Hello! My name is Qiong Cao (pronounced as /chiong/ /tsau/; Chinese: 曹琼). I’m a SCSB Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT, co-advised by Drs. Josh Tenenbaum, Shari Liu, Jesse Snedeker, and Laura Schulz. Previously, I was a PhD student at Johns Hopkins University, working with Dr. Lisa Feigenson. Before that, I earned my MA in Psychology at New York University and my BS in Psychology from Zhejiang University, China.

I study the representations and computations that support inference and learning, with a particular focus on their development in early childhood. My research spans multiple age groups and domains, and is guided by questions such as: How do children and adults generate predictions? How do infants and children decide what to learn following prediction errors? and What are the computations that support inference about information in the physical and the social world? In my doctoral research, I investigated how infants and young children reason about and learn from surprising objects, agents, and everyday events. Currently, I’m exploring how predictive abilities develop in typically developing and autistic children and adults, and how these abilities differ across physical and social domains. You can read more about my research here.

In my free time, I enjoy going to concerts, watching clouds and flowers, trying out different matcha drinks and dessert, and adoring cute animals—especially my lovely cat.

You can contact me at: qcao246 AT mit.edu.