Principal Investigator
Şeyda Özçalışkan, PhD
Şeyda Özçalışkan is a Professor of Psychology. She received her PhD in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Psychology Department at the University of Chicago before joining the faculty at Georgia State University. CV_Ozcaliskan_2024
Google scholar
Research.gate
Faculty Page
Graduate students
Ebru Pınar, MA
Ebru received her BA in Psychology from Kennesaw University before joining the lab in Fall 2017. Her research focuses on sex differences in children’s speech and gesture production at the early ages in relation to parental verbal and nonverbal input. Ebru’s work has been funded by a GSU Scholar Award. Research.gate
Irmak Su Tütüncü, MA
Irmak received her BA in Psychology from Ege University in 2019 before joining the lab in Fall 2019. She is working on a project examining cross-linguistic similarities and differences observed in co-speech and silent gestures across different languages. Irmak’s work has been funded by a GSU Scholar Award and by the Turkish National Science Foundation. Research.gate
Armita Ghobadi, MA
Armita graduated from University of Tehran with a BS in Clinical Psychology and an MS in General Psychology before joining the lab in Fall 2021. She is working on project that examines differences between monolinguals and bilinguals’ in their multi-modal expression of spatial concepts. Research.gate Google scholar
Funda Yagmur, MD
Funda graduated from Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University with a Medical Degree before joining the lab in Fall 2023. She is working on a project examining sources of individual variability in gesture and speech of children with Down syndrome. Research.gate
Adrienne Wyble, BA
Adrienne graduated from Louisiana State University with a BA in Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience before joining the lab in Fall 2023. Her research interest includes the role of nonverbal abilities (gesture, drawing) in the spoken language skills of children with autism. Adrienne’s work is funded by a Language & Literacy fellowship. Research.gate
Maryam Zilouchan, MA
Maryam graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a BA and an MA in Educational Psychology before joining the lab in Fall 2024. She is interested in the gesture-speech link in children with developmental disorders.
Kalyn Lane, BA
Kalyn graduated from Georgia State University with a BA in Psychology before joining the lab in Fall 2024. She is interested in the multi-modal communicative development of children with autism.
High school, undergraduate and postbac students
CURRENTLY WORKING IN THE LAB: Semira Oluwaferanmi Adegbie; Avani Chandak; Arly Cruz Aboytes (Honors College); Cindy Kim (L&L Fellow); Kaundinya Challa; Isabelle Na (University Assistant); Salman Rady; Angela Yun (Advanced Honor Psychology)
For undergrads interested in research, please fill out the form: RA_form
Lab Alumni
Former Graduate students
Sumeyra H. Ozturk, PhD, 2022, Speech therapist, Miami, FL Linked In
Stephanie Baumann, PhD, 2022, Faculty, Auburn University Google scholar
Leyla Eghbalzad, PhD, 2021, Faculty, Emory University Oxford College Research.gate
Valery Mateo Limia, PhD, 2020, Analyst, Florida Institute of Technology Research.gate
Leslie Evans Hodges, PhD, 2019, Research Associate, Board of Regents University System of Georgia Research.gate
Samantha N. Emerson, PhD, 2018, Research Scientist, Aptima Human-Centered Engineering Google scholar
Lauren Stites, PhD, 2016, Senior Research Associate, Georgia Health Policy Center Google scholar
Former Postdoctoral fellows
Himmet Sarıtaş (2023-2024), Research Scientist, Turkey Research.gate
Murat Şengül (2018-2019), Faculty, Nevşehir University, Turkey Google scholar
Kübra Şengül (2018-2019), Faculty, Nevşehir University, Turkey Google scholar
Wojciech Lewandowski (2016-2017), Research scientist, Potsdam University, Germany Google scholar
Nevena Dimitrova (2012-2015), Faculty, Haute école de travail social et de la santé Lausanne, Switzerland Google scholar