Bergelson Lab members
Dr. Elika Bergelson, PI
Dr. Bergelson is an Associate Professor in Harvard’s Department of Psychology. Dr. Bergelson received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, where she first became interested in infant word-learning, after receiving research training at the University of Maryland as a Baggett Fellow, and a B.A. at NYU in Language and Mind. Her training is in psychology, linguistics, and cognitive science. She was a Research Professor in the University of Rochester’s Brain and CogSci Department from 2014-2016. From 2016-2023, she was an assistant and then associate professor in the Psychology and Neuroscience department at Duke University. Dr. Bergelson’s work has been funded by the NSF and NIH; she is the recipient of an NIH Early Independence Award, an NSF CAREER Award, and an NIH Research Project R01 grant. Dr. Bergelson thinks figuring out how babies learn language is just about the coolest question out there.
Full time researchers
Dr. Jasenia Hartman, Postdoctoral Researcher
Jasenia finished her PhdD in Neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is interested in how infants use social and linguistic cues available on the face to support their learning. Jasenia is an aspiring plant mom and DIY-enthusiast.
Rainy Dong, Postdoctoral Researcher
Rainy recently completed her PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford, focusing on children’s language and emotion development. She is very interested in children and language acquisition, and is excited to learn more about infant word learning. In her free time, she enjoys playing table tennis, watching movies, and trying out different cuisines.
Marvin Lavechin, Postdoctoral Researcher
Marvin is a Simons postdoctoral fellow working between the Bergelson lab and the Computational Psycholinguistics lab at MIT. He recently completed his PhD in the Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique & Meta AI (Paris, France) on using artificial neural networks to analyze and simulate language acquisition in children. During his stay in Boston, Marvin will work on building machine-learning-based speech processing tools to analyze children’s early vocalizations.
Amanda O’Brien, Postdoctoral Researcher
Amanda received her PhD in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology from Harvard University. Before her PhD, Amanda earned her MS in Speech-Language Pathology from Boston University and worked as a speech pathologist and clinical researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital. Amanda is interested inunderstanding how speech and language develops, and how this development differs for people with communication challenges, such as autism. She uses behavioral and neuroimaging approaches to ask questions about the brain and behavioral foundations of speech and language. In the Bergelson Lab, Amanda is excited to work with babies and their families to explore some of these questions. In her free time, Amanda loves spending time outside with her family (including her husky) enjoying the beautiful New England seasons – from summers by the water to winters in the snow. And all year round, Amanda enjoys a good cup of coffee.
Sophie Schoenbohm, Lab Manager
Sophie graduated from Grinnell College with a B.A. in Psychology and a Concentration in Linguistics. At Grinnell, she conducted research on bilingualism, slang, and wrote her senior thesis on language development in children with developmental disabilities. She is interested in Speech Language Pathology and how those with sensory impairments acquire language. In her spare time, Sophie loves reading, knitting, watching reality TV shows, and baking all kinds of treats.
Michika Ito, Lab Manager
Michika graduated from Wellesley College with a B.A. in Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences with a concentration in Psychology. At Wellesley, she conducted research on the effects of familiar song melody on word learning skills in preschool children. She is interested in Speech Pathology as well as exploring how children mentally represent the meaning of words in relation to bilingualism/multilingualism. In her free time, she likes to cook, play tennis, and watch movies.
Kien Nguyen, Lab Technician
Kien graduated from Macalester College with a BA in Computer Science, Linguistics, and English. He did research on sub-word tokenization in training language models and providing linguistically conscious metrics to evaluate large language models. He is interested in inter-disciplinary approaches to machine learning and natural language processing. In his free time, Kien enjoys reading and writing fictions.
Graduate students
Kristen Gilyard, G4
Kristen is currently completing a Ph.D. at Harvard, where she also graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. in Neuroscience and Mathematics. Kristen wants to acquire more knowledge about how infants learn specifically how infants create semantic representations. Kristen also enjoys reading, knitting, and bird-watching.
Genia Lukin, G4
Genia studied psycholinguistics at Tel Aviv University and theoretical Linguistics at Boston University. She is interested in how sensory impairments impact language-learning, and how babies compensate for them. In her spare time, she tries to read all the books, sings classical choir, and has very strong opinions about Mediterranean cuisine.
Lily Zhu, G2
Lily studied Cognitive Science and Data Science at Johns Hopkins University. She is interested in how children integrate multiple sources of information for language learning and develop their compositional knowledge. In her free time, Lily enjoys running, gaming, and experimenting with desserts.
Rachel Liu, G1
Rachel studied English Language and Literature at Wuhan University, Applied Linguistics at Columbia University, and Developmental Psychology at McMaster University. She is fascinated by infants’ and children’s language learning trajectories, and by how their social and cognitive development unfolds in tandem with—and mutually supports—early language acquisition. In her spare time, she enjoys doing Zumba, painting, spending time with friends and family, and walking her mischievous yet lovable beagle.
Research Assistants
Jordan Mitchell
Jordan is a senior at Harvard from Gates, North Carolina studying Linguistics, Psychology, and Human Evolutionary Biology. She believes that the optimal approach to studying language prioritizes integration across the cognitive sciences. Her academic interests include multilingualism, child and adult language acquisition, and neurolinguistics. In her free time, Jordan enjoys playing tennis, reading, and traveling.
Taft Foley
Taft is a senior at Harvard from Houston, Texas studying Psychology and Social Anthropology. He is interested in Clinical and Developmental Psychology and is particularly interested in language acquisition. He enjoys reading, running, and spending time with his friends in his spare time.
Oyewumi Oyeniyi
Oyewumi Oyeniyi is a sophomore at Harvard College who currently intends on pursuing a double concentration in History of Science and Psychology. They are interested in social and developmental psychology especially when it comes to how people develop their perceptions of society. In her free time she enjoys reading speculative fantasy novels and attempting to finish various animes.
Christina Wang
Christina is a senior at Berklee College of Music majoring in music therapy and piano performance and minoring in psychology. She is particularly interested in how children acquire linguistic skills from their environment and the nurture side of developmental psychology. She hopes to integrate the insights into her work to provide the best therapy to others in the future. In her spare time, she enjoys doing yarn work, transcribing music, and exploring new cafes!
Veronica Whitford
Veronica is a sophomore at Harvard from Charlottesville, Virginia studying Linguistics and Government. She is interested in multilingual language acquisition and child language development, especially in children with developmental disabilities and sensory impairments. When she’s not in the lab, you can find Veronica reading, Irish dancing, or playing board games.
Cecilia Nguyen
Cecilia is a rising junior from Michigan studying Psychology and East Asian Studies at Harvard. She is interested in the intersection of cultural psychology and language acquisition as well as psychopathology, specifically eating disorders. In her free time, she likes to dance, play video games, binge watch Netflix shows, and plan hypothetical vacations! Her favorite watch has been When Life Gives You Tangerines.