in Child Development. Archived from the original on 2018-04-04. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
  13. ^ Kavli Frontiers of Science Alumni. "Laura Schulz". National Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on 2017-08-21. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  14. ^ "CogSci 2010 Awards" (PDF). csjarchive.cogsci.rpi.edu.
  15. ^ "President Names Nation's Top Early Career Scientists and Engineers | NSF - National Science Foundation". www.nsf.gov. 2010-11-09. Archived from the original on 2017-08-21. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  16. ^ "Massachusetts Institute of Technology - John Merck Fund". John Merck Fund. Archived from the original on 2017-08-21. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  17. ^ "Brain and Cognitive Sciences". bcs.mit.edu. Archived from the original on 2017-07-21. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  18. ^ "Brain & Cognitive Sciences awards". MIT News. 2009-06-03. Archived from the original on 2019-09-11. Retrieved 2019-08-26.
  19. ^ "Elizabeth Bonawitz CV" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-08-21. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  20. ^ "AAUW Fellows". AAUW: Empowering Women Since 1881. Archived from the original on 2017-08-02. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
  21. ^ "Awardee List". nsf.gov.[dead link]

External links[edit]

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