S
arah Joo is a doctoral student in cognitive psychology at Princeton University, where she is a recipient of the Centennial Fellowship in the Natural Sciences and Engineering. Sarah is a member of the Concepts & Cognition Lab and is advised by Dr. Tania Lombrozo. Before coming to Princeton, she received a B.A. in philosophy from Yale University, where she also subsequently worked as a research fellow in the Cognitive Development Lab. Her research interests sit at the intersection of philosophy and psychology with a focus on laypeople’s understanding of different causal and explanatory relationships. Sarah’s research has been published in journals such as Mind & Language, Cognitive Science, and Cognition. Princeton University’s Social Impact Fellowship places graduate students with partnering nonprofit institutions to provide opportunities for organizational experience and public-facing scholarship. CTI’s Associate Director, Joshua Mauldin, is serving as Sarah’s mentor during her internship at CTI, and the two of them recently sat down for this interview conversation.
Joshua Mauldin: Sarah, it is wonderful to have you here at CTI. Can we start by talking about your academic interests?
Meet Sarah Joo CTI’s new Graduate Social Impact Fellow, in partnership with Princeton University
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I’m interested, broadly, in the intersection of philosophy and cognitive psychology around explanation: What makes a good explanation? What’s the best way to break down the different kinds of explanations? Is what we’re doing when we explain a friend’s behavior continuous with what we’re doing when we develop scientific theories? For instance, some of my current projects are about whether there are any explanations that are non-causal. I don’t know what the answer is! But candidates I’ve been considering are answers like “Because it’s wrong,” “Because Fido is a dog,” “Because it’s a right triangle,” or “Because it’s not for playing with.”