Meet the Team
Led by Prof. Eliza Congdon, our research team is made up of undergraduate students at Williams College. All of us love working with children and are enthusiastic about the various topics we study. If you're a Williams student interested in joining the lab, please visit the Join Us page to learn more about the research experience and how to get involved.
Professor Eliza Congdon
Lab Head
Eliza Congdon has a PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of Chicago and has taught at Bucknell University (Assistant Professor 2017-2019). She is currently teaching at Williams College as an Assistant Professor of Psychology. She is interested in how children learn novel ideas from their own actions and hand gestures as well as from the actions and hand gestures of those around them. We all spontaneously gesture while we talk, but in young learners, those gestures can reveal implicit, unspoken ideas that the children are not yet able to verbalize out loud to a teacher or parent. In this way, we know that gestures are an integrated and crucial part of the cognitive and linguistic system. Her work investigates when and how we can harness these special properties of gesture to help children gain insights in problem-solving scenarios in ways that spoken instruction alone cannot. Her primary domain of interest for this research with children is mathematics, as she believes that early success (and confidence) in math for both boys and girls is a vital foundation for all later academic successes.
Undergraduate Assistants
Hannah Dineen '25
Research Assistant
Hello! My name is Hannah Dineen and I am a senior majoring in Psychology and English from Boston, MA interested in developmental psychology, mental health, and cognitive neuroscience. I have research experience working in literacy development for underserved as a part of Raising a Reader Massachusetts (RAR-MA). In addition, I've had experience looking at postpartum psychosis as a part of the Center for Women’s Mental Health at Massachusetts General Hospital (CWMH), and have explored depression as a part of the Laboratory for Affective and Translational Neuroscience (CDSAR) at McLean Hospital and the Psychopharmacology and Emotion Research Lab (PERL) at Oxford University. As a part of the CALF lab this year, I am conducting my thesis on the role of gesture in narrative comprehension.
Dan O'Connor '25
Research Assistant
Hi everyone! My name is Dan and I’m a Psychology major with a concentration in Cognitive Science from Simsbury, CT. I have worked with kids all my life through assisting in local classrooms, tutoring, and working as a summer camp counselor. I’m excited to research how kids learn to measure with gestures! I’m also particularly passionate about applying research to actual classrooms and school curricula, so I’m super excited to be a part of the CALF Lab!
Olivia Helfrich-Tapia '26
Research Assistant
Hi! My name is Olivia and I am a junior majoring in Psychology and Spanish with a concentration in LATS from Newton, MA. I also work at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston as a school and work coach for the ASPIRE clinic. I am also working on a subcommittee at the hospital which focuses on increasing access to Spanish speaking services for people struggling with psychosis. I am really interested in supporting children from marginalized identities with their learning and school experiences, especially when a language barrier exists.
Myla Vera '26
Research Assistant
Hello! My name is Myla, and I’m a prospective psychology major from Houston, Texas. I am interested in research that focuses on kid’s cognitive development, so working in the CALF lab is a great match. The way children’s minds work is fascinating, and I always enjoy when I can learn their personalities (or favorite show!)
I am studying away at WEPO in London this year, but I'm excited to return to the CALF lab next year!
Angie An '25
Research Assistant
Emily Villegas Garcia '26
Research Assistant
Lab Alumni
Daniela (Dani) Galvez-Cepeda, Psychology & Mathematics B.A. (2024), is a graduate student at the University of Michigan, pursuing her PhD in developmental psychology and focusing on how media influences children's gender identity development. Her current email is [email protected].
Gabriela (Gabi) Kovarsky Rotta, Psychology & English, B.A. (2023), is a Clinical Research Assistant at McLean Hospital’s CARE Lab in Belmont, MA, working on an R01 that examines the effectiveness of a digital intervention on the transmission of anxiety from parents to their children. Her current email is [email protected]
Karla Mercedes, Psychology, B.A. (2023), is a Lab Manager at the University of Delaware’s Speech, Language Acquisition and Multilingualism (SLAM) Lab. Her current email is [email protected]
Maddie Moore, Psychology & Comparative Literature, B.A. (2023), is a pre-medical post baccalaureate student at Columbia University in Manhattan, working on completing her pre-med requirements and exploring medical school admissions. Her current email is [email protected]
Lauren Menjivar, Psychology, B.A. (2022), is working as a classroom assistant for a 2nd grade class at Princeton Day School. Her email is [email protected].
Lili Massac, Psychology w/ concentration in Neuroscience, B.A. (2023), is a Senior at Williams who hopes to pursue a career in pediatric mental health.
Margaux Kanamori, Psychology & English w/ concentration in Public Health, B.A. (2023), is a Junior at Williams who hopes to pursue a career in Psychology or Psychiatry.
Masa Peterson, Psychology & Biology w/ concentration in Neuroscience, B.A. (2020), is a Teach For America Corps member who teaches first grade in Richmond, CA. She aspires to teach for a while and pursue graduate school in developmental/education psychology.
Campbell Day, Psychology w/ concentration in Neuroscience, B.A. (2020), works at Trinity in Boston doing health care/life science consulting.