Erica Cartmill

LAB DIRECTOR

I am an interdisciplinary scholar who focuses on the evolution of communication and cognition. I studied linguistics, biology, and theater in college, primatology and comparative psychology in graduate school (with Richard Byrne at St Andrews), and language development as a postdoc (with Susan Goldin-Meadow at UChicago). I have faculty appointments in Anthropology and Psychology.

My lab group studies the communication and cognition of both human children and great apes, and my collaborative work extends to a wide range of species.

I am the co-chair of the EVOLANG conferences and the co-director of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute.

On a personal note, I am a former dancer and theater kid, inveterate goof, animal lover, and obsessed dog parent (see lab dog Bonnibel).

  • Gal Badihi

    POSTDOC

  • Daan Laméris

    POSTDOC

  • Jina Ahn

    PHD STUDENT (dev psych)

    Language and social-cognitive development

  • Lilit Ghazaryan

    PHD STUDENT (ling anth)

    Language socialization and multilingualism

  • Gabriele Giampieri

    PHD STUDENT (visiting)

    Cognitive Semiotics at the University of Bologna

  • Brenda de Groot

    PHD STUDENT (primatology)

    Primate sociality and care; sentiocentric conservation; animal ethics

  • Carolyn Park

    PHD STUDENT (ling anth)

    Multimodality, intercultural communication, metapragmatics

  • Andrew Smith

    PHD STUDENT (bio anth)

    Cross-cultural studies of language and thought

  • Fiona Waters

    PHD STUDENT (dev psych)

    Development of social cognition, understanding surprise

  • Sasha Winkler

    PHD STUDENT (bio anth)

    Primate cognition and play, laughter

  • Erjing Zhang

    PHD STUDENT (dev psych)

    Language development, parent-child interaction

    Language and Cognitive Development Lab

  • Icy Zhang

    PHD STUDENT (dev psych)

    Embodied cognition, technology, statistics and data science education

    Teaching and Learning Lab

  • Aliya Glatt

    LAB MANAGER & RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Language in culture and thought, multilingualism, primate communication

  • Emily Boyle

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Developmental psychology, language and social development

  • Sara Darakhshan

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Developmental psychology, communication and socialization in children

  • Chloe Jones

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Memory, social and language development

  • Taiga Komatsuki

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Understanding psychological disorders through behavioral and cognitive approaches

  • Victoria Leavitt

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Linguistic change, pidgins and creoles, historical linguistics, gesture and sign language

  • Brittney Nguyen

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Language evolution, ecology, and science communication

  • Raika Rashidi Sharifabad

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Language development and socialization, emotions, social cognition

  • Bonnibel

    OFFICIAL LAB DOG

    Social cognition and play in humans and canines

COLLABORATORS

  • Colin Allen

    Colin is a Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He studies the philosophical foundations of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind.

    Follow him on Twitter

  • Jacob Foster

    Jacob is an Associate Professor of Sociology at UCLA and the co-Director of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute. He studies the social production of collective intelligence and the evolutionary dynamics of ideas.

    Visit his webpage

  • Cat Hobaiter

    Cat is a Reader of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews. She studies the evolution of communication and social behavior in wild apes focusing on gesture.

    Visit her Wild Minds Lab

    Follow her on Twitter

  • Christopher Krupenye

    Chris is an Assistant Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. He studies social cognition and social complexity in humans and great apes.

    Visit his Social and Cognitive Origins group

    Follow him on Twitter

  • David Krakauer

    David is President and Professor of Complex Systems at the Santa Fe Institute. He studies the evolution of intelligence.

    Visit his webpage

  • Heidi Lyn

    Heidi is an Associate Professor of Psychology at University of South Alabama. She studies communication and cognition in a wide range of animals, including apes, marine mammals, and dogs.

    Visit her C3P0Lab

    Follow her on Twitter

  • Vincent Janik

    Vincent is a Professor of Biology at the University of St Andrews and Director of the Scottish Oceans Institute. He studies vocal communication and cognition in dolphins.

    Visit the Scottish Oceans Institute

  • Manasvi Lingham

    Manasvi is an Assistant Professor of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences at Florida Institute of Technology. He studies astrobiology, including factor that modulate planetary habitability, biosignatures, and technosignatures.

    Visit his webpage

  • Avi Loeb

    Avi is a Professor of Astronomy and Founding Director of the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University. He studies black holes, the first stars, and is an expert in the search for extraterrestrial life.

    Learn more on Wikipedia

  • Ximena Nelson

    Ximena is a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Canterbury. She studies behavior, conservation, and ecology in kea parrots and jumping spiders.

    Visit her webpage

  • Federico Rossano

    Federico is an Associate Professor of Cognitive Science at UC San Diego. He studies social cognition and communication in humans and non-human primates (and sometimes dogs)

    Visit his Comparative Cognition Lab

    Follow him on Twitter

  • Kevin Smith

    Kevin is a Research Scientist of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He studies physical cognition and reasoning in humans and artificial intelligence.

    Follow him on Twitter

  • Alex Taylor

    Alex is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Auckland. He studies learning and cognition in kea, dogs, and artificial intelligence.

    Visit his Animal Minds Lab

    Follow him on Twitter

  • Josh Tenenbaum

    Josh is a Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He studies learning and reasoning in humans and artificial intelligence.

    Visit his Computational Cognitive Science Lab

    Follow his lab on Twitter

LAB ALUMNI

  • Laura Lewis

    POSTDOC

    UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at Berkeley

    Follow her on Twitter

  • Isabelle Laumer

    POSTDOC

    Postdoctoral scholar at Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior

  • Johanna Eckert

    POSTDOC

    Postdoctoral scholar at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

  • Madeleine Gates

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Masters student in Statistics at Stanford

  • Tina Izad

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Med school applicant and future pediatrician

  • Lauri Label

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Peace Corps alum, project manager at Hamilton Families

  • Alexandra Molina

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    PhD student in Conservation Biology at Cornell and the Smithsonian

  • Selene Nafisi

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Law student at NYU

  • Kelsey Ryan

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Clinical consultant at Cloudmed and future doctor

  • Simran Saini

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Management consultant at EY-Parthenon

  • Emilia Smyrzala

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    PhD student in Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago