I’ve got some good news to share… I was granted tenure at Queen’s! This one feels like a particularly big milestone. When I was 12, I decided I wanted to be a psychologist when I grew up; I was already in my fourth year of graduate school in clinical psychology when I realized...

I'd like to extend my gratitude to the stellar W26 team of trainees in the DSEC Lab! We have a fantastic lab culture, all thanks to these collaborative, creative, and hard-working people whom I have the good fortune to mentor. We accomplished a lot, learned a lot, and had a great time doing it! 🩵🧠

It’s been a week already, but the @dseclab.bsky.social is still buzzing from all the exciting science we got to learn about at the @affectscience.bsky.social conference! 🤩

The DSEC Lab is in Pittsburgh for #SAS2026! 🎉 We’re excited to present some of the latest findings from the lab and to learn from the incredible work being shared by others at the conference! Our team will be presenting on Friday and Saturday, so stay tuned for some conference highlights!

Wow - what a pre-conference! It was a thrill to co-host the first ever Developmental Affective Science pre-conference to the @affectscience.bsky.social conference this week. I was blown away by the group's energy, enthusiasm, and ideas! 🪴

I'm thrilled to welcome Dr. Johanna Jarcho as our first Seminar Series speaker of the term in the Centre for Neuroscience at Queen's. 🙏 Don't miss her talk, "Rethinking the role of memory in the development of social anxiety", tomorrow (Jan 21)!! neuroscience.queensu.ca/calendar/dr-...

As the Fall '25 semester ends, I wanted to shout out this wonderful team of students who work diligently to advance our understanding of adolescent development. I am fortunate to work alongside such an inspiring group of trainees. Looking forward to more science & fun next year! 🧠

@affectscience.bsky.social notices are out! 🎉 If you’re going to #SAS2026, consider attending its very first Developmental Affective Science pre-conference too! @eriknook.bsky.social and I hope to see you there. 🤞🏻 Spread the word!

Excited to share this: @eriknook.bsky.social and I are hosting a pre-conference on Developmental Affective Science before this year's @affectscience.bsky.social (March 12, 2026). If you're thinking of attending #SAS2026, consider joining us for the pre-con too! ✨

The Department of Psychology at Queen's University (Canada) is hiring! The position is for an established researcher (Associate/Full Professors) in social affective neuroscience. The full ad can be found here: www.queensu.ca/psychology/n... Please share widely! 🍁🧠

Congratulations to Riley Bonar for his successful Master’s thesis defence yesterday! Thank you to the evaluation committee for the engaging discussion and insightful questions. Riley, you have so much to be proud of—can’t wait for the next steps of your academic journey!

Happy trails to the dseclab.bsky.social 2025 summer staff! Victoria Cassel (queensuresearch.bsky.social USSRF), Polly Clayton (Matariki Network of Universities), Maria Fernanda Trigo Adami (MITACS), Olivia Merulla (staff), and Kyla Campbell (coordinator) moved our lab's work forward in major ways.

Major thanks to the @DSEC Lab Summer 2025 team for their hard-work & dedication! L to R, top: Tessa Patton, Navid Shabani Barzegar, Maria Fernanda Trigo Adami, Daniel Nault, Olivia Merulla, Catherine Shevelevich, Riley Bonar. Bottom: Victoria Cassel, Kyla Campbell, me, Rushmeet Singh, Polly Clayton.

The @dseclab.bsky.social sends out triannual newsletters sharing information about our ongoing studies, recent findings, & fun activities for youth. Download them at our website or subscribe to learn more about youth's social and emotional communication! www.michelemorningstar.com/our-lab-news...

You might have heard me harp on about "encoder effects" in the last few years... and now, our review paper on the topic is finally out in Affective Science! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I'm very fortunate to be the recipient of a SSHRC Insight Grant this year. Our project will investigate how adolescents' processing of social information varies by social context, and how this relates to psychosocial outcomes during the teenage years. www.queensu.ca/gazette/stor...

Big congrats to Peyton Nault for her first published paper! 🙌 Peyton found that youth with higher levels of hostile attribution bias (HAB) deemed friendly-sounding responses to peer conflict to be less effective ways of managing the situation.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Lara Courtepatte, BA,PR of Tutor Teach about nonverbal communication & how it develops across childhood and adolescence. Thank you for sharing our conversation on the Parenting Ed-Ventures podcast! 🎤 Listen to the full episode: linkin.bio/parentingedv...

Queen's University has a special recruitment initiative for Ph.D. students whose admission was rescinded/who are reconsidering their acceptances to U.S. schools. If you are in this position and are interested in understanding how adolescents learn to navigate their social world, reach out to me! 🍁

I always enjoy the @psychscience.bsky.social conference, and this year’s #APS25DC was no exception! It was great to reconnect & share ideas with colleagues from around the world. Hope to do it again in Barcelona next year! @chronakigeorgia.bsky.social @kat-roto.bsky.social @danielnault.bsky.social

Today's the day: #APS25DC kicks off in Washington, DC! @danielnault.bsky.social and I are representing the @dseclab.bsky.social and presenting new findings from our recent studies. Come say hi - we'd love to chat!

Let's hear it for the Development of Social and Emotional Communication Lab W2025 team! 🙏 This group of talented researchers was instrumental to the lab's biggest accomplishments this year. Big kudos to this superb group! 💫

The @srcdorg.bsky.social #SRCD2025 conference was a blast! Riley Bonar & @danielnault.bsky.social gave superb talks about their research, & Daniel chaired an excellent symposium. It was great to hear about exciting new work in the field, and to connect with so many colleagues & friends. 🙏

The @dseclab.bsky.social is at the @srcdorg.bsky.social #SRCD25 conference! @danielnault.bsky.social and Riley Bonar are both presenting results from their recent studies. Details below!

New paper alert: now published in Developmental Psychobiology! Using @theabcdstudy.bsky.social data, we found that pubertal maturation was associated with concurrent & longitudinal change in activation in 'social brain' regions - but not regions typically involved in basic face processing.

I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Alma Mater Society of @queensuglobal.bsky.social for awarding me the Frank Knox Award for Teaching Excellence for 2024-2025. Getting to share my passion for my field with students through teaching is a privilege that I cherish deeply.

Major congratulations to our @dseclab.bsky.social students for their fantastic poster presentations at the Psychology Research Day this week! 🙌 Zoe Halpern presented results from her Honours thesis on adolescents' conversation styles with parents versus friends. [...]

A few weeks ago, I had the immense pleasure of attending the 2025 @affectscience.bsky.social conference in beautiful Portland, OR. SAS has quickly become one of my favourite conferences: the science, the people, and the vibes are top-notch. ✨ Looking forward to future meetings! #SAS2025

#TBT: The visual cliff experiment is a classic in developmental psychology. Infants were placed across from their mothers on a table that gave the illusion of a visual cliff. Their mothers expressed either happy or fearful faces. Do you think any infants crossed the cliff? (✒️Jaqueline Satok)

I'm excited to be sharing results from the @dseclab.bsky.social’s work on the neural correlates of emotion recognition in youth at the Centre for Neuroscience Studies’ #SeminarSeries tomorrow (12pm; Abramsky 002 or online)! 🎉 (Thank you to Tasha Jawa for creating this promo image!)