Dr. Laura Lakusta

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Email: LakustaL@mail.montclair.edu
Office: Dickson 247
Office Telephone: (973) 655- 7951
Lab Telephone: (973) 655- 4045 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BIO: Full-Time Professor
Montclair State University Department of Psychology
Montclair, NJ, USA
Cognitive and Language Development Lab

Cognition and Leadership Development Lab (in collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Bragger)
https://msu-cldl.weebly.com/

Wayfinding Lab (in collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Yang)
https://www.msuspatiallab.com/copy-of-spatial-skills-in-children

Click here to view Dr. Lakusta’s CV ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ACADEMIC POSITIONS:

Professor, 2018 – Present: Department of Psychology, Montclair State University
Associate Professor, 2014 – 2018: Department of Psychology,
Montclair State University
Assistant Professor, 2008 – 2013: Department of
Psychology, Montclair State University
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2005 – 2008: Department of
Psychology, Harvard University

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RESEARCH AREAS:

Language Development
Conceptual Development
Spatial Language
Spatial Representations
Theory of Mind
Development in Neurodiverse populations (e.g., Autism)

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EDUCATION:

Ph.D, 2005: Psychological and Brain Science/Cognitive
Science, Johns Hopkins University Developmental Psychology
Doctoral Thesis: Source and Goal Asymmetry in Non-Linguistic Motion Event Representations
M.A., 2001 Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns
Hopkins University
Master’s Thesis: Infant Category Acquisition: The First Step
B.A., 2000: Psychology, Lehigh University
Semester Abroad: Department of Psychology, University
College of London, 1999

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EXTERNAL GRANT ACTIVITY:

Funded

1/1/23 – 12/31/25
National Science Foundation, # 2222247, RUI: Wayfinding in Children: Developmental Pathways, Supporting Cognitive Processes, and Gender Differences
(in collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Yang), $335,050

9/1/21 – 8/30/24
National Science Foundation, # 2052245, RUI: Servant Leadership in
Organizations: What are Its Cognitive Antecedents and How Does it Develop?
(in collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Bragger), $474,080

3/1/17 – 3/1/21
National Science Foundation, #1650861, RUI: Interactions between language
and cognition in the early acquisition of spatial language, $500,000

6/15/12 – 5/31/15
National Science Foundation, #1145762, RUI: Conceptual Foundations of
Language: Infants’ Representations of Sources and Goals in Events, $384,460

9/05 – 8/08
National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, Individual Ruth L.
Kirschstein National Research Service Award, $136,840. Scored at 1.3 percentile

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PUBLICATIONS: (* denotes MSU student co-authors)

*Hauss, J., *Barbosa, J., Muentener, P., & Lakusta, L. (in press). The language of mechanical support in children: Is it ‘sticking’, ‘hanging’, or simply ‘on’? Journal of Child Language.

Bragger, J., *Quevedo, Y., *Vrushi, C., & Lakusta, L. (under review). A New Approach to Measuring Leadership: Match-to-Sample Task, Frontiers: Organizational Psychology.

*Elgamal, K., Muentener, P., & Lakusta, L (2025). Development of Mechanical Spatial Language of Support: Insight from 3- to 6-year-old Children’s Explanations, Cognitive Development.

*Yacoub, N., Lakusta, L., & Yang, Y. (2024). Sex Differences in Direction Giving: Are Boys Better Than Girls? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

Lakusta, L., *Wefferling, J., *Ergamal, K., Landau, B. (2024). ‘Dividing the Labor’: Lexical verbs and the linguistic encoding of physical support in 2- to 4.5-year-old children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 238, DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105803

Lakusta, L., *Hussein, Y., *Wodzinski, A., Landau, B. (2021). The privileging of ‘support-from-below’ in early spatial language acquisition. Special Issue, Language and Cognition, Infant Behavior and Development. DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101616

Lakusta, L., *Wodzinski, A., Landau, B. (2021). Providing support for ‘support’: Parents’ use of verbs and prepositions when describing support configurations to their children. Journal of Cognition and Development. DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2021.1908292

Lakusta, L., *Brucato, M., Landau, L. (2020). Evidence for a core representation for support in early language development. Language Learning and Development, 16(2), 180-195. DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2020.1721291

Lakusta, L., *Spinelli, D., & *Garcia, K., (2017). The relationship between pre-verbal event representations and semantic structures: The case of goal and source paths, Cognition, 174-187.

Lakusta, L. & *DiFabrizio, S., (2016). And, the Winner Is…A Visual Preference for End Points over Starting Points in Infants’ Motion Event Representations, Infancy, 1-21, DOI: 10.1111/infa.12153

Lakusta, L. & Muentener, P., *Petrillo, L., *Mullanaphy, N., & *Muniz, L., (2016). Does making something move matter? Representations of goals and sources in causal motion events. Cognitive Science, 1-13, DOI:10.1111/cogs.12376.

Lakusta, L. & Carey, S. (2015).Twelve-month-old infants’ encoding of goal and source Paths in agentive and non-agentive motion events. Language Learning and Development, 11(2), 152-175. DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2014.8966168

Lakusta, L. & Landau, L. (2012). Language and memory for motion events: Origins of the asymmetry between goal and source paths. Cognitive Science, 1-28, DOI: 10.1111/j.1551-6709.2011.01220.x.

Muentener, P. & Lakusta, L. (2011). The intention-to-CAUSE bias: Evidence from children’s causal language. Cognition, 119, 341-355.

O’Hearn, K., Lakusta, L., Schroer, E., Minshew, N., Luna, B. (2011). Deficits in adults with autism spectrum disorders when processing multiple objects in dynamic scenes. Autism Research, 4(2), 132-142, PMID: 21254449

Lakusta, L., Dessalegn, B., & Landau, B. (2010). Impaired geometric reorientation caused by genetic defect. PNAS, 107(7), 2813-2817. PMID: 20133673.

Landau, B. & Lakusta, L. (2009). Spatial representations across species: geometry, language, and maps. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 19, 1-8.

McRoberts, G.W., McDonough, C., & Lakusta, L. (2009). The role of verbal repetition in the development of infant speech preference from 4- to 14-months of age. Infancy, 14(2), 162-194.