People
Dr. Wagner joined the Psychology Department at CUNY College of Staten Island (CSI) in January 2013 and also has appointments at the CUNY Graduate Center in the Psychology Department and the Cognitive Neuroscience Program. Before that, she received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University and then completed a postdoc at Boston Children's Hospital. Dr. Wagner has been using advanced tools (eye-tracking, psychophysiological measures, optical imaging, EEG) to study early social and cognitive development in typically-developing infants as well as infants with an elevated likelihood for developmental difficulties. Her research examines how early behavioral, neural, and physiological responses might help to predict later development.
Julia joined the lab in Fall 2021 as a graduate student in the Developmental Psychology Ph.D. program at the CUNY Graduate Center. She received a B.S. in Applied Psychology from NYU in 2019. As an undergraduate, she worked at the Infant Studies of Language and Neurocognitive Development (ISLAND) lab and knew she wanted to pursue neuroscience and psychology research further. After graduating from NYU, Julia worked in the Holmes Lab at Yale University, a clinical neuroscience lab where she worked on an R01 funded project on the psychiatric connectome of mental illness. Her current work focuses on social cognitive development in preschoolers and parent-child relationships.
Racquel began her journey with the lab in Fall 2021 as a graduate student in the CUNY Graduate Center's Cognitive Neuroscience Master’s program before moving into the Developmental Psychology Ph.D. program. She received her B.A. in Education Studies from The New School and her Master's degree in Social Work from Fordham University. Racquel's career began in college advising, where she supported students through New York State funded educational programs, and she currently practices as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker providing therapy to individuals, primarily young adults. Her research interests sit at the intersection of biology, narrative, and lived experience, specifically examining how biological measures of stress and narrative approaches can illuminate the experiences of transnational families and the impact of immigration on development across the lifespan.
Alyssa joined the lab in Summer 2024 as a graduate student in the Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience training area of the Psychology Ph.D. program at the CUNY Graduate Center. Alyssa graduated from City College of New York (CCNY) in 2022 with a B.S. in Psychology. As an undergrad, Alyssa was introduced to research on emotion regulation in children as a research assistant in the lab of Dr. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary at Hunter College. She conducted her Psychology Honors thesis under the mentorship of Dr. Elizabeth Lennon at the NYS Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities (IBR) and Dr. Sarah O’Neill at CCNY addressing longitudinal changes in maternal responsivity in a sample of NICU graduates and their caregivers. Earlier in graduate school, Alyssa gained experience in behavioral pharmacology with Dr. Kathryn Chadman at IBR and worked in ABA therapy on Staten Island. Alyssa’s dissertation research focuses on understanding parent-infant physiological synchrony and the factors that contribute to these interactions, like parental sensitivity and infant temperament.
Nur joined the lab in Fall 2026 as a graduate student in the CUNY Graduate Center Ph.D. program in Developmental Psychology. She received her B.A. in Psychology from TOBB University of Economics and Technology in Turkey in 2022. Before joining the lab, she spent two years gaining research experience at NYU in the Cognitive Development Lab and the Play and Language Lab, where she worked on projects examining social cognition and gender-related beliefs in children and visual and manual attention in infants. Her research interests focus on the development of social attention and emotional processing within caregiving relationships and across cultural contexts. She is particularly interested in how attachment-related experiences and parent-child interactions shape children’s attention to emotional and threat-related facial expressions. She hopes to explore how children’s attentional responses to emotional information may vary depending on the presence and availability of their caregivers and how these processes may differ across cultural contexts.
Lindsay joined the lab in Summer 2024 as a graduate student in the CUNY Graduate Center’s Master’s program in Cognitive Neuroscience. She is a certified surgical technologist and received her B.S. in Psychology from Brooklyn College. Her Master’s thesis examines physiological synchrony between parents and children, exploring how the physiological responses of caregivers and their children may become coordinated during challenging activities.
Alexandra joined the lab in Spring 2025 as a research assistant and is currently an M.S. candidate in Cognitive Neuroscience at the CUNY Graduate Center. She received her B.A. in Classical Studies with departmental honors from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has been a research associate at Harvard University and the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. Her research interests center on neurodevelopment and regulation. Alexandra is interested in neural and autonomic mechanisms, caregiver-child synchrony, and individual differences across the lifespan.
Heba joined the lab in Spring 2026 and is currently a senior majoring in Psychology at CSI. Her research interests center on parent-child interactions, with a particular interest in behavioral and physiological synchrony and their role in child development. She plans to pursue a career in medicine and hopes to integrate her interests in developmental research and healthcare.
Renae joined the lab in Fall 2026 and is currently a sophomore at Brooklyn College majoring in Psychology and minoring in Sociology and Neuroscience. She is also the Features Editor of the Brooklyn College Vanguard. She is interested in pursuing a career in clinical psychology in the future.
Yanna joined the lab in Fall 2026 and is a senior majoring in psychology at Queens College. Her interests lie in developmental psychology, particularly how children acquire knowledge, develop sympathy and moral understanding, and make sense of the world around them.
Cognitive Development Lab Alumni
Currently in Medical School at Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Completed Undergraduate Thesis at CSI with Dr. Wagner in 2025 entitled "Responses to Direct Eye Contact in Preschool-Aged Children Varying in Autistic Traits"; currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Touro University.
Completed Ph.D. in Psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center with Dr. Wagner in 2024 entitled “Examining Visual Processing of Hierarchical Figures through Behavioral Measures and Pupillometry in Relation to Autistic Traits in Adults.” Dr. Brittenham is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Albert Einstein School of Medicine with funding from an NIH F32 award. Her research uses multimodal methods (e.g., gaze tracking, pupillometry, and electrophysiology) to investigate how sensory reactivity, attentional selection, and predictive processing interact to shape perception and behavior in autism (see also google scholar profile).
Currently an Undergraduate at Lehigh University.
Completed Master’s degree in Speech Language Pathology (SLP) at SUNY New Paltz; currently working as an SLP in the Hudson Valley.
Completed Ph.D. in Psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center in 2022 entitled “Relationships Between Sensory Reactivity, Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors, and Autonomic Nervous System Activity in Autistic and Non-Autistic Individuals.” Dr. Soker-Elimaliah is currently a postdoctoral research associate at the Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Southern California and an NIH NICHD F32 fellow. Her research focuses on studying neurophysiological trajectories of sensory discrimination in association with sensory reactivity features in infants at varying likelihood for autism (see also google scholar profile).
Completed Undergraduate Thesis at CSI with Dr. Wagner in 2019 entitled "Attention to Emotional Faces as It Relates to Autistic Traits and Emotion Recognition in the General Population"; currently managing a Trader Joe’s store and keeping up with a 3-year-old Princess!
Completed Master’s Thesis in Cognitive Neuroscience at the CUNY Graduate Center with Dr. Wagner in 2022 entitled "Pupil Responses to Emotional Images and Relations with Alexithymic and Autistic Traits"; currently completing a Psy.D. program at William James College, specializing in Neuropsychology.
Completed Undergraduate degree in Psychology from CSI in 2021.
Completed Master’s Thesis in Cognitive Neuroscience at the CUNY Graduate Center with Dr. Wagner in 2021 entitled "Using fNIRS to Identify Brain Regions Involved in Emotional Face Processing in Infants at High Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder." Currently, he is an adjunct lecturer at CUNY and Founder and Director of The Open Data Lab, where his work in open-source software, public data, and data science education was recognized with the 2026 Posit Impact Award for Open Source Contribution.
Completed Undergraduate Thesis at CSI with Dr. Wagner in 2021 entitled "Attention Shifting from Social and Non-Social Images as a Predictor of Autistic Traits in Infancy"; completed a Psy.D. program in School-Clinical Child Psychology at Yeshiva University and currently a postdoctoral fellow in pediatric neuropsychology.
Completed Undergraduate degree from Cornell University in 2025, majoring in Policy Analysis and Management and minoring in Business; currently doing governmental consulting.
Completed Undergraduate Thesis with Dr. Wagner in 2020 entitled "The Relationship Between Pupillary Light Responses and Social-Communicative Behavior in Infants at High and Low Risk for Developing Autism"; completed Master's degree in Mental Health Counseling (MHC) at CSI and currently an MHC on Staten Island.
Completed Undergraduate Thesis with Dr. Wagner in 2020 entitled "Correlations Between Autistic Traits, the Pupil Light Reflex, and Sensory Sensitivities in School-Age Children"; currently completing Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry (DMD) degree at Temple University Kornberg School of Dentistry.
Completed Undergraduate degree in Cognitive Neuroscience at City College of New York in 2022; currently a medical student at West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.
Completed Undergraduate Thesis with Dr. Wagner in 2018 entitled "Visual Attention and Pupil Responses to Emotional Faces in Preschool-Aged Children and Relations to Temperament"; completed Medical School at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and currently an Anesthesiology Resident.
Completed Undergraduate Thesis with Dr. Wagner in 2019 entitled "Skin Conductance Response During Emotion Processing and Relations with Autism Traits"; completed Advanced Practice Nursing degree at Yale University and currently a Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner at Connecticut Children’s Hospital and a Clinical Instructor in the Master’s program at the Yale School of Nursing.
Currently completing a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at University of Utah, specializing in Neuropsychology.
Completed Undergraduate Thesis at CSI with Dr. Wagner in 2019 entitled "Examining Changes in Attention to Eyes and Mouth in the Preschool Years in Relation to Social Communication”; currently completing a Ph.D. in School Psychology at Michigan State University.
Completed a Master's degree in Occupational Therapy (OT) at Seton Hall University; currently a Pediatric OT for the Department of Education working primarily with students as part of the NEST program.
Completed Undergraduate degree in Psychology at CSI in 2018.
Completed Undergraduate degree in Psychology at Northeastern University; currently pursuing a Psy.D. at William James College.
Completed Undergraduate Thesis with Dr. Wagner in 2018 entitled "Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System Responses in Relation to Emotional Intelligence in Typically Developing Adults"; currently serving as Director of Business Development at Gnosis by Lesaffre, a global leader in biotechnology and biotransformation.
Completed Undergraduate Thesis with Dr. Wagner in 2017 entitled "Predicting Early Developmental Difficulties in Younger Siblings of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder"; completed Physician Assistant Master's degree at CUNY School of Medicine; currently a PA in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.
Completed Undergraduate Thesis with Dr. Wagner in 2017 entitled "Cardiac Autonomic Activity as it Relates to Social Behavior and Emotion Processing"; completed Doctor of Physical Therapy (PT) degree at CSI in 2020 and currently a PT on Staten Island.
Completed Undergraduate degree from CSI in 2019, majoring in Economics and minoring in Business.
Completed Master’s degree in Higher Education Administration at William and Mary; currently an undergraduate academic advisor in William and Mary’s Business program.
Completed Undergraduate degree in Psychology at City College of New York and Physician Assistant (PA) Master’s degree at University of New England; currently a PA in Brooklyn, NY in vascular surgery and soon transitioning into ENT/Urology surgery.
Completed Undergraduate Thesis with Dr. Wagner in 2016 entitled "Left Visual Field Biases in Relation to Social Behavior"; currently working as a radiation therapist.
Graduate of CSI Master's in Business Management in 2019.
Completed Undergraduate Thesis with Dr. Wagner in 2015 entitled "Relations between Early Attention to Faces and Later Communication Abilities in Infants at High-Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder"; graduate of Brooklyn College Master’s in Mental Health Counseling (MHC) program in 2017 and currently working as an MHC.
Graduate of SUNY Downstate Master’s in Occupational Therapy (OT) program in 2018; currently working as an OT.
Completed Undergraduate Thesis with Dr. Wagner in 2015 entitled "Scanning of Familiar and Unfamiliar Faces in 9- and 12-month-old Infants at Low and High Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder"; currently co-owner of Chidi fashion.
Graduate of SUNY Downstate Master’s in Occupational Therapy (OT) program in 2016; currently working as an OT.