Laura Schulz

Laura E. Schulz is an American psychologist who is professor of cognitive science at the brain and cognitive sciences department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is the principal investigator of the Early Childhood Cognition Lab at MIT. Schulz is known for her work on the early childhood development of cognition, causal inference, discovery, and learning.

Education Schulz received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in philosophy from the University of Michigan in 1992. She received a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy, both in psychology, from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002 and 2004, respectively.

Career

While at Berkeley, she worked closely with Alison Gopnik, researching computational models of cognition. In 2005, Schulz joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). There, alongside Pawan Sinha, she runs the post-baccalaureate Research Scholars Program in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, working to prepare disadvantaged students for graduate school.

Schulz is the principal investigator of the Early Childhood Cognition Lab at MIT, studying learning in early childhood.

Research Schulz's research focuses on children's cognition, specifically how children begin to form their world-views from the facets of information they obtain every day. Her work focuses on three main topics within children cognition. One of the topics is how children process the information they've gained in order to better infer, interact, and explain the world around them. Another topic is on the factors that allows children express curiosity and explore their environment, which also allows them to strengthen their cognition. Finally, how the information gained from the previous points will interact with one another to form their social cognition and ultimately build their sense of self and their interactions with others.

As of 2020, she has 95 publications including articles, data, and papers, 20 of which were completed during her time at The Center for Brains, Minds and Machines (CBMM) at MIT. In March 2015 she gave a TED talk called "The surprisingly logical minds of babies", which has since had almost 2 million views.

Personal life

Schulz is the daughter of teacher Margot Schulz and lawyer Isaac Schulz. Her sister, Kathryn Schulz, is a staff writer for The New Yorker. MIT MacVicar Faculty Fellow, 2013 National Academy of Sciences, Troland Research Award, 2012 Society for Research in Child Development, Award for Early Career Research Contributions, 2011 National Academy of Sciences, Kavli Fellow, 2011 MIT Brain and Cognitive Science Award Angus MacDonald Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 2011 MIT Sigma Xi, Invited Speaker, 2011 Marr Prize, Cognitive Science Society (student author: Hyowon Gweon), 2010 NSF Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, 2009 John Merck Scholars Foundation Award, 2009 Class of 1943 MIT Career Development Professorship, 2009 MIT Brain and Cognitive Science Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising, 2009 NSF Faculty Early Career Development award, 2007 MIT School of Science Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 2007 Marr Prize, Cognitive Science Society (student author: Elizabeth Bonawitz), 2006 American Association of University Women, American Dissertation Fellowship, 2004 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Award, 2001 Hewlett Foundation Graduate Fellowship Award, 2000