Georgetown College. Georgetown University.

Paul Muentener's Early Learning Project experience led to his desire to become a professor and open his own lab.

Dr. Rachel Barr’s guest lecture about the Early Learning Project in a general psychology class piqued Paul Muentener’s interest in cognitive development. Six years later, Muentener is pursuing his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at Harvard University, one of the top programs in the country.

The Early Learning Project was a catalyst for scholarly inquiry for Muentener, who entered Georgetown as a Government major but quickly discovered his love for psychology. He spent his last three years at Georgetown working as a research assistant in the Early Learning Project laboratory, including a summer as a GUROP fellow conducting research firsthand. Muentener, along with Dr. Barr and other students, is co-author on two papers currently in press, and had the opportunity to present their research at the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology and the Eastern Psychological Association conferences.

“I think the strength of Professor Barr’s Early Learning Project, and of many other laboratories in the psychology department, is her willingness to integrate research and education,” Muentener says. “Professor Barr not only provided an environment to learn and work on various research topics. She also taught us how to ask research questions, critique empirical studies, and design experiments to answer those questions. I was able to be involved in all parts of the research at the Early Learning Project, from the beginning stages of the research to actually presenting the results at professional conferences. This experience provided me with a strong foundation in research methods, which was extremely helpful as I started graduate school in developmental psychology.”

At Harvard, Muentener works with Professor Susan Carey in the Laboratory for Developmental Studies. His current research was strongly influenced by his work with Dr. Barr at Georgetown; in fact, Muentener is building off the research he did with the puppet game in the Early Learning Project laboratory.

“In graduate school, I have become interested in how infants are first able to specifically learn causal relationships, like the live demonstrations of the puppet game, and how this ability develops over the first year of life,” Muentener says. “For instance, how do infants recognize and learn that they can cause the bell to ring by removing and shaking the mitten? Is infants’ ability to represent these causal events specific to human action (as is the case in the live demonstration) or can they learn any type of causal event? How is this ability related to other developments in their ability to reason about the goals of other people and their own ability to reach/play/interact with the world?”

Although Muentener is using different methods in his current graduate work, he credits his Early Learning Project experience with making the transition from assisting with research to conducting his own research smooth. He hopes to continue his educational experience after completing his Ph.D. by starting his own research laboratory and teaching at the university level.

“My undergraduate experiences in the Psychology Department, and in particular the Early Learning Project, taught me the importance of integrating research and education, which I hope I can successfully do as I begin my career,” he says.

Print Article