University of Massachusetts-Boston · PsychologyChildhood Cognitive Development Lab
Tashauna Blankenship · Boston, Massachusetts
Research Focus
Dr. Tashauna Blankenship's lab at the University of Massachusetts Boston studies how young children think about the future and remember past events. The research focuses on understanding how these abilities develop in children aged 3 to 4, looking at both their cognitive processes and the brain activity associated with these tasks. This work is important for identifying early signs of cognitive challenges and improving educational outcomes for children.
episodic future thinkingearly childhood developmentmemory retrievalneural correlatesplanning abilitybehavioral measureselectroencephalographylongitudinal study
Research Aims
5AIM 01Quantify the capacity of episodic future thinking in 3- and 4-year-olds.
AIM 02Examine how episodic future thinking processes in children change with age.
AIM 03Identify neural correlates of episodic future thinking using EEG data.
AIM 04Investigate the stability of episodic future thinking over time through longitudinal analyses.
AIM 05Explore patterns of cognitive development related to planning and memory retrieval.
Skills the Lab Values
EEG data collectioneye trackingdata analysislongitudinal research designbehavioral observationcognitive assessmentsstatistical softwarequalitative research methodstemporal pattern analysis
Output against the department
Publications31bottom 5% of dept.281st of 296
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations298bottom 2% of dept.289th of 296
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.