Lab Members
Principal Investigator
Hilal H. Şen. Ph. D.
Hilal is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Akureyri (Akureyri, Iceland). She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology (track: Developmental Psychology) from Koç University in 2019. Hilal is currently interested in individual differences in babies’ moral evaluations of others’ actions and preschooler’s exploration of their environment. In her non-academic life, Hilal enjoys reading novels, engaging in visual arts, and being together with her husband and daughter.
Email: hilal@unak.is
Office: A118 Sólborg – University of Akureyri
CV | ORCID I Google Scholar I IRIS I UNAK
Ece Aksu
Ece is a pre-doctoral researcher at Koç University (Istanbul, Turkey). She earned her M.A. degree in Psychology (track: Developmental Psychology) from Koç University in 2022. For her thesis, she investigated if mothers’ mental state talk differed depending on the characteristics (cultural identity, age, socioeconomic status) of the target whose mental state is in question. Ece is currently interested in investigating the mechanisms underlying children’s successful peer relationships, and the academic and social outcomes of parents’ goal-setting behaviors.
Dilara Özalp
Dilara Özalp is a graduate student at Kadir Has University, Department of Psychology. She graduated from MEF University, GPC and the psychology departments. During her undergraduate education, she did internships in the psychological counseling services of various schools and worked as a volunteer research assistant at MEF University Social Development Laboratory. Her areas of interest include exploratory behavior in early childhood, learning, and possible causes of individual differences in these behaviors.
Gamze Buyurucu
Gamze is a third-year undergraduate psychology student at MEF University (Istanbul, Turkey). She navigates her studies among different subdisciplines of psychology (Developmental/Social/Clinical Psychology) and is also interested in statistics for social sciences. She wishes to be an academician in the future.
Sigurbjörg Þorleifsdóttir
Sigurbjörg is a psychology graduate student from the University of Akureyri. Sigurbjörg previously obtained a bachelor degree in psychology from UNAK. She is beginning to work on a research project on prosocial values and behavior. Sigurbjörgs main interests lie within children’s development and education.
Melda Karaoğlu
Melda is a 3rd year psychology student at Istanbul MEF University. She previously studied political science and international relations at Istanbul University for 3 years. Her area of interest is developmental psychology. She enjoys doing research on social emotional development and language acquisition in children. She is also concerned with the psychology of preschool education. Her hobbies include listening to music, playing the piano and learning foreign languages.
Günce Uğur
Günce graduated from Bahçeşehir University Psychology Department in 2020. After her undergraduate education, she gained various experiences by working as a research assistant in the Developmental Psychology laboratories of different universities. She started her Master’s Degree in Developmental Psychology track at Boğaziçi University in 2022. Research interests of Günce consist of areas such as children’s learning from storybooks, development of imagination, creativity, and pretend play skills. She enjoys designing her own jewelry, walking, and taking photos in her daily life.
If you are interested in joining our lab as a research assistant, please apply through this link.