Laura Cirelli

Assistant Professor
416-208-4784

Campus

Fields of Study

Areas of Interest

Infant development; music perception and cognition across infancy and childhood; rhythm perception; prosocial development; mother-infant song

Biography

Laura Cirelli is the director of the TEMPO lab (timing, entrainment, & music perception) at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She received degrees in Psychology from Laurentian University (B.A) and McMaster University (Ph.D). Laura studies how engaging in musical activities can be a social and an emotional experience for infants. She is specifically interested in how infants direct prosociality toward musical partners, and how infant directed singing can influence the parent-infant relationship. She is also interested in the development of rhythm perception, and the importance of auditory-motor integration in perceiving and engaging with music. She uses behavioural and physiological methods (e.g. skin conductance, electroencephalography) to investigate the development of music perception and production.