Principal Investigator
Kaya de Barbaro, PhD
Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin
kaya@austin.utexas.edu
My background is in cognitive science, an interdisciplinary field where I was trained in methods and theories from psychology, neuroscience, philosophy and computer science. My expertise is in developmental science, and my work spans the domains of social, cognitive, motor, and physiological development. Across these domains, I have characterized the microdynamics of infants’ activity—as they use their eyes and hands to play and explore while expressing patterns of arousal and affect. To capture infants’ activity in high resolution, I have used tools ranging from fine-grained video analyses to eyetracking and physiological sensors. I have developed a unique methodological toolkit to make sense of and quantify theoretically-interesting patterns in these high-density datasets.
My current research is in the emerging field of computational behavioral science, bridging insights from developmental science, clinical psychology, computer science, and electrical engineering. My lab uses mobile and wearable sensors to gain unprecedented access into the daily experiences of mothers and their infants. The goals of this work are to access the basic mechanisms of maternal mental health and infant social-emotional development, and ultimately to develop “just in time” interventions for cases of high risk, such as the transmission of risks for depression from mothers to infants.
Graduate Students
Taylor Wilds, MS
3rd year Developmental Psychology PhD Student
tlwilds@utexas.edu
Taylor Wilds (she/her) received a B.A. in Psychology and Neuroscience from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2016. In 2020, she received an MS degree in Clinical Psychological Science from the University of Maryland, College Park where she spent two years researching the influence of environmental factors (e.g., parenting, social support, pollution, green-space) on child development.
Taylor joined the Daily Activity Lab in Fall 2023 under the mentorship of Dr. Kaya de Barbaro. Her research focuses on identifying biobehavioral mechanisms that influence intergenerational risk, with a particular emphasis on early caregiving contexts and physiological regulation. She is especially interested in how maternal mental health influences real-time behavior and infant parasympathetic regulation, shaping long-term developmental trajectories. More broadly, she takes a biopsychosocial approach that integrates processes such as RSA and mother–infant synchrony to understand how maternal mental health, caregiving interactions, and environmental risks function as risk and protective factors in development. She is firmly committed to investing in the health and well-being of underrepresented communities.
Xiping Jiang, MS
2nd year Developmental Psychology PhD Student
jxp@utexas.edu
Xiping Jiang (he/him) obtained his bachelor’s degree in Psychology from a joint undergraduate program between Southwest University (China) and Australian National University (Australia) and completed a dual-major master’s degree in Human Development (ISHD) and Learning Science (LST) at the University of Pennsylvania. He participated in research related to child development, parenting, and well-being. He also served as a part-time mental health supporter at two high schools and an intern at a psychological counseling chatbot company. Through much exploration, Xiping has identified his interests in children’s social emotional development.
Xiping is currently a PhD student under Dr. Kaya de Barbaro’s supervision. He is particularly interested in children’s development from the perspective of complex systems. He is very curious about how daily events occurring in microsystems slowly affect children’s development and mental health, and how the interaction of various factors in these systems changes. He will learn to use advanced statistical methods to answer these questions. Xiping is from a low-resource area; he is eager to serve the children development and family systems in disadvantaged areas.
Research Coordinators
Karina De La Torre Pinedo, BS
Karina De La Torre Pinedo (she/her) received a B.S. in Psychology from Emory University in 2024. She completed her senior honors thesis on the relationships between Emotional Intelligence and subtle forms of racism (e.g., Bayesian racism, Tolerance of Racism, and Intervention).
Karina joined the Daily Activity Lab as a Research Coordinator in Summer 2024, focusing on understanding how infants learn in real time in more naturalistic environments. Her current research interests are in understanding how parent-child and sibling dynamics related to norm enforcement and quality of relationship are interconnected to emotional intelligence, mental health outcomes, and behavior in children.
Post-Bac Research Assistants
Alexys Castillo
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Giovanna Martinez
Carmen Rivera
Mia Saavedra
Sarah Hernandez
Ansley Bryan
Emma Higgins
Emma Gonzalez
Sriyam Joshi
Mariana Urbano
Avery Croft
Diya Deepak
Lab Alumni
Dr. Priyanka Khante (Senior Generative AI Scientist at Cotiviti)
Dr. Anna Madden-Rusnak (Research Scientist at Dell Medical School Department of Women’s Health)
Dr. Xuewen Yao (Data Scientist at Microsoft)
Dr. Meg Micheletti (Post-doctoral Scholar at UCLA)
Miriam Mikhelson (MA student; current MSS student in Social Work at Bryn Mawr College)
Hannah Levin (MA student; current PhD student in Media, Technology, and Society at Northwestern University)
Kasey Gerencer, MA (research coordinator; current PhD student in Clinical Psychology at the University of Vermont)
Mckensey Johnson (lab manager; Research Analyst at Gallup)
Lara Andres (lab manager)
Graduate Research Assistants
Li Nie
Mingyang Ke
Yashaswi Galhotra
Yicheng Zhang
Yizhen Wang
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Adrian Luong
Alexis Dominguez
Amy Conde
Ana Mairena
Angeline Ajit
Ashna Dhaduti
Avrey Curry
Brandon Thint
Brianna Lee
Brooke Benson
Caity Campbell
Cameron Hall
Cara Coligan
Caroline Whitmarsh
Christine Liu
Daisy Green
Derian Lee
Gabby Trejo
Grace Chang
Grace Kim
Isa Barnes
Jenna Guzman
Jessie Berry
Kara Kaur
Kate Neal
Kathryn Mootz
Lesly Chavez
Loreily Limon
Loryn Bailey
Mackenzie Roach
Magisha Radjendran
Mahyar Hassim
Mai Le
Myra Kurjee
Neha Momin
Nehaa Dambala
Nina Nariman
Qinwen Zhou
Rehman Zindani
Rosa Juan
Samantha Greenlaw
Udita Thapar
Vanessa Alonzo
Veronica Cantu