Bio

Monica is a PhD student at UC Berkeley. As a graduate student working jointly with Professors Mahesh Srinivasan and Silvia Bunge, she uses behavioral, psychophysiological, and neuroimaging methods to explore how children’s early experiences shape their linguistic and cognitive development. She has two main lines of work. The first focuses elucidating how structural constraints associated with poverty may systematically affect parents’ parenting—specifically, whether external pressures suppress their speech with their children. The second focuses on how children’s brains adapt to their environments. What skills might children develop when they grow up in socioeconomically disadvantaged homes? What does “resilience” look like for them? Monica’s work is generously supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Fellowship, and the Greater Good Science Center.