
Current Lab Members
Summer 2023


Lab Director
Dr. Johnson received her undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester where she majored in Brain & Cognitive Sciences and completed a Take Five program in Developmental Biology & Evolution. She then went on to earn her PhD in Psychological & Brain Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University. During her final year as a PhD student, Dr. Johnson spent two semesters at the Speech Group at MIT. Dr. Johnson then accepted a postdoctoral position at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. Dr. Johnson is now a Canada Research Chair in Spoken Language Acquisition and Professor of Psychology at UTM. She is also Director of the University of Toronto's Tri-Campus Graduate Program in Psychology. The main goal of her research program is to understand how young children acquire their native language.
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Language(s): English (native)


PhD Candidate (Year 4)
Research Interests: Language acquisition in early childhood bilingualism, relationship between bilingualism and cognitive development


PhD Candidate (Year 4)
Research Interests: Multilingual effects on language acquisition and perception, speaker recognition, music and language processing, auditory-visual speech processing
Language(s): English (native)


Alexandra Hawse
NSERC - USRA Student
Education: Forensic Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga
Expected Year of Graduation: 2024
Language(s): English (native)
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Wardah Nadeem
Research Assistant Summer Job Program
Education: Neuroscience specialist, Psychology Major, Biology Minor
Expected Year of Graduation: 2025
Language(s): English (native), Urdu (native), French (fluent)


Kaitlyn Harris
Research Assistant
Education: English major, French and Education Studies minors, University of Toronto Mississauga
Expected Year of Graduation: 2023
Language(s): English (native), French (fluent)


Maripaz Gonzalez
Research Assistant
Education: Majoring in Biology for Health Sciences, minoring in Art History and Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga
Expected Year of Graduation: 2024
Language(s): English (native), Spanish (fluent)


Wujiamei (Grace) Sun
IRP Student
Education: Psychology Research Specialist
Expected Year of Graduation: 2024


Emily Kuik
Honours Thesis Student
Education: Psychology Specialist Program, minor in Linguistics, University of Toronto Scarborough
Expected Year of Graduation: 2024/25

Jana AlFaras
ROP Student
Education: Double major in Biology and Psychology
Expected Year of Graduation: 2024
Language(s): English (native), Arabic (native)


Ismail Amir
ROP Student
Education: Biology for Health Sciences, Psychology
Expected Year of Graduation: 2024
Language(s): English (native), Urdu (fluent), Hindi (fluent)


Ana Beatriz de Faria Porto
ROP Student
Education: Major in Psychology; Minors in Linguistics and Education Studies
Expected Year of Graduation: 2025
Language(s): Portuguese (native), English (fluent), ASL (learning)


Reem Idris
ROP Student
Education: Psychology Specialist
Expected Year of Graduation: 2024
Language(s): Arabic (fluent), English (fluent), French (intermediate)


Tracy Ly
ROP Student
Education: Life Sciences, Chemistry and Biology for Health Sciences major
Expected Year of Graduation: 2026
Language(s): Vietnamese (native), Cantonese (native), English (fluent), French (learning)


Faith Young
ROP Student
Education: Psychology Major and Biology Major
Expected Year of Graduation: 2025
Language(s): English (fluent), French (learning), Cantonese (learning)


Zicheng Shao
Mitacs Globalink Research Intern
Education: Bachelor of Arts in Translation and Interpreting at Zhejiang University, China
Expected Year of Graduation: 2024
Language(s): Mandarin (native), English (fluent), Spanish (basic)


Yantong Xiang
Mitacs Globalink Research Intern
Education: English major, the School of Foreign Studies, South China Agricultural University
Expected Year of Graduation: 2024
Language(s): Mandarin (native), Cantonese (native), English (learning)


Leah Rudmik
Work Study Student
Education: Majoring in Psychology and Linguistics
Expected Year of Graduation: 2024


Josie Davies
Volunteer, Former Mitacs Globalink Research Intern
Education: Majoring in Psychology at Cardiff University
Expected Year of Graduation: 2023