She investigates the social, emotional, and cognitive factors underpinning children’s and adolescents’ decision-making. Michaela was a graduate student at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development/International Max Planck Research School Life and received her PhD from the Free University, Berlin in 2005. She then worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Human Early Learning Partnership, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Since 2007 she has been working at the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, UK.