Laura Schulz Explained

Laura Schulz
Alma Mater:University of Michigan (BA)
University of California, Berkeley (MA, PhD)

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

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

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

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. 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.

Personal life

Schulz is the daughter of teacher Margot Schulz and lawyer Isaac Schulz.[7] Her sister, Kathryn Schulz, is a staff writer for The New Yorker. She is married to Sue Kaufman and has four children: Henry Philofsky, MJ Kaufman, Rachel Novick, and Adele Kaufman-Schulz.

Awards and recognition

References

  1. Web site: 2018-01-26 . Laura E. Schulz PhD – Curriculum Vitae . https://web.archive.org/web/20180219211258/http://eccl.mit.edu/papers/LE%20Schulz%20CV%202018.pdf . 2018-02-19 . 2018-07-06 . Massachusetts Institute of Technology Early Childhood Cognition Lab.
  2. Laura E. Schulz: Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology. (2014). American Psychologist, 69(8), 749-751.
  3. News: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences launches post-baccalaureate program. Traughber. Rachel. 2017-01-31. MIT News. 2019-08-26. 2019-08-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20190816142641/http://news.mit.edu/2017/department-of-brain-and-cognitive-sciences-launches-post-baccalaureate-program-0131. live.
  4. Web site: The Early Childhood Cognition Lab ~ People. eccl.mit.edu. 2015-04-17. 2015-04-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20150417194917/http://eccl.mit.edu/people.htm. live.
  5. Web site: Laura Schulz The Center for Brains, Minds & Machines. 2020-12-04. cbmm.mit.edu. en. 2020-11-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20201117042020/https://cbmm.mit.edu/about/people/schulz. live.
  6. Web site: Dec 2020. Laura Schulz. ResearchGate.
  7. Web site: ISAAC SCHULZ's Obituary. 2016-09-20. The Plain Dealer. 2018-04-03. 2017-08-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20170830004754/http://obits.cleveland.com/obituaries/cleveland/obituary.aspx?n=isaac-schulz&pid=181478894&fhid=2098. live.
  8. Web site: APA Distinguished Scientific Awards for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology. www.apa.org. en. 2017-08-21. 2018-12-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20181204101849/https://www.apa.org/about/awards/early-career-contribution.aspx?tab=4. live.
  9. News: Four professors named 2013 MacVicar Fellows. 2013-03-15. MIT News. 2019-08-26. 2019-07-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20190730123434/http://news.mit.edu/2013/four-professors-named-macvicar-fellows. live.
  10. Web site: Troland Research Awards . 2013-03-02 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130126003831/http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/awards/troland-research-awards.html . 2013-01-26 ., Troland Research Awards Recipients.
  11. News: SRCD Early Career Research Contributions Awards. Society for Research in Child Development. en. 2018-04-03. 2018-04-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20180404072927/https://www.srcd.org/advancing-field/srcd-awards-research-grants/srcd-early-career-research-contributions-awards. live.
  12. Web site: Laura Schulz. Kavli Frontiers of Science Alumni. National Academy of Sciences. 2017-08-21. 2017-08-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20170821173132/http://www.nasonline.org/programs/kavli-frontiers-of-science/frontiers-alumni/alumni-directory/laura-schulz.html. live.
  13. Web site: CogSci 2010 Awards. csjarchive.cogsci.rpi.edu.
  14. Web site: President Names Nation's Top Early Career Scientists and Engineers NSF - National Science Foundation. 2010-11-09. www.nsf.gov. en. 2017-08-21. 2017-08-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20170821173859/https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=117723&org=NSF. live.
  15. News: Massachusetts Institute of Technology - John Merck Fund. John Merck Fund. en-US. 2017-08-21. 2017-08-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20170821171655/https://www.jmfund.org/grant/massachusetts-institute-of-technologyschulz/. live.
  16. Web site: Brain and Cognitive Sciences. bcs.mit.edu. en. 2017-08-21. 2017-07-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20170721054655/http://bcs.mit.edu/users/lschulzmitedu. live.
  17. News: Brain & Cognitive Sciences awards. 2009-06-03. MIT News. 2019-08-26. 2019-09-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20190911034826/http://news.mit.edu/2009/awards-bcs-tt0603. live.
  18. Web site: Elizabeth Bonawitz CV. 2017-08-21. 2017-08-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20170821170556/http://ccdlab.rutgers.edu/Papers/CV.pdf. live.
  19. Web site: AAUW Fellows. AAUW: Empowering Women Since 1881. en-US. 2018-04-03. 2017-08-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20170802102410/http://www.aauw.org/aauw_check/fellowships_directory/#rid745. dead.
  20. Web site: Awardee List. nsf.gov.

External links

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