Bio

Lara Pierce (she/her) is the director of the Pierce Experience & Development Lab and an Assistant Professor of Psychology at York University. She received her Ph.D. from McGill University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Pierce uses developmental cognitive neuroscience tools to explore how variation in the early environment impacts the development of neural systems, particularly those supporting language. She aims to identify mechanisms by which specific variables (e.g., those associated with socioeconomic variation, poverty, and early life stress) shape a) the nature of the early language environment, b) children's developing neurophysiology, and c) how these variables interact to shape language learning across childhood (and beyond). Dr. Pierce also explores the role that individual differences (e.g., in stress physiology) play in the development of language and cognitive abilities. She uses tools such as electroencephalography (EEG/ERP), language recordings, and behavioral assessments in infants and children to address these questions. Dr. Pierce is also a mom to the world’s most patient developmental science teacher and EEG pilot participant.