Cognation Research Laboratory

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CITIZENS: (ALSO SEE COGNATIVES AT LARGE)

Lera Boroditsky
Lera is the short dictator of Cognation. In her spare time she likes to impersonate a Professor of Cognitive Science at Stanford, give pseudo-scientific lectures at bars, conduct important experiments on the nature of gravity, and build giant bananas. The picture on the left is a statue of Julius Caesar (striking resemblance, isn't it?)

Kelly McCormick
Kelly is Cognation's minister of order, technology, and other potentially useful things. Kelly holds a degree in cognitive science from UCSD (with minors in Linguistics and Spanish), where she worked on studies on sensory metaphor, humor, and synesthesia. When not busy being bi-cultural (both Northern & Southern California!), Kelly spends her time embodying the up=good conceptual metaphor.

Caitlin Fausey
Caitlin is a graduate student in psychology interested in language, thought, causality, and some stuff in between. Now, did Caitlin become interested in this stuff on her own, or did these topics interest themselves to Caitlin? Depends on the language you speak, says Caitlin. Hopefully when Caitlin is done with her research it will be possible for me to never be to blame for anything ever again.

Alexia Toskos
Alexia is a graduate student in psychology interested in perceptual grounding, embodiment, language, and how it all gets that way. Despite her name, Alexia can still read, which is disappointing as that would indeed be a spectacular effect of language on cognition. She is, however, Greek as her name suggests (phew! at least we have an effect of language on nationality!)

Orly Fuhrman
Orly is a graduate student in psychology interested in language, metaphor, brains, and brain lesions. She even says some of her best friends have brains. Orly comes to us from Israel and is hoping to figure out how to make time go to the left. When not busy reversing the direction of time, Orly sings, plays music, and speaks too many languages.

Steve Flusberg
Steve likes to think about thinking. When he's not careful he starts thinking about how we think about thinking. When he's not feeling quite so meta, he just tries to get inside other's minds. Sometimes we fear he takes these metaphors a bit too literally (see photo at left).

Paul Thibodeau
Paul is a graduate student in Psychology interested in metaphor and mental representation. Paul comes to us from Swarthmore where he began his career in metaphor by studying the careers of metaphors. When not busy giving career counseling to metaphors, Paul spends his time speaking Mandarin Chinese, and quietly plotting world domination (you've gotta watch out for the quiet ones).

LONG DISTANCE OPERATIVES:

Febby & Tessa
Febby (on the left) & Tessa (on the right) are cognation's long-distance operatives stationed in Jakarta, Java, Indonesia. They are conducting research at the Jakarta Field Station, looking at cross-linguistic differences between English and Indonesian speakers. Tessa & Febby are expert Indonesian-English translators and are working on studies with Indonesian speaking adults, Indonesian-English bilinguals, and also with children acquiring Jakarta Indonesian as their first language.

Our Jakarta Office
This is our new Jakarta office (the "before" and "after" pictures). It is attached to the Jakarta Field Station at the Unika Atma Jaya run by David Gil and Uri Tadmor from the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig. Prof. Dr. Soenjono Dardjowidjojo and Prof. Dr. Bambang Kaswanti Purwo of the Center for the Study of Language and Culture (PKBB) have very generously provided the space for us.

EXILES:

Nathan Witthoft
Nathan was recently released from the lab with a PhD. His thesis was on seeing things that aren't there, what synaesthesia has to do with refrigerator magnets, how English and Russian speakers see blues and greens, and how looking at someone you don't know can help you recognize someone you do. He is not really very dangerous. These days he's a postdoc with Kalanit Grill-Spector at Stanford.

Jonathan Winawer
Did Jonathan get a real PhD or an imaginary one? If we are to believe Jon's thesis research, it doesn't much matter: imagining is almost as good as perceiving. Which if we are to believe Jon's other work (creating the world's biggest illusion) isn't actually saying that much. Jon has also done work on myopia in chickens, effects of language on color perception, synesthesia, and the perception of Mooney faces by toddlers and Amazonian hunter-gatherers. These days he is a postdoc with Brian Wandell at Stanford.

Daniel Casasanto
Daniel is the first citizen of Cognation to be granted an exit visa. Well, ok, a PhD. As part of his great and heroic escape (all the way across the hall), he has started a post-doc with Herb Clark. Daniel has done some terrific work on the spatial foundations of abstract thought. If you're looking for an opera singer/cognitive scientist, look no further!

Winston Chang
Winston was once the Cognation technical guru. Despite being a philosopher (he was working on his Masters in Philosophy at Tufts), Winston actually knew his stuff. We didn't even ask about the mysterious humming noises from his secret server or the webcam on his desk. He has now decided to get serious and return to Cognitive Science as a graduate student.

Kaveh Moghbeli
Kaveh was once Cognation's minister of technology and our very own axis of evil (he's tall and Iranian, get it?). When not busy being evil, Kaveh sang karaoke, competed in triathlons, and practiced jumping off of sidewalks (see photo at left). These days he's making millions for one of those websites you go to often on the web (no, not the one that's $24.99 per month).

Jesse Carton
Jesse was once the Cognation lab manager. Jesse got his BA from Harvard where he studied the history of psychology. Having acquainted himself with the past, Jesse came to Cognation to find out what the future of psychology looks like (ahem). These days he is doing fMRI at UCSF. Also powerlifting. That's right. So don't mess with Cognation, or else Jesse will... well, he'll pick you up with one controlled smooth motion, that's what he'll do.

Amy Perfors
Amy is an alumnus of Symbolic Systems at Stanford, where she also got a masters in Linguistics before going off to Mozambique to teach biology (in Portugese) with the Peace Corps. If all that doesn't make the rest of us look bad, Amy is also an excellent rugby player, and owns a red cowboy hat. Amy is a graduate student in BCS at MIT interested in the evolution of language and the mechanisms of language acquisition.

Lauren Schmidt
Lauren is an alumnus of Symbolic Systems at Stanford, where she also got a masters in Computer Science for some reason. Lauren is interested in the relationship between language and thought and has done studies showing that Spanish and German speakers think differently about the genders of their toasters. Despite dire warnings against it, Lauren decided to come back to Cognation-land for graduate school and signed on as a grad student at MIT. Just in time for us to move back to Stanford. Ha ha!

Eugenia Trusova
Zhenya did her undergrad at MIT majoring in Computer Science and Linguistics. She is interested in the relationships between language and thought. Zhenya speaks too many languages and worked with us on studies about Russian (her native language) and all the weird things Russians do with verbs. These days Zhenya is in graduate school in Cognitive Linguistics at Berkeley.

Lisa Wu
Lisa did her undergrad work in Brain & Cognitive Science at MIT. Her research was on language and color perception, and how and whether the two might be related. Lisa has an impressive knowledge of Monty Python, and a rocky relationship with PsyScope that sometimes approaches violence. There is also something about a secret cartoon alter-ego, but it seemed too embarassing to include here. These days she is in graduate school in Neuroscience at UCLA.

Callie Piedade Shona Watkins
Callie was a Harvardite, but we try not to hold it against her. She even did an honors thesis with us. Among several other languages, Callie is fluent in Spanish and Cape Verdian Crioulo. Callie collected data in Chile: testing Spanish-speaking kids' understanding of time and space. She was helping us figure out whether or not they confuse the two and how they ever manage to deconfuse them.

Aaron Bornstein
Aaron did his undergrad at MIT in Mathematics and Computer Science. When not busy setting himself on fire, Aaron ran his own internet security company, and analyzed functional magnetic resonance imaging data (cause it sounded fancy). Upon graduation, Aaron planned to make lots and lots of money. Like with many citizens of Cognation, escape was not so easy. Several months after fleeing the nest at MIT, he turned up at Stanford. He is applying to graduate schools this year in Cognitive Neuroscience.

Webb Phillips
Webb was once the Cognation manager and technical guru, where he spent most of his time putting the sin back in syntax with his research on the relationships between grammatical sex and meaning (actually, he spent most of his time downloading MP3s off the web, but the former sounds more respectable, doesn't it now?). These days, Webb is a graduate student at Yale exploring the evolutionary origins of the human mind with Laurie Santos.

Richard William Prather II
Rich was affiliated with Cognation as a senior in BCS at MIT. He was interested in how people think about abstract things - like bits of mathematics that don't have any real-world counterparts. These days, Rich is a graduate student in cognitive psychology at UW Madison studying children's acquisition of mathematical skills with Martha Alibali. Warning: hair length may vary.

Michael Frank
After getting a degree in Symbolic Systems at Stanford, Mike just coasted for a while (umm, I mean, worked on a masters in Philosophy). His Cognation days were spent looking at the effects of language on color perception. In his wild undergraduate days, Mike had an unfortunate penchant for continental philosophy which lead him to appear nude in California hotsprings, but that's about the worst thing you can say about him. These days he is a graduate student at MIT in Brain & Cognitive Sciences.

Davie Yoon
Davie started her affiliation with Cognation as a Stanford freshman. She then did research in 30 or 40 other labs on several continents, where she acquired all kinds of fancy ideas. She has now landed back at Stanford as a graduate student in Cognitive Neuroscience. We live in constant fear that she will soon figure it all out.

	Lera Boroditsky Lera is the short dictator of Cognation. In her spare time she likes to impersonate a Professor of Cognitive Science at Stanford, give pseudo-scientific lectures at bars, conduct important experiments on the nature of gravity, and build giant bananas. The picture on the left is a statue of Julius Caesar (striking resemblance, isn't it?)
	Kelly McCormick Kelly is Cognation's minister of order, technology, and other potentially useful things. Kelly holds a degree in cognitive science from UCSD (with minors in Linguistics and Spanish), where she worked on studies on sensory metaphor, humor, and synesthesia. When not busy being bi-cultural (both Northern & Southern California!), Kelly spends her time embodying the up=good conceptual metaphor.
	Caitlin Fausey Caitlin is a graduate student in psychology interested in language, thought, causality, and some stuff in between. Now, did Caitlin become interested in this stuff on her own, or did these topics interest themselves to Caitlin? Depends on the language you speak, says Caitlin. Hopefully when Caitlin is done with her research it will be possible for me to never be to blame for anything ever again.
	Alexia Toskos Alexia is a graduate student in psychology interested in perceptual grounding, embodiment, language, and how it all gets that way. Despite her name, Alexia can still read, which is disappointing as that would indeed be a spectacular effect of language on cognition. She is, however, Greek as her name suggests (phew! at least we have an effect of language on nationality!)
	Orly Fuhrman Orly is a graduate student in psychology interested in language, metaphor, brains, and brain lesions. She even says some of her best friends have brains. Orly comes to us from Israel and is hoping to figure out how to make time go to the left. When not busy reversing the direction of time, Orly sings, plays music, and speaks too many languages.
	Steve Flusberg Steve likes to think about thinking. When he's not careful he starts thinking about how we think about thinking. When he's not feeling quite so meta, he just tries to get inside other's minds. Sometimes we fear he takes these metaphors a bit too literally (see photo at left).
	Paul Thibodeau Paul is a graduate student in Psychology interested in metaphor and mental representation. Paul comes to us from Swarthmore where he began his career in metaphor by studying the careers of metaphors. When not busy giving career counseling to metaphors, Paul spends his time speaking Mandarin Chinese, and quietly plotting world domination (you've gotta watch out for the quiet ones).

	Nathan Witthoft Nathan was recently released from the lab with a PhD. His thesis was on seeing things that aren't there, what synaesthesia has to do with refrigerator magnets, how English and Russian speakers see blues and greens, and how looking at someone you don't know can help you recognize someone you do. He is not really very dangerous. These days he's a postdoc with Kalanit Grill-Spector at Stanford.
	Jonathan Winawer Did Jonathan get a real PhD or an imaginary one? If we are to believe Jon's thesis research, it doesn't much matter: imagining is almost as good as perceiving. Which if we are to believe Jon's other work (creating the world's biggest illusion) isn't actually saying that much. Jon has also done work on myopia in chickens, effects of language on color perception, synesthesia, and the perception of Mooney faces by toddlers and Amazonian hunter-gatherers. These days he is a postdoc with Brian Wandell at Stanford.
	Daniel Casasanto Daniel is the first citizen of Cognation to be granted an exit visa. Well, ok, a PhD. As part of his great and heroic escape (all the way across the hall), he has started a post-doc with Herb Clark. Daniel has done some terrific work on the spatial foundations of abstract thought. If you're looking for an opera singer/cognitive scientist, look no further!
	Winston Chang Winston was once the Cognation technical guru. Despite being a philosopher (he was working on his Masters in Philosophy at Tufts), Winston actually knew his stuff. We didn't even ask about the mysterious humming noises from his secret server or the webcam on his desk. He has now decided to get serious and return to Cognitive Science as a graduate student.
	Kaveh Moghbeli Kaveh was once Cognation's minister of technology and our very own axis of evil (he's tall and Iranian, get it?). When not busy being evil, Kaveh sang karaoke, competed in triathlons, and practiced jumping off of sidewalks (see photo at left). These days he's making millions for one of those websites you go to often on the web (no, not the one that's $24.99 per month).
	Jesse Carton Jesse was once the Cognation lab manager. Jesse got his BA from Harvard where he studied the history of psychology. Having acquainted himself with the past, Jesse came to Cognation to find out what the future of psychology looks like (ahem). These days he is doing fMRI at UCSF. Also powerlifting. That's right. So don't mess with Cognation, or else Jesse will... well, he'll pick you up with one controlled smooth motion, that's what he'll do.
	Amy Perfors Amy is an alumnus of Symbolic Systems at Stanford, where she also got a masters in Linguistics before going off to Mozambique to teach biology (in Portugese) with the Peace Corps. If all that doesn't make the rest of us look bad, Amy is also an excellent rugby player, and owns a red cowboy hat. Amy is a graduate student in BCS at MIT interested in the evolution of language and the mechanisms of language acquisition.
	Lauren Schmidt Lauren is an alumnus of Symbolic Systems at Stanford, where she also got a masters in Computer Science for some reason. Lauren is interested in the relationship between language and thought and has done studies showing that Spanish and German speakers think differently about the genders of their toasters. Despite dire warnings against it, Lauren decided to come back to Cognation-land for graduate school and signed on as a grad student at MIT. Just in time for us to move back to Stanford. Ha ha!
	Eugenia Trusova Zhenya did her undergrad at MIT majoring in Computer Science and Linguistics. She is interested in the relationships between language and thought. Zhenya speaks too many languages and worked with us on studies about Russian (her native language) and all the weird things Russians do with verbs. These days Zhenya is in graduate school in Cognitive Linguistics at Berkeley.
	Lisa Wu Lisa did her undergrad work in Brain & Cognitive Science at MIT. Her research was on language and color perception, and how and whether the two might be related. Lisa has an impressive knowledge of Monty Python, and a rocky relationship with PsyScope that sometimes approaches violence. There is also something about a secret cartoon alter-ego, but it seemed too embarassing to include here. These days she is in graduate school in Neuroscience at UCLA.
	Callie Piedade Shona Watkins Callie was a Harvardite, but we try not to hold it against her. She even did an honors thesis with us. Among several other languages, Callie is fluent in Spanish and Cape Verdian Crioulo. Callie collected data in Chile: testing Spanish-speaking kids' understanding of time and space. She was helping us figure out whether or not they confuse the two and how they ever manage to deconfuse them.
	Aaron Bornstein Aaron did his undergrad at MIT in Mathematics and Computer Science. When not busy setting himself on fire, Aaron ran his own internet security company, and analyzed functional magnetic resonance imaging data (cause it sounded fancy). Upon graduation, Aaron planned to make lots and lots of money. Like with many citizens of Cognation, escape was not so easy. Several months after fleeing the nest at MIT, he turned up at Stanford. He is applying to graduate schools this year in Cognitive Neuroscience.
	Webb Phillips Webb was once the Cognation manager and technical guru, where he spent most of his time putting the sin back in syntax with his research on the relationships between grammatical sex and meaning (actually, he spent most of his time downloading MP3s off the web, but the former sounds more respectable, doesn't it now?). These days, Webb is a graduate student at Yale exploring the evolutionary origins of the human mind with Laurie Santos.
	Richard William Prather II Rich was affiliated with Cognation as a senior in BCS at MIT. He was interested in how people think about abstract things - like bits of mathematics that don't have any real-world counterparts. These days, Rich is a graduate student in cognitive psychology at UW Madison studying children's acquisition of mathematical skills with Martha Alibali. Warning: hair length may vary.
	Michael Frank After getting a degree in Symbolic Systems at Stanford, Mike just coasted for a while (umm, I mean, worked on a masters in Philosophy). His Cognation days were spent looking at the effects of language on color perception. In his wild undergraduate days, Mike had an unfortunate penchant for continental philosophy which lead him to appear nude in California hotsprings, but that's about the worst thing you can say about him. These days he is a graduate student at MIT in Brain & Cognitive Sciences.
	Davie Yoon Davie started her affiliation with Cognation as a Stanford freshman. She then did research in 30 or 40 other labs on several continents, where she acquired all kinds of fancy ideas. She has now landed back at Stanford as a graduate student in Cognitive Neuroscience. We live in constant fear that she will soon figure it all out.