Meet Our Team
Elizabeth V. Edgar, Ph.D
Dr. Edgar is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Long Island University and Director of the Attention and Development Lab. She received a Ph.D. in Developmental Science from Florida International University and completed a NIMH T32 Postdoctoral Fellowship at Yale University Child Study Center.
Dr. Edgar’s research examines how attention in childhood shapes learning and development. Her work focuses on multisensory attention—how children match sights and sounds—as a foundation for cognitive, language, and social-emotional development. Dr. Edgar is particularly interested in how attentional, neural, and behavioral factors contribute to the development and maintenance of anxiety across childhood. Using methods such as eye-tracking, behavioral observation, EEG, and computational modeling, alongside measures of home and social environments, Dr. Edgar’s research links early attention to real-world developmental outcomes and aims to inform early identification and intervention strategies.
Principal Investigator
Meg is a Research Assistant in the Attention and Development Lab at Long Island University Brooklyn and a current second year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology doctoral program. She received a First-Class Honors B.A. in Psychology from the University of Glasgow, where her research focused on neurodiversity, disordered eating, social relationships, and the effects of social media on mental health.
Her research interests center on developmental psychopathology and the cognitive and environmental factors that contribute to mental health outcomes across childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood. She is particularly interested in anxiety, neurodiversity, attachment and relationships, as well as the ways in which stress and social experiences influence psychological wellbeing.
Through her clinical work and research, she aims to better understand the mechanisms underlying psychological vulnerability and resilience in order to contribute to evidence-based approaches for early identification and intervention in children and young adults.
Meg Giatzis, B.A.
Research Asisstant