I am a Professor of Psychology at Koç University, Istanbul and the director of Language and Cognition Lab. I received The Science Academy, Turkey’s Young Scientist Award BAGEP in 2015, James S. McDonnell Foundation Human Cognition Scholar Award in 2017, and Turkish Academy of Science Outstanding Young Scientist Award in 2018. In 2020, I was elected to the Young Academy of Europe. In 2021, I received the Tübitak Incentive Award. I am an elected board member of the Cognitive Science Society, and served as the Secreteray General in the board of the International Society for Gesture Studies between 2017-2022.
I did my Postdoctoral work in the Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania. I worked with Dr. Anjan Chatterjee at the Chatlab in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. I was also affiliated with Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (SILC). I received my PhD in Developmental Psychology from Temple University and worked at Temple University Infant and Child Lab under the directions of Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Dr. Roberta M. Golinkoff. I obtained my BA in Psychology from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul and MA in Developmental Psychology from Koç University, Istanbul.
I study language and thought interactions at different age groups and populations, employing methods and perspectives from the developmental, linguistic, neuropsychological, and cognitive science literatures. I focus on interdisciplinary, multi-method, multimodal, cross-linguistic research, and multilevel analyses.
