A conversation with future luminaries #2: Candice Koolhaas and Quinn Pham

On this episode of "A conversation with a future luminary", I had the opportunity to chat with two PhD students from the UMass Boston Early Minds Lab, Candice Koolhaas and Quinn Pham! In the first segment, we discuss everything from misconceptions about graduate school, to time management, and to how academic journeys can take on many different forms.

During the second segment, we dive into Candice and Quinn's research. Candice's first-authored paper in Developmental Science spurred an interesting conversation about the working memory sampling-remembering trade-off in young children and how to accurately measure children's working memory by getting creative with the methodology. Next, we discuss Quinn's first-authored publication in Infant and Child Development which investigates episodic future thinking in 3-5-year-olds. In particular, we talked about the power of observation in learning and memory when it comes to others. For both studies, we chat about collecting data in a museum setting and the importance of the environment in cognition -- you won't want to miss this one!

*Links *
Koolhaas, C., Blaser, E., & Kaldy, Z. (2026). How much do you remember when it's up to you? Measuring memory use without response bias in young children. Developmental Science, 29(2), e70152. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/desc.70152

Pham, Q. A., & Blankenship, T. (2026). Personal and observational episodic memory support episodic future thinking for oneself and another in 3–5‐Year‐olds. Infant and Child Development, 35(4), e70128. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/icd.70128