Janny Stapel
Postdoc
Research
Janny is a guest researcher in Pieter Medendorp’s lab. Trained as an engineer in human-technology interaction at the Technical University of Eindhoven, she became intrigued by early development: how can infants learn at such a fast pace how to roll over, crawl, walk, talk and interact with others while in the meantime the body changes substantially and perceptual abilities develop as well? As a result, she moved to the DCC in Nijmegen for her PhD, where she studied infants’ developing ability to predict others’ actions. Theoretically, infants might base their predictions of others’ action on their own internal models. However, very little is known how internal models are acquired in development. Janny’s postdoctoral work therefore is focussed on early sensorimotor development, including the development of multisensory integration. She currently works at the Uppsala Child and Babylab (Sweden) as a senior researcher, studying motor learning in infancy by using a rotating room, custom-built for her project by the TSG of Radboud University Nijmegen. Additionally, she is an external researcher at IIT in Genoa where she collaborates with Cristina Becchio, investigating the role of motor variability in learning from observation.