People
Lab Director
Charisse Pickron, PhD
Dr. Pickron earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology in 2018 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in Amherst Ma., after having earned her M.S. at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2015 and her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Ma., in 2008. Her research program examines the ways in which social experiences shape how infants perceive and represent people in their environment. During her graduate training under the advisement of Dr. Lisa Scott, she used electrophysiological and eye-tracking measures to explore infants’ face perception. During her dissertation research with Dr. Erik Cheries, she trained in several behavioral measures including infant looking, reaching, and crawling to examine socio-moral judgements and conceptual representations that infants have about people in their environment. In particular her work examines the way early experiences shape the perceptions and representations of people that vary along race and gender. Her work as a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow examined attentional processes sensitive to facial expressions using electrophysiological measures (EEG/ERPs) as well as eye tracking. Her goal is to actively work with families of diverse backgrounds to build a collaborative bridge between communities in the Minneapolis area and her work in child development. She also has a 15lb cat named Jackie Chan and one of her favorite books is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. & John Archambault.
Lab Manager
Emmy Higgs Matzner
Emmy has a background in youth development, community engagement, and program management. She holds a B.A. from Macalester College in Psychology and Spanish and supports the research of the CBP Lab in a myriad of ways. In addition to supervising undergraduate research assistants, Emmy manages the organizational aspects of the lab, oversees participant visits and data collection, and assists in the approval-process for new research projects. Emmy’s previous roles include Career Pathways Coordinator with Step Up of Achieve Twin Cities, a work-readiness and paid internship program for high school students; Program Coordinator with ACES, an out-of-school-time tutoring/mentoring program for elementary and middle school students; Customer Service Representative with UCare, a non-profit health plan company; and English Language Learner Assistant Teacher at Cedar Manor Intermediate School. Emmy loves gardening, biking, and watching movies. Two of her favorite books to read with her kids are Julián is a Mermaid, by Jessica Love, and Mae Among the Stars, by Roda Ahmed.
Graduate Students
Norwood Glaspie
Norwood is a fourth-year doctoral student at the Institute of Child Development. His interest encompasses topics such as Cognitive Development, Social Cognition, and Early Learning in children. Specifically, the role language and perception plays in children’s understanding of bias and social categories. Norwood is from North Carolina, where he received his Bachelors in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke in 2018. In his free time he likes to watch sports games (i.e. basketball, football, and boxing) and going to the gym. His favorite children’s book growing up was Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne.
Beyza Kazan
Beyza is a second-year doctoral student on the developmental science track at ICD. She graduated from Bahcesehir University with a dual degree, earning a B.A. in both Psychological Counseling and Guidance, as well as Psychology. Before starting graduate school, she worked as a research assistant at Harvard University under the supervision of Dr. Ashley Thomas and Dr. Elizabeth Spelke. Her research focused on understanding how infants and toddlers connect multiple cues to infer social relationships. More broadly, she is interested in social cognition. Specifically, she wants to explore how less perceptual social categories, such as culture and religion, influence infants' and children's perceptions of the world and those around them. Beyza is from Türkiye and loves walking, trying traditional recipes, discovering new coffee shops, and spending time outdoors in nature.
Shi Xin Ooi
Shi Xin is a second-year doctoral student on the developmental science track at the Institute of Child Development. She completed her B.S. degree in Psychology in 2022 and M.S. degree in Developmental Psychology in 2023 at the University of Michigan. Her interests are broadly surrounding how social group indicators, such as language, culture, and race, can inform young children’s development of social categories. She is currently working on a project in the CBP lab that examines the early development of race-based associations in young children’s understanding of familial labels. Shi Xin is from Malaysia and has also spent her childhood living in China, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates. In her free time, she enjoys karaoke, gaming, poetry, and exploring new cafes and dessert shops with friends. Her favorite books growing up included the Geronimo Stilton series and the Series of Unfortunate Events books.