Hi! I’m Sofia Zhang — a developmental psychology researcher, learning designer, and Online Learning Fellow at Harvard’s Teaching and Learning Lab. My work sits at the intersection of cognitive & language development, curiosity, attention, and human-centered learning technologies. I design research-informed learning experiences that feel warm, intuitive, culturally grounded, and genuinely responsive to how people learn.
I’m especially passionate about bridging the gap between technology and human learning. Across my projects, I’ve designed and tested AI conversational agents (like Bill Bot), built interactive tools for faculty, supported course design for the Online Ed.M. programs, and explored learning technologies ranging from VR environments and Minecraft to wearables such as the Oura Ring, Garmin, and the Dreem headband. These tools allow me to study how feedback, curiosity, attention, and engagement unfold moment-to-moment, and how technology can meaningfully enhance them.
My research background in cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology, and language learning shapes how I approach design: I care about why learners react the way they do, how their cognitive systems adapt, and what kinds of environments help them thrive. Whether running EEG studies with children, evaluating language-learning platforms, or building interactive learning tools, I aim to create systems that nurture exploration rather than restrict it.
As someone shaped by both Eastern and Western learning philosophies, from Beijing’s exam-driven classrooms to the slow, embodied attention of Tai Chi, I’m deeply committed to designing learning experiences that are culturally responsive, inclusive, and grounded in multiple ways of knowing. My goal is to create environments where learners feel seen, challenged, supported, and free to follow their curiosity.
At the heart of everything I do is a simple belief:
When we listen closely to learners, their questions, rhythms, fears, and sparks of insight, we can design technology and research that empower them to flourish.
My Cross-Cultural Learning Journey
My learning journey began in China, where academic success was often defined by speed, precision, and perseverance. Growing up within a system shaped by exam-driven expectations, I experienced both the rigor it cultivated and the emotional pressure it imposed. Tai Chi, which I practiced with my grandparents, offered a quiet counterbalance—a philosophy rooted in balance, attunement, and the belief that strength emerges from sensitivity. I did not realize it then, but this practice would become a guiding thread in how I later understood learning, cognition, and human development.
Everything changed during my undergraduate years at UC Irvine. I encountered Western educational traditions for the first time—spaces that valued questioning, collaboration, creativity, and evidence-based reasoning. I learned to unlearn many assumptions about what it means to “know,” and began examining how cultural worldviews shape children’s motivation, curiosity, attention patterns, and emotional well-being. This cross-cultural shift revealed that learning is never neutral; it is shaped by history, values, access, and identity.
At Harvard, these questions deepened. Courses such as How People Learn, Learning Design for All, Equity & Opportunities, and MIT courses Vision in Arts & Neuroscience and Learning Creative Learning helped me integrate cognitive science with design principles. I began tracing the subtle ways that dominant worldviews shape learning systems, often marginalizing children whose ways of knowing fall outside traditional expectations. This is where my Tai Chi roots and my research training converged: both emphasize balance, perspective-taking, and honoring multiple truths.
Together, they shape my commitment to designing learning environments that are culturally responsive, psychologically attuned, and developmentally grounded.
My Research & Design Pathway
My work sits at the intersection of developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and learning design. I am particularly interested in how curiosity, prediction, attention, and feedback shape children’s learning across social and technological contexts. Across the labs and institutions I’ve worked in, I’ve had the opportunity to explore these questions through diverse research methodologies and design practices:
Research Experiences
- Computational Cognitive Development Lab (Harvard):
- Studying children’s causal learning and belief-updating using behavioral paradigms and child-friendly EEG/ERP to examine how prior knowledge and evidence shape exploration.
- Learning Media Lab & BRIDGES Lab (Harvard):
- Evaluating AI-supported dialogic reading platforms for early elementary learners through mixed-methods usability studies, conversational-agent testing, and engagement analytics.
- Teaching and Learning Lab (Harvard):
- Designing and improving graduate-level online learning through backward design, accessibility reviews, and AI chatbot development (Bill Bot) for scalable student support and faculty workshops.
- Sleep, Cognition & Neuropsychiatry Lab (MGH):
- Investigating sleep-dependent learning and sensory gating in ASD and schizophrenia using EEG, fMRI, and wearable physiology to link neural signatures with cognition and behavior.
- Mind–Body Signaling & Wellness Lab (UCI):
- Integrating HRV, blood-flow imaging, and mindfulness/Tai Chi instruction to study how embodied mind–body practices influence stress physiology and well-being.
- Sleep & Cognition Lab (UCI):
- Leading VR-based spatial navigation studies combining behavioral learning trajectories with HRV and wearable data to examine how anxiety and sleep shape memory.
- Behaviors, Emotions & Affective Neuroscience (BEAN) Lab (UCI)
- Conducting behavioral and survey-based affective neuroscience studies on how different components of Theory of Mind predict prosocial behavior under emotional contexts.
Learning Design Work
As an Online Learning Fellow and designer at Harvard’s Teaching & Learning Lab, I:
- Build course structures and assessments for the Online Ed.M.
- Design AI-enhanced tools like Bill Bot and feedback agents
- Lead faculty workshops on AI pedagogy
- Test conversational agents like STORIES for language learning
- Support accessibility, community engagement, and digital learning innovation
My design philosophy bridges research and practice: I use insights from cognitive development to guide how technologies can better support curiosity, engagement, and equitable learning.
The Thread That Connects My Work
Across AI chatbots, VR environments, Minecraft experiments, EEG paradigms, and learning platforms, my goal is constant:
To design tools that honor how people actually learn, attentively, socially, culturally, and with deep variability.
Technology alone does not transform learning; what transforms learning is designing with people, not just for them. This means listening closely, foregrounding marginalized perspectives, and ensuring that every tool amplifies, not replaces, human connection, imagination, and autonomy.
My long-term vision is to build research-informed learning technologies that empower children and educators across cultures, blending the wisdom of Eastern balance with Western scientific rigor.
