Imagination Lab

The Imagination Lab is located on the third floor of the Psychology Department at the University of Oregon. Our research focuses on the development of imagination in children and its relation to social understanding, creativity, inhibitory control, and narrative skills. In particular, we are interested in children's creation of imaginary companions and the role they play in social and cognitive development.

Lab Member Profiles (alphabetically ordered by last name)

Naomi Aguiar
	Naomi Aguiar is a first year doctoral student in the Imagination Lab. She is interested in: (1) when and how young children and adults use their imaginations as a vehicle for coping (2) the role of technology in shaping creativity and the development of imagination in early and middle childhood (3) the role of anthropomorphism in both interfacing with technology and coping with loneliness and (4) creativity and the illusion of independent agency in adult fiction writers. Naomi is currently working on two projects: (1) the role of imaginary companions in coping with foster care and (2) the development of children's ability to fill gaps in their knowledge by consulting experts. For fun, Naomi enjoys cycling, ballet, modern dance, reading fiction and drinking coffee.
Carli Dickson
	Carli is a senior working on her undergraduate degree in psychology. She is interested in the neural correlates of cognition and behavior, altered states of consciousness, the phenomena and applications of dreaming, and exploring research methods which would provide an alternative to animal experimentation. After graduation, Carli intends to continue her studies at the Masters or Doctoral level upon returning from a trip through Central and South America.
Candice Mottweiler
	Candice is a second year doctoral student. She is currently investigating the relation between elaborated role play and narrative creativity in preschool age children. She is also working on a project exploring imagination as a source of resiliency in foster care children.
Alison Shawber Sachet
	Alison is a sixth year doctoral student interested in the development of imagination and pretend play and how children’s imaginations can influence their real life behaviors and abilities. Her dissertation research is about the extent to which children’s prosocial reactions to imagined scenarios are similar to reactions to scenarios involving real people. Her other research areas include the characteristics and correlates of children’s role play (e.g., having an imaginary companion or pretend identity), the relationship between children's pretend play and personality traits related to social interactions, children’s ability to learn and transfer information from fantasy stories, the neural correlates of children’s motor imagery (using fMRI), and the relationship between children’s real and imagined actions.
Mirjam Staeb
	Mirjam is in her first year at the University of Oregon, pursuing a Bachelor's degree in psychology. She grew up with a father who is a psychologist and a mother who is a counselor. She was sure that she would never do anything within that field until some significant experiences, long conversations with her parents and lots of literature from Oliver Sacks, Irvin D. Yalom and Eric Kandel convinced her that she would not be happy with anything else. As of now creativity, imagination, memory and amnesia are the fields she is most interested in. Mirijam loves working in the imagination lab and exploring the research side of psychology.
Deniz Tahiroglu
	Deniz is interested in the individual differences in theory of mind development and is currently working on a parent-report theory-of-mind questionnaire. She is also interested in basic developmental processes in executive functions and pretend play. Her research interests also include imagination in children with autism and the links between children's imagination and dissociation.