LIL Lab

Meet the LIL Lab

Martin Zettersten

Assistant Professor | Principal Investigator
[webpage] | [cv] | |

Martin’s research focuses on curiosity-driven statistical learning mechanisms that support language development, and how language learning shapes cognition and communication. Before coming to UCSD, he was a postdoc at Princeton University and received his PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Martin is passionate about building collaborative research communities and establishing large-scale team science projects (such as ManyBabies and the Peekbank eye-tracking database) to address fundamental questions in cognitive developmental science. When not in the lab, you might find him playing ultimate frisbee, exploring hiking trails with honorary lab pup Rory, or coaching the Earthpigs, CogSci’s intramural softball team.

Angela Liu

Lab Manager

Angela recently graduated from UC San Diego with a B.S. in Cognitive Behavioral Neuroscience, where she completed an honors thesis in the Cognitive Development Lab under Dr. Gedeon Deák. She is interested in how children's reasoning about others and their environment impacts their subsequent information seeking behaviors and conceptual understanding. When she’s not in the lab, she enjoys running, baking, and coffee shop hopping!

Junyi Chen

Graduate Student

Junyi’s research focuses on language learning and development, meaning representation, and bilingualism. She received her B.A. in Psychology and Information Science from Cornell University and previously worked as a lab manager in the Language Learning Lab at UPenn. In her free time, she enjoys watching movies, discovering new cafes and bakeries, and creating arts and crafts.

Tori Hennessy

Graduate Student

Tori studies individual differences in early information seeking and the cognitive mechanisms that support it. Before joining the LIL Lab team, she received her B.S. in Psychology from the University of Washington and worked as a lab coordinator at the UW Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. Outside of the lab, you can find Tori in the water: swimming, surfing, or outrigger canoe paddling.

Urvi Suwal

Graduate Student

Urvi is a graduate student in the LIL Lab, interested in studying language development and how children negotiate. She received her B.A. in Psychology and Computer Science from Mount Holyoke College. After graduation, she joined the Computational Social Cognition Lab at Yale University as a postbac research assistant. In her free time, she likes to explore new places, run, read, and spend time with her two cats Fitz and Simmons!