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Chaolan Lin is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego. She works with Dr. Adena Schachner, who directs the Mind and Development Lab in UC San Diego's Department of Psychology. Her studies focus on children's understanding of technology, such as video chat, augmented reality, and robots, and its impact on early social-cognitive development. She also explores how humans perceive musical robots, with a particular interest in mind perception.

 

Current Area of Emphasis (also in training)

Social Cognition, Cognitive Development, Mind Perception, Human-Robot Interaction 

I have served as a peer reviewer for the following: 

  • Computers in Human Behavior [link]

  • Cognitive Science Society [link​]

  • ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction [link​]

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I have served as a teaching assistant for the following undergraduate courses since 2019:

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  1. COSG 100 Cyborgs Now and in the Future, 19' Summer, 23' Spring

    • Covers the theories of situated, distributed, enactive, and embodied cognition. Explains how cyborgs are a natural consequence of our current understanding of embodied minds embedded in culturally shaped niches; how mental systems can be distributed over other people and things.

  2. COGS 111 Beauty and the Brain, 23' Fall

    • ​Course focus: What is beauty? The subjective experience of aesthetic appreciation dominates culture. But what determines this illusive quality? Why is it so important, how did it evolve, and how is it represented in the brain?

  3. COGS 108 Data Science in Practice, 22' Fall

    • This course teaches critical skills needed to pursue a data science career using hands-on programming and experimental challenges.

  4. COGS 102C Cognitive Design, 22' Spring

    • ​This project-based course focuses on learning and applying the process of human-centered cognitive design. Students work in teams to design and evaluate a prototype application or redesign an existing system. Emphasizes contextual inquiry, user research, ideation, iterative design, and evaluation.

  5. COGS 10 Cognitive Consequences of Technology, 22' Winter

    • ​This course examines the interrelationships of cognition and technology from the perspective of cognitive science. We address questions of importance for our increasingly technological society: How does technology shape our minds? How should what we know about our minds shape technology?

  6. COGS 14B Intro. to Statistical Analysis, 21' Summer

    • ​Introduction to descriptive and inferential statistics. Tables, graphs, measures of central tendency and variability. Distributions, Z-scores, correlation, regression. Probability, sampling, logic of inferential statistics, hypothesis testing, decision theory. T-test, one and two-way Anova, nonparametric tests (Chi-square).

  7. COGS 187A Usability and Information Architecture, 20' Summer, 20' Fall, 21' Summer

    • ​Examines the cognitive basis of successful web and multimedia design. Topics: information architecture, navigation, usability, graphic layout, transaction design, and how to understand user interaction.

  8. DSGN 100 Prototyping, 21' Winter

    • ​Explores cognitive principles of thinking through making. Introduces methods and tools for prototyping user experiences. Students make various prototypes and participate in weekly critique sessions. Topics: experience design, rapid prototyping, sketching, bodystorming, cardboard modeling, UI hacking, and design theory.

  9. COGS 107A Neuroanatomy and Physiology, 20' Summer

    • This first course in the sequence focuses on principles of brain organization, from neurons to circuits to functional networks. It explores developmental plasticity, neuronal connectivity, cellular communication, complex signaling, and how these various dimensions form functional brain systems.​

  10. COGS 119 Programming for Experimental Research, 19' Spring, 19' Fall

    • ​This course will help students in the behavioral sciences (cognitive science, psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and related fields) learn how to program experiments and analyze and present data.​​

  11. COGS 14A Intro. to Research Methods, 19' Summer, 23' Fall

    • Introduction to the scientific method. Methods of knowledge acquisition, research questions, hypotheses, operational definitions, variables, control. Observation, levels of measurement, reliability, validity. Experimentation and design: between-groups, within-subjects, quasi-experimental, factorial, single-subject. Correlational and observational studies. Ethics in research.​

  12. COGS 13 Field Methods: Studying Cognitive in the Wild, 19' Winter

    • ​This course introduces students to multiple methods to investigate cognition and behavior in natural settings. Students will learn about ethnography, videography (video data collection, coding, and analysis), surveys design and conducting interviews, and how to move from observations to modeling.

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