Dima Amso

Dima Amso is a Professor of Psychology at Columbia University. Professor Amso is interested in understanding the process of human brain and cognitive development. In recent years, her lab has made novel discoveries regarding the numerous sophisticated learning systems available to infants. Professor Amso's plan is to exploit these discoveries to ask innovative questions about (1) how interactive learning systems in infancy offer plasticity in the presence of risk and opportunity, and in doing so (2) how they are simultaneously being shaped by experience for adaptive function in future environments.

Additionally, Professor Amso's lab is committed to global partnerships. Global crises have increased the number of mass migrations and displacement, and thus children experiencing the effects of profound stress. Jordan houses just over 655,000 Syrian refugees, and almost 40% are children. She has partnered with Taghyeer and the We Love Reading (WLR) program, a local Jordanian reading intervention, to support early childhood development. Reading for pleasure is a positive and culturally-sensitive approach to enriching children’s agency, parent-child interactions, early literacy, and executive functions in preschoolers.