Laura Chen is a Wellesley College Class of 2027 student majoring in Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences (Psychology) with a minor in Computer Science. I am interested in exploring questions of the human mind: how humans think, reason, process language, and interact with the world/each other. I hope to foster understanding and connection across different groups of people, intermixing technology to better inform how we can best live our lives.

Previous research experience: I have worked in two labs at Wellesley, the Kim Lab (PI: Yoolim Kim) and the LLCD (Lab for Language and Cognitive Development, PI: Jennie Pyers). I have helped code qualitative video tapes, conduct data visualizations in R, composed survey questions, recruited participants for studies, and given poster/panel presentations of my own research project.

I have also taken a R-course in the Psychology department (PSYC 315R - Research Methods in Cognitive Variation), which allowed me to design my own human-subjects experiment, work within Qualtrics and navigate the IRB/ERB approval process, and create a research paper and poster as final deliverables for the course.

How I got started: I consistently attended office hours and reached out to my professor, and while she didn't have any lab openings in my first year, she remembered me and offered me a position in her lab come sophomore year. Then, I applied for the Science Center Summer Research program in my sophomore summer, and joined my current lab through that opportunity.

Open to being contacted: Yes

Preferred contact: laurajlchen@gmail.com

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