Susan Rivera is Professor of Psychology and Research Professor at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain. Dr. Rivera conducts research on the origins and development of symbolic representation in both infants and children. She uses classic behavioral as well as neuroimaging techniques to investigate such things as the development of dorsal versus ventral visual processing, object representation, numerical cognition and affective processing.

As a member of the UC Davis MIND Institute, she also conducts research contrasting typical development with that of children with neurodevelopmental disorders including Autism and fragile X Syndrome. One of her main research goals is to build a framework for integrating the previously disparate methodological and theoretical orientations of cognitive developmental and neuroscience research. By employing a variety of converging research techniques, she strives to elucidate the complex brain-behavior relationships that underlie cognitive development. She is the Associate Editor of Frontiers in Developmental Psychology, and is the UC Davis School of Medicine Dean’s Award for Excellence in Collaboration (2010).  Dr. Rivera has a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley.