POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS
Maliki Eyvonne Ghossainy
Senior Research Scientist
malikig@bu.edu
Maliki Eyvonne Ghossainy is a psychological scientist and statistician. Her research integrates social, cognitive, cultural, and biological mechanisms into a model of belief formation across the early childhood years. Using mixed methods designs, Maliki studies the sophisticated ways in which children judiciously evaluate different sources of information. Maliki’s research emphasizes the importance of studying children’s cognition in context, and her recent studies investigate the role of linguistic input in the epistemic judgements of multilingual children. In addition to being an experienced researcher, Maliki is also an active statistical consultant and has worked with clients from a variety of fields (e.g., academic and non-academic settings, private and public sectors) to design surveys, analyze data, offer technical trainings, and report findings to relevant stakeholders. Maliki also teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in Developmental Psychology, Research Design, and Statistical Methods for social sciences. Presently, Maliki is a Senior Research Scientist on the Developing Belief Network funded by the John Templeton Foundation.
Ayse Payir
Senior Postdoctoral Research Associate
aysep@bu.edu
Ayse is a senior postdoctoral researcher at the Social Learning Lab working with Dr. Kathleen Corriveau and Dr. Paul Harris (Harvard University). Her research focuses on the interplay between culture and the development of cognition, emotion, and morality from childhood to adulthood. She explores how children imagine alternatives to reality, use these alternatives to make inferences about others’ emotions, and make moral judgments. She also investigates how sociocultural factors—such as religious status—impact the boundaries of these alternatives. Previously, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Social and Moral Cognition Lab at Columbia University. For more information about Ayse and her research, please visit her personal website: https://aysepayir.wixsite.com/ayse
Allison J. Williams
Postdoctoral Research Associate
awillia7@bu.edu
Allison J. Williams is an experimental psychologist. Her research interests focus on how children identify who (or what) is a good source of information and how this preference might change depending on the domain (e.g., religious vs scientific). Her most recent work examined how accuracy and expertise influence children’s judgements of a source’s knowledge and how these judgements influence children's preferences for future learning. She completed her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology, with a specialization in Development, at the University of Louisville in 2022 and joined the Social Learning Lab as a Postdoctoral Research Associate for the Developing Belief Network.
Jenny Nissel
Postdoctoral Research Associate
nissel@bu.edu
Jenny is a Postdoctoral Research Associate for the Developing Belief Network. She earned a B.A. from Yale University in Psychology and Theater (2009), and a Ph.D. from UT Austin in Developmental Psychology (2023). She studies the development of the imagination, with a particular interest in how children across cultures think about possibility, fiction, and religion.