Kiki Zanolie is an associate professor in the Developmental and Educational Psychology unit of the Institute of Psychology at Leiden University. Her research focuses on cognitive and social development during adolescence and its relationship with brain development.

More information about Kiki Zanolie

Kiki Zanolie is an associate professor in the Developmental and Educational Psychology unit of the Institute of Psychology at Leiden University. Her research focuses on cognitive and social development during adolescence and its relationship with brain development.

Research on development in adolescence

In her research on neurocognitive development, Zanolie focuses in particular on the influence of social relationships and social status on prosocial decision-making, executive functions and risk-taking in gifted and typically developing children and adolescents. For example, she looks at the role of social status in risk-taking behaviour and sensitivity to rejection. In her research, Kiki takes an experimental approach and often uses neuroimaging techniques, such as EEG and fMRI.

Brightwave

She recently initiated the BrightWave project, involving 200 gifted and non-highly gifted adolescents (brightwave-research.co.uk). The BrightWave project focuses on the social and emotional development of gifted and non-highly gifted adolescents by examining prosocial behaviour and achievement seeking in relation to puberty.

Outreach

Zanolie values translating scientific results to the general public and engages in outreach by writing blogs, creating vlogs and giving lectures in schools. She loves interacting with adolescents who inspire her to formulate new research questions based on their curiosity. Zanolie is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of scientists.

Short CV

Kiki Zanolie received her PhD in 2012 from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Department of Biological and Cognitive Psychology. She investigated, from a standpoint of embodied cognition, how people represent abstract concepts through conceptual metaphors. She used psychophysiological measurements such as ERPs and eye tracking.

In 2012, she started as a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University, where she studied honesty considerations and social status in adolescence. In 2014, she was promoted to associate professor. 

Since 2012, Zanolie has been appointed lab coordinator for the Developmental and Educational Psychology section. From 2019, she also serves as coordinator and advisor to the Science Policy Committee of the Institute of Psychology at Leiden University.

Grants

• 2013: AXA Research Fund Postdoctoral fellowship (€ 125K)
• 2006, 2008, 2009: Travel grants of Leiden University Fund and Vereniging Trustfonds Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (total € 2550)
• 2006: Leiden University Fund: Grant for pilot study: Practice makes the brain work better: A developmental training study (as co-applicant of Prof. Dr. Eveline Crone & Prof. Dr. Wilma Resing) (€ 25K).

Teaching

Kiki received her Basic qualification for teaching (BKO) in 2016. Surrently she is involved in several courses including:

• School Psychology coordinator and lecturer
• Master Thesis Project coordinator
• Supervision of (research) master thesis students
• Supervision of (honours) bachelor projects
• Advance Psychodiagnostics lecturer

Supervision PhD candidates

Suzanne van de Groep, The neural basis of prosocial development in adolescence
Nathalie van Kordelaar, Social and emotional development of gifted adolescents

Publications

Activities