Dr. Laura Cirelli

BIO

I am an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the director of the TEMPO lab (timing, entrainment, & music perception). I completed my PhD in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour at McMaster University under the supervision of Dr. Laurel Trainor, and my postdoctoral work at the University of Toronto Mississauga with Dr. Sandra Trehub. My research focuses on how engaging in musical activities can be a social and an emotional experience for infants and young children. I use behavioural and physiological methods (e.g. skin conductance, electroencephalography) to investigate the development of music perception and production. I am specifically interested in how infants direct prosociality toward musical partners, how infant directed singing can influence the caregiver-infant relationship, and how rhythm perception and production develops across infancy and childhood.