Degrees/Diplomas: Ph.D., University of California – San Diego
Campus Affiliation: Brooklyn College
Training Area: Cognition, Language, and Development; Developmental Psychology
Phone: 718.951.6072
Email: larainem@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Research Interests: Concept development, memory, categorization, language acquisition (English and Korean), nonverbal thought, memory and aging.
Laraine McDonough began her second career, a change from banking to academics, by completing her Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego in Psychology. She is currently an Associate Professor in Psychology at Brooklyn College and a member of the doctoral programs in Developmental Psychology and Cognition, Brain and Behavior. Her research in cognitive psychology ranges from infantile amnesia and categorization to the acquisition of concepts about objects, actions, and space and how language acquisition (English, Korean, Japanese) influences such concepts. In addition, she has investigated how we formulate metaphors via embodied experiences in order to think and talk about time. Her current interests include the effects of maternal prenatal nutrition and stress on infant cognitive development. She is currently working on projects with her graduate students who are investigating autism spectrum disorders and developmental coordination disorder. Her research has appeared in various journals including Cognitive Psychology, Cognition, Child Development, the American Journal of Psychology, and Development and Psychopathology. Her collaborators are psychologists as well as neuroscientists, linguists, and philosophers. The theme that binds her research concerns the early foundation of meaning and how it is creatively realized throughout development under ideal and challenging situations.