Lab Researchers

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Graduate Students

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Ashley Reece (Ezpeleta) is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Human Development area of the Department of Educational Psychology, being advised by Dr. Haley Vlach. She received her B.A. in Psychology and minor in Linguistics from Miami University (OH) and was the lab manager for Dr. Edward Hubbard’s Educational Neuroscience Lab (here at UW). Ashley’s research looks at how cognitive processes influence children’s ability to learn concrete and abstracts words and words with multiple meanings. She is also interested in understanding children’s ability to monitor the words they have learned. The long-term goal of her work is to generate an empirical base for theories which can be used to improve educational practices, leading to more success in teaching children new words and their meanings.

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Samantha Macksey is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Human Development area of the Department of Educational Psychology. Samantha received her B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Mathematical Modeling of Complex Systems from Northeastern Illinois University in 2023. Her research interests involve the examination of how children’s understanding of science and math can predict how likely they are to go into STEM careers. Also, to navigate mechanisms driving acquisition of math and science understanding which is essential for increasing the capacity for students to enter into biomedical and STEM research. Her objective is to enhance the early-stage development of the educational system and curriculum.

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Yi Tong is a sixth-year Ph.D. student in the Human Development area in the Department of Educational Psychology. Yi received her B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies and Psychology from UW-Madison in Fall 2019. Yi’s research interests primarily lie in the study of children’s language learning processes with a focus on educational applications. She is interested in how children’s prior knowledge and experience with language shape their learning and how they use contextual cues to facilitate word learning. Yi is being advised by Dr. Haley Vlach.

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Ezgi Melisa Yüksel is a sixth-year Ph.D. student in the Cognitive Psychology area of the Psychology Department. Ezgi received her B.A. from Middle East Technical University in Psychology and her M.A. in Cognitive Psychology from Bilkent University. Her main interest is how we train learning and memory processes. She is also interested in whether we can change people’s learning strategies to make them better learners.

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Kylie Schumacher is an undergraduate research assistant in the LCD Lab studying Elementary Education with minors in Mathematics and Science. After graduating, she wants to be a science teacher. She is very interested in research and understanding how children learn science concepts.

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Leela Hart is an undergraduate research assistant in the LCD lab majoring in Communication Sciences and Disorders. After graduating, she plans to attend graduate school for Speech-Language Pathology. She enjoys traveling, walks, baking, and spending time with family and friends.

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