Lab Members
Alex Shaw, Ph.D.
DIBS Lab Principal Investigator, Professor of Psychology
Broadly, Alex is interested in how human beings navigate the complex social world by tracking each others’ reputations and by signaling to others. More specifically, he studies the development of fairness in children. His fairness research is focused on differentiating fairness from other forms of niceness, exploring the reputational motives that may underlie fairness, and how fairness may relate to our alliance psychology. He also researches intellectual property in children and is investigating whether part of our concern with people stealing ideas is based in not liking others garnering a false reputational advantage. He is also interested in the computations people perform to decide how and when to fight over resources, track others’ reputations, and learn to properly discount others’ self-promotional strategies.
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Email: ashaw1@uchicago.edu
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Isabella Ramkissoon
Lab Manager
Isabella oversees the lab’s research projects and facilitates the work of our graduate and undergraduate researchers. She received her B.A. in Psychology with honors from the University of Chicago in 2024. Within the CECR, she unites the Development of Social Cognition (DSC) Lab and the Developmental Investigations of Behavior and Strategy (DIBS) Lab led by Professor Alex Shaw. She is interested in studying how children develop early sociopolitical worldviews and how children reason about wealth inequality.
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Email: iramkissoon@uchicago.edu
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Molly C. Gibian, M.A.
Senior Research Associate
Molly advises for the lab’s research agenda, integrates systemic project management, writes regulatory documents and provides organizational guidance. She has over 10 years of research experience in developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and education from her roles at M.I.T., Harvard Medical School, Cornell University, the University of Chicago and Stanford University. Her interests focus on societal/cultural influences on learning cognition, education environments, leadership and social language.
Email: mgibian@uchicago.edu
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Graduate Students
Katie Vasquez
Ph.D. Student
Katie is a PhD student working with Alex Shaw. She graduated from Wesleyan University in 2020 with a high honors in Psychology. After graduating, Katie worked as Yarrow Dunham’s and Paul Bloom’s laboratory manager at the Yale University Social Cognitive Development and Mind and Development Labs. Katie broadly researches children's social and moral development, including children's moral intuitions and how children behave in socio-moral dilemmas. In the DIBS Lab, Katie plans to focus on how children think about and engage in social strategies, such as reputation management.
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Email: kvasquez@uchicago.edu
Website: https://ktvasquez.weebly.com/
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Alex Mackiel
Ph.D. Student
Alex is a PhD student with Alex Shaw and Amanda Woodward. In general, Alex studies social and moral cognition from infancy to adulthood. He is especially interested in how people in varying stages of development perceive, understand, and reason about different types of social relationships and the norms, expectations, and obligations that they entail.
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Email: amackiel@uchicago.edu
Erin Kim
Ph.D. Student
Erin is a PhD student working with Alex Shaw. She completed her undergraduate education at Vanderbilt University, where she also worked as a part-time undergraduate research coordinator for the Early Development Lab with Georgene Troseth. Erin then went on to work for Wesleyan University as a lab coordinator for Hilary Barth's Cognitive Development Lab. As a graduate student, she is excited to explore how children draw inferences and form concepts about the social world through implicit cues in their environment. She is particularly interested in how children think about secret-sharing interactions.
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Email: erindkim@uchicago.edu
Research Assistants
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Bentzion Fiorino
Research Assistant with Alex Mackiel
Bentzion is a fourth-year psychology major at the college. He is interested in studying cognitive and behavioral psychology, particularly focusing on decision-making, memory, judgments, and cognitive biases. Previously, he worked in a decision-making lab focused on bilingualism. Bentzion is thrilled at the opportunity to study social judgments with children and gain a glimpse into the innate judgments that they form through social interactions.
Jaden Sher
Research Assistant with Erin Kim
Jaden is currently a first year in The College, planning to major in psychology and business economics. He is interested in studying social dynamics, particularly how they relate to reputation and leadership. He will be working with graduate student Erin Kim and assisting her research in these areas.
Lena Tran
Research Assistant with Katie Vasquez
Lena is a second-year psychology major at the college, interested in studying developmental psychology. It is her first time participating in psychological research, but she is excited to dive into her interest in child development, especially in their behavior. She will be working with graduate student Katie Vasquez and assisting her research in children's social and moral dilemmas. ​
Anderson Lynch
Research Assistant with Katie Vasquez
Anderson is a second-year psychology major interested in developmental psychology and social cognition. He is especially interested in the development of concepts including equality, justice, and fairness in children and how they present in social settings. Anderson will mainly be assisting PhD student Katie Vasquez in her ongoing and upcoming studies.​
Julie Chen
Research Assistant with Alex Mackiel
Julie is a second-year student at the College, majoring in Psychology and Economics. She is particularly interested in studying behavioral and developmental psychology, focusing on what drives certain behaviors and their developmental aspects. Currently, she is assisting PhD student Alex Mackiel on his research studies.
Lab Alumni
Ben Morris
In DIBS Lab: Graduate Student (Ph.D., 2024)
Post DIBS Lab: Postdoctoral Researcher at Yale
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Mitchell Landers
In DIBS Lab: Graduate Student (Ph.D., 2024)
Post DIBS Lab: Postdoctoral Researcher at UCSD
Hannah Hok (Kim)
In DIBS Lab: Graduate Student (Ph.D., 2023)
Post DIBS Lab: Postdoctoral Researcher at MIT
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Anam Barakzai, Ph.D.
In DIBS Lab: Graduate Student (Ph.D., 2019)
Post DIBS Lab: Working at Google in UX
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Jessica Bregant, J.D., Ph.D.
In DIBS Lab: Graduate Student (Ph.D., 2018)
Post DIBS Lab: Assistant Professor Houston Law Center
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Zoe Liberman, Ph.D.
In DIBS Lab: Graduate Student (Ph.D., 2016)
Post DIBS Lab: Associate Professor, UCSB
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Ike Silver. Ph. D
In DIBS Lab: Research Assistant
Post DIBS Lab: Assistant Professor of Marketing, Northwestern
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Emily Gerdin
In DIBS Lab: Lab Manager
Post DIBS Lab: Ph.D. Student, Yale University, Psychology
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Kayla Good
In DIBS Lab: Lab Manager
Post DIBS Lab: Ph.D. Student at Stanford University
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Zachariah Berry, M.A.
In DIBS Lab: Was a MAPSS Student
Post DIBS Lab: Assistant Professor, USC Management
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Sean Zheng, M.A
In DIBS Lab: Research Assistant and MAPSS student
Post DIBS Lab: Ph.D. Student, Northwestern University, Psychology
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Sophie Arnold
In DIBS Lab: Research Assistant
Post DIBS Lab: Ph. D. Student, New York University.
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Abbie Klein
In DIBS Lab: Research Assistant
Post DIBS Lab: Ph.D. Student, UW Madison
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James Dunlea
In DIBS Lab: Research Assistant
Post DIBS Lab: Ph.D. Student at Columbia University, Psychology
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Emory Kim
In DIBS Lab: Research Assistant/Junior Lab Manager
Post DIBS Lab: Lab Manager for Franklin Huang Lab, UCSF
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Gemma Smith
In DIBS Lab: Lab Manager
Post DIBS Lab: Fulbright Scholar; English Teaching Assistantship in Argentina
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