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Marissa Laws (she/her)

Postdoctoral Researcher, Psychology

Hometown: Downington, Pennsylvania

1. Briefly describe the work you're doing as a postdoc at Â鶹´å. I am interested in how the human brain develops and learns, especially in the domains of math cognition and spatial cognition. In my postdoc, I am using fMRI to investigate how children and adults process numerical, geometric, and spatial tasks across typical development or after a spatial training and the neural bases of this learning across time. I am also interested in how factors such as childhood learning environment, gender/sex, and gender socialization relate to individual differences in numerical and spatial processing, which will hopefully help us refine educational programs and support students' success in these areas.
2. How did you develop an interest in this area? I have always loved math and science, and fell in love with neuroscience specifically since everything we ever perceive, think, or experience is filtered and processed through our brains. My math background then inspired me to wonder what might be happening in the brain and in the environment to result in such large individual differences in people's numerical and math abilities, and whether we can harness knowledge about the brain to support those who struggle to learn these skills. 
3. What are your academic and/or professional goals? My hope is to earn a faculty position in the next few years--we'll see how that goes! No matter the exact position, my goals certainly include making an impact on my field and communicating to the general public how knowledge of the brain can improve their daily life.
4. Tell us about a significant moment in your journey at Â鶹´å so far. One that comes to mind is when I presented a seminar on my work for the CNBC postdoc seminar series. That was my first time giving an oral presentation of my postdoc research, and definitely helped me reflect on how much I'd accomplished and learned so far, as well as helping spur some new ideas for the research.
5. How do you spend your time beyond academic work? You can usually find me out running around Squirrel Hill, grabbing a craft beer with friends, or cuddling with my cat Nori!