Lauren Myers

As a developmental psychologist, I’m interested in how people learn and grow throughout the lifespan. One of the things that’s core to my teaching philosophy is to help my students grow and develop as they progress in my classes. I hope that my students will become lifelong learners and that, in my classroom, I’ll spark their curiosity and desire for intellectual growth. 

I try to help my students push the boundaries of their knowledge. I believe in holding high expectations for my students to do rigorous academic and intellectual work. One of the things I take from my field of developmental psychology is learning occurs optimally when students are in what’s called their ‘zone of proximal development,’ which is the area between too easy and too difficult—between what you currently know and what you could potentially know. That means, in my classes, students might not always know the right answer, but I believe in normalizing that as healthy for learning, because learning happens when we push our boundaries. 

I also hope to foster a growth mindset in my students. I believe, and I have seen ample evidence, that Lafayette students can do incredible work. My goal is to help them see that, especially when they’re working on something new and challenging. I believe my role as a teacher is to help support students’ sense of competence and belief in themselves. I try to help my students see how effort makes them grow stronger, so we do a lot of planning ahead, self-reflection, and revision in my classes.

We also do a lot of collaboration in my classes, and we apply what we learn to settings outside of the classroom, such as in everyday life and in the science lab, because I believe that’s when some of the most memorable and impactful educational experiences happen. I frequently ask students to reflect on and apply their learnings to their own life and real-world settings. A lot of my classes also have community-engaged learning components, where we work with elementary or preschool children to apply what we’ve learned in class.

I think of Lafayette students as little balls of potential, and one of the most rewarding things for me has been working with them while they’re here—where they’re having so many formative experiences for their own intellectual growth—and keeping in touch with my students after they graduate and seeing all the amazing things they end up doing. And I’ve integrated that into my classes by inviting alumni guests to talk about their work. So, for example, in my Lifespan Development class, we’ll have an alumni guest who is working as a nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and students can see the relationship between the material we’re learning in class and how this alum is applying those principles as they work with families who have babies in the NICU.

I was bitten by the research bug when I was a sophomore at Furman University, which is an institution in Greenville, S.C., that is similar to Lafayette. I have a vivid memory of being at a meeting for psychology majors where the professors talked about their research areas. The professor who eventually became my undergraduate mentor talked about how she did work on infant and childhood cognitive development—the science of how young children learn, grow, and think—and she talked about how her research could basically get inside the head of a child and figure out how children see the world. I thought it was fascinating that you could use research to see the world from a child’s perspective, to figure out what they know at one point in development and then assess how that knowledge of the world changes over time. That idea still is one of the main drivers of my interest in my research area. 

When I started teaching lifespan development at Lafayette, I learned how that perspective can be applied to assess development across the lifespan, into adulthood and older adulthood. So, we can look at how a 20- or 50-year-old sees the world and how they’re growing and changing even as adults. Growth and change don’t stop at childhood; they’re part of a lifelong process. 

Through my research, I have studied children and their thinking and learning from and about digital media. There are a lot of controversial things out there about children and screen time, and whether screen time is good or bad for kids. In my research, I try to go beyond that good-bad dichotomy and look at how families with young children can use digital media in developmentally appropriate ways.

My research also focuses on children’s understanding of symbolic representations—things like maps, pictures, digital media, and video chat. We all use symbols every day to remember the past, navigate around unfamiliar places, and learn new things. I’m particularly intrigued by children’s understanding of symbols that represent things in the real world. For adults, many symbols are easy to understand—for example, we know that a real person is on the other end of a video chat. But that concept is not necessarily straightforward to a child who’s video chatting with, say, their grandparents. Children have to learn to understand, create, use, and communicate with symbols. My most recent research examines how families with young children can use video chat conversations to meaningfully connect with grandparents who live far away. I received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to do this work, and that has enabled me to hire additional paid student research assistants to help us do the study.

I love teaching and researching at Lafayette College. One wonderful program Lafayette has is the EXCEL Scholars program, which has been essential to me in my research. Having EXCEL students work with me as peers over the summer is a wonderful experience for both me and the students, because they get immersed in the work much as they would if they were in graduate school. I don’t think I could have done my research program without EXCEL; it’s been a wonderful opportunity for me to train my students on the research in my area. 

The College also is really good about funding students to go to conferences. I’ve taken students to disciplinary conferences in my area of research—such as the Society for Research in Child Development and the Cognitive Development Society—and they’re almost always mistaken for graduate students because they’re so mature and knowledgeable. It thrills me when my students impress other people in my field. My students also have a great track record of presenting their work at NCUR, the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, which occurs annually in the spring.

External Grant Funding

Myers, L.J. (PI) & Strouse, G.A. (Co-I). Using structured video chat to improve relationships between young children and remote grandparents. National Institutes of Health 1R15HD107457-01A1. Impact score: 10. Total award: $406,410

Awards

Carl R. and Ingeborg Beidleman Research Award for excellence in applied research or scholarship, Lafayette College (2021)

Inaugural Faculty Fellow for Engaged Scholarship, Lafayette College Landis Center (2020-23)

Hoff Award for Superior Teaching (sciences and engineering), Lafayette College (2020)

I have two young girls, and we just love living in Easton. We love going to the Da Vinci Science Center and the Crayola Factory, and taking advantage of everything Easton has to offer. Easton is such a nice town; it has great restaurants and concerts down by the river in the summer, and my family and I are frequent visitors of the Easton Farmers’ Market and the local parks. We love the sense of community here and have a wonderful network of friends.

Lafayette Kids Lab website
Connect with me on Twitter
My Google Scholar page
My Lafayette site

Zosh, J., Strouse, G., Myers, L.J., Chi, X., Stuckelman, Z. McClure, E., Troseth, G., & Barr, R. (2023). Virtual grandparenting: Identifying barriers to supportive video chat between grandparents and grandchildren. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, advance online publication. DOI: 10.1155/2022/9454654 

Piper, D., Malik, S., Badger, A., Strouse, G.A., Myers, L. J., McClure, E., Troseth, G.L, Zosh, J., & Barr, R (2023). Sharing culture in a tech world: Grandparent-grandchild cultural exchanges over video chat. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, advance online publication. DOI: 10.1037/tps0000358 

Levy, M.* & Myers, L.J. (2022). Believing in achieving: The impact of role salience and anticipated work-family conflict on self-efficacy beliefs in emerging adult women. Emerging Adulthood, 11(1), 257-266. DOI: 10.1177/21676968211035271

Roche, E., Rocha-Hidalgo, J., Piper, D., Strouse, G.A., Neely, L.I*, Ryu, J., Myers, L.J., McClure, E., Troseth, G.L., Zosh, J.M. & Barr, R.F. (2022) Presence at a distance: Video chat supports intergenerational sensitivity and positive infant affect during COVID-19. Special issue, The Impact of COVID-19 on Infant Development, Infancy, 27, 1008-1031.

Strouse, G.S., McClure, E., Myers, L.J., Zosh, J., Troseth, G., Blanchfield, O., Roche, E., Malik, S. & Barr, R. (2021). Zoom-ing through development: Using video chat to support family connections during COVID-19. Special Issue: Children’s understanding of emerging technologies, Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 3, 552-571. DOI: 10.1002/hbe2.268

Myers, L.J., Keyser, H.*, & Cors, M.* (2019). Co-viewers support participation in video chat interactions, but live experiences promote richer word learning for 24- to 36-month-olds in the USA. Journal of Children and Media, 13(4), 415-432 . DOI: 10.1080/17482798.2019.1646294 

Myers, L. J., Crawford, E.*, Murphy, C.* Aka-Ezoua, E.* & Felix, C.* (2018). Eyes in the room trump eyes on the screen: Effects of a responsive co-viewer on toddlers’ responses to and learning from video chat. Journal of Children and Media, 12, 275-294. DOI: 10.1080/17482798.2018.1425889  

Myers, L. J., LeWitt, R.*, Gallo, R.*, & Maselli, N.* (2017). Baby FaceTime: Can toddlers learn from online video chat? Developmental Science, 20, e12430. DOI: 10.1111/desc.12430 

* Denotes undergraduate student author from Lafayette