Biography
Marianella Casasola earned her undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Spanish Literature from the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. Her expertise is in infant cognitive development and early word learning with a particular interest in the interaction between thought and language during the first few years of development. Along with her students, she examines various aspects of infant cognitive and linguistic development, but is especially interested in the emergence of spatial concepts, the early acquisition of spatial language, and the interplay between spatial cognition and spatial language in infants and young children.
In my research, my students and I examine various aspects of cognitive development and language learning in infants and young children. I am particularly interested in the interaction between cognition and language from infancy into early childhood. Much of my work has focused on the early development of spatial skills, the acquisition of spatial language, and links and causal relations across these two domains. Other work has examined how infants and children acquire a second language and this acquisition may shape underlying concepts.
In addition, our lab seeks to develop new methodological approaches that can be used to trace the trajectory of spatial and cognitive skills from infancy into early childhood. We combine across naturalistic and experimental methods to understand how acquiring spatial language may relate to the development of spatial skills and to test causal links between particular experiences, such as exposure to spatial language or engaging in particular play activities, and adavnces in infants' and children's spatial skills. Our goal is to not only understand how early spatial skills develop, but also how best to promote their development.
In other work, my students and I have begun to explore how infants and toddlers learn labels in a foreign language, examining how much exposure to an unfamiliar language (such as Spanish) is necessary for infants to begin to demonstrate comprehension of words in the new language. We have also explored this question with school-aged children who are learning a new language (Spanish) during a weekly enrichment program.
Casasola, M., & Ahn, Y. A. (2018). What develops in infants’ spatial categorization? Korean infants’ categorization of containment and tight-fit relations. Child Development, 89, e382-e396. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12903.
Casasola, M., Bhagwat, J., Doan, S. & Love, H. (2017). Getting some space: Infants’ and caregivers’ containment and support constructions during play. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 159, 110-128. doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.01.012
Park, Y., & Casasola, M. (2017). The impact of object type on spatial analogies in Korean Preschoolers. Cognitive Psychology, 94, 53-66. doi.org/10.1016/cogpsych.2017.02.01
Park, Y., & Casasola, M. (2015). Plain or Decorated? Object Visual Features Matter in Infant Spatial Categorization. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Vredenburgh, C., Kushnir, T., & Casasola, M. (2015). Pedagogical cues encourage toddlers’ transmission of recently demonstrated functions to unfamiliar adults. Developmental Science, 18, 645-654. doi:10.1111/desc.12233
Chen, J., Meng, X.Z., Zhu, L.Q., Casasola, M. & Tardif, T. (2015). English- and Mandarin-learning infants’ discrimination of actions and objects in dynamic events. Developmental Psychology. http://dx/doi.org/10.1037/a0039474
Ferguson, K. T., & Casasola, M. (2015). Are you an animal, too? African and US infants’ categorization of animals. Infancy, 20, 189-207. doi.10.1111/infa.12069
Casasola, M., & Park, Y. (2013). Developmental changes in infant spatial categorization: When more is better and less is enough. Child Development, 84, 1004-1019. doi 10.1111/cdev.12010
Casasola, M., Bhagwat, J., & Burke, A. S. (2009). Learning to form a spaital category of tight-fit relations: How experience with a label can give a boost. Developmental Psychology, 45, 711-723.
Casasola, M. (2008). The development of infants’ spatial categories. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 21-25.
Casasola, M. (2005). When less is more: How infants learn to form an abstract categorical representation of support. Child Development, 76, 279-290.
Casasola, M., Cohen, L.B., & Chiarello, E. (2003). Six-month-old infants’ categorization of containment spatial relations. Child Development, 74, 679-693.
Board member, International Congress on Infant Studies
Editorial Board, Journal of Cognitiion and Development
Member, Society for Research in Child Development, International Society on Infant Studies, Cognitive Development Society
Ad-hoc reviewer, Psychological Science, Cognition, Child Development, Developmental Science, Journal of Child Language, Journal of Cognition and Development, Spatial Cognition and Computation, Cognitive Science, Language Learning and Development, Infancy, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Trends in Cognitive Science, British Journal of Developmental Psychology, Developmental Neuropsychology, Perspectives on Psychological Science
My research integrates outreach and public engagement with the studies we conduct. As a former Faculty Fellow with Brofenbrenner Center for Translational Research, I developed important partnerships with Cornell Cooperative Extension to explores way to expand our study of early spatial skills to more diverse samples of young children thoughout NY state. Thanks to the assistance of the Brofenbrenner Center, we established critical new connections to Head Start Centers in Tompkins County and NYC and have expanded our experimental studies to these centers, allowing us to extend findings from the lab to classrooms to children's museums. The work with the Head Start centers are especially important in ensuring that findings we establish in the research lab replicate in other samples and in other contexts. We also work closely with paritcular centers to contribute to or offer parent education programs around play and learning.
In my courses and research lab , I strive to help students develop their critical thinking, a skill which I hope will be useful regardless of their career path. In my courses, I also focus on developing students' writing so that they gain confidence and proficiency in clearly communicating their ideas. In the lab, I strive to instill a sense of excitement for the process of discovery and encourage students to use their creativity in tackling a research question.
HD 2830: Research Methods in Human Development
HD 3460: Serious Fun: The Role of Play throughout Development
HD 4380: Language and Thought Thoughtout the Lifespan
HD4340: Seminar on Cognitive Development
HD 6310: Graduate seminar in Cognitive Development
B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1992; Psychology and Spanish Literature
Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 2000; Developmental Psychology
Dean's Fellow for Program Development, January 2019 - present
Cornell Infant Study Laboratory https://www.blogs.cornell.edu/casasolalab