Julia Leonard
@julia-a-leonard.bsky.social
Developmental cognitive scientist | Assistant professor of psychology at Yale
This took until last week to finish, but the results are in. In a tense final (commentated by @yarrowdunham.bsky.social), @jinke.bsky.social took home the grand prize, followed by @julia-a-leonard.bsky.social in second and Stefan Lunis in third place. These three are really good at Connect 4.
Leonard Learning Lab @leonardlearnlab.bsky.social · 7mo ago@aarthipopat.bsky.social created a Yale Psych Connect Four March Madness. Things are heating up. Stay tuned for updates
Yale Psychology is hiring an Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology! Review of applications will begin on September 2, 2026. Link: apply.interfolio.com/188806 Please share widely & apply!
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Yale is hiring in developmental psychology (open rank )! We're especially interested in complementing and broadening our area, including via somewhat less traditionally central such as cross-cultural and comparative approaches. Feel free to reach out with questions!
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🚀What motivates children to persist through challenges? @julia-a-leonard.bsky.social looks back on her top 10 piece: “I hope readers connected personally with these questions: How do we figure out what is worth our effort? And how can we help children push through difficulties to reach their goals?”
The cognitive scientist helping kids persist through challenges
Julia Leonard is uncovering what motivates children to put in the effort to learn
boldscience.org
A new Teaching Current Directions highlights a paper from @julia-a-leonard.bsky.social and @reutshachnai.bsky.social and offers an opportunity to teach students about cutting‑edge research on #parenting. #Psychology #Teaching
How Kids Learn the Power of Persistence
Teaching: Lesson plans to teach students cutting-edge research on parenting and introduce feedback loops and expectancy-value theory.
psychologicalscience.org
5th year PhD student Brandon Carrillo got second place in the Yale 3 minute thesis competition! Congrats Brandon!!!
Are you attending @cogdevsoc.bsky.social 2026? Come join us for an afternoon pre-conference workshop on motivation in development! We'll bring together developmental, educational, and computational perspectives to ask: Can we build a unified account of motivation across the lifespan? ✨
💰Economic inequality is on the rise, and children will bear its burden. Yet children’s perspectives are rarely considered. We urgently need research to understand economic inequality from children's perspectives. (1/4) rdcu.be/e3Qlb
💥New paper alert! Dyadic Decisions About Effort: How Caregivers Shape Young Children’s Persistence (with @reutshachnai.bsky.social) One of my favorites! If you’re curious about what we’ve been up to in @leonardlearnlab.bsky.social, take a look! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Like a parent, AI can guide or smother. It's time to think about how we build this relationship. Check out my new essay with Brett Smith www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/deve...
Will AI Become a Helicopter Parent?
Like a parent, AI can guide or smother. It's time to think about how we build this relationship.
psychologytoday.com
Hiring a part-time Design & Research Associate! Details here: tinyurl.com/TangleDesign... Apply here: forms.gle/46twwHFJPKXx... What you'll do: ✨ Design prototypes for math activities 🔬 Coordinate experiments in education contexts 🤖 Explore AI tools, educational applications
Design & Research Associate
Design & Research Associate #edtech #ai #learningdesign #edresearch #middleschoolmath ➜ About the Project Project Tangle & Thrive project explores ways to increase engagement and motivation for middl...
tinyurl.com
I’ve been talking with the phenomenal NYTimes reporter @susandominus.bsky.social about my research since 2018, and her new book *The Family Dynamic* is finally out!
Thrilled to share our new @NatureComms paper: "Exploration is associated with socioeconomic disparities in learning and academic achievement in adolescence." www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵1/7
Exploration is associated with socioeconomic disparities in learning and academic achievement in adolescence - Nature Communications
Children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds often show lower academic achievement, commonly linked to limited resources. Here, the authors show that reduced exploration–a behavior tuned for learning...
nature.com
Is research, in fact, me-search? In the latest issue of @psychscience.bsky.social Observer, @julia-a-leonard.bsky.social and I go toe-to-toe on this age-old question.
Association for Psychological Science@psychscience.bsky.social · last yr.Meet 2025 APS Janet Taylor Spence award recipient @chazfirestone.bsky.social, cognitive psychologist and associate professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.
The Learning Lab is heading to CogSci 2025 (@cogscisociety.bsky.social) to share our latest research! Come say hello!
Just 1 week left to apply! 🙏 Pls share with anyone you think might be interested. If there are any Q's, get in touch! 👉 3x PhD position: hmc-lab.com/ERC_PhDs.html 👉 2yr Postdoc position: hmc-lab.com/ERC_Postdoc....
Three PhD positions -- ERC Project
Three PhD positions -- ERC Project posted on June 10, 2025 We are currently seeking highly motivated individuals to fill three PhD positi...
hmc-lab.com
Charley Wu@thecharleywu.bsky.social · last yr.🚀Join our team @tuda.bsky.social ! 🚀 I'm looking for 3 PhDs & 1 Postdoc for my @erc.europa.eu project “C4: Compositional Compression in Cognition and Culture” to study learning across individuals, teams, and cultural timescales 👉 PhD: hmc-lab.com/ERC_PhDs.html 👉 Postdoc: hmc-lab.com/ERC_Postdoc....
Wirecutter crowned Ben & Jerry’s the best vanilla ice cream. I scoffed. Our lab managers Surya and Nat ran a blind taste test. Guess what won? Ben & Jerry’s. Science is brutal.
On 6/21, come to @amant-arts.bsky.social for the exhibition On Education and a screening of Baby Group by Emanuel Almborg — with commentary by me! A joyful blend of art and science, the film explores how a group of babies behave in the absence of adults. www.amant.org/programs/115...
Minor Drama: Emanuel Almborg’s Baby Group - Amant
Amant is an arts organization that fosters artistic experimentation and dialogue across disciplines through residencies and public programming. Amant is situated in the New York City borough of Brookl...
amant.org
Honored to win the 2025 APS Janet Taylor Spence Award! You can read more about my research and journey here www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...
Member Spotlight: 2025 Spence Awardee Julia Leonard on Celebrating Children’s Progress
This Yale University researcher discusses her efforts to understand children’s approach to learning.
psychologicalscience.org
New preprint! Despite ongoing efforts to combat gender bias in education, our work reveals a striking and under-explored challenge: By the time children enter elementary school, children already expect adults to hold gender stereotypes and approve when adults act on them. osf.io/preprints/ps...
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We just had our last lab meeting with @leonardlearnlab.bsky.social seniors. 🥺 Some of these folks have been in the lab for as long as I have! A true honor to work with these brilliant and wonderful people!
Check out our symposium on *parents' lay theories of cognitive development* at #SRCD2025! Ft. work by @reutshachnai.bsky.social, @julia-a-leonard.bsky.social, @dominicgibson.bsky.social, and yours truly, discussed by @andrewshtulman.bsky.social !
Congrats to my first PhD student Dr Flora Zhang!!!!! Make sure to check out her amazing work on intuitive theories of acquisition (and why they matter) @leonardlearnlab.bsky.social
The platform I run, Children Helping Science, is supported almost entirely by US government science funding, both directly and in collaboration with CHS researchers. Here's the note we sent to users today - we need help gathering your stories and citations! Submit here: forms.gle/zFnzrVURntdZ...
