Ladan Shams, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
UCLA Psychology Department
and
Visiting Associate
Caltech Biology Division

Address:
Dr. Ladan Shams
UCLA Psychology Department
7445B Franz Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563

Email:
ladan@psych.ucla.edu

Phone:
(310) 206-3630

A brief history of my nerdy interests:

Age 5-6:	nature vs. nurture, the butterfly effect; thought experiment: twins study
Age 6-8:	probability; large numbers
Age 9:	wrote a fiction book (got reviewed by a literature professor)
Age 9-10:	consciousness, non-linearities in nature
Age 10-11:	philosophy (Pulitzer's Basic Principles of Philosophy, etc.), Marxism (some chapters of Das Kapital) in particular dialectical and historical materialism
Age 12-20:	physics (in particular nuclear physics, and electromagnetism), philosophy (in particular dialectic materialism, and epistemology)
Age 14-18:	computer science (called "new mathematics" at the time)
Age 19-22:	Artificial Intelligence, logic, philosophy
Age 22-24:	the brain, in particular learning and memory; philosophy (big on Kant)
Age 24-present:	vision, perception, learning, development
Age 28-present:	cue combination, multisensory integration
Age 32-present:	influence of religion on science, political science (alternatives to democracy, relationship between feminism and political economy, etc.)