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Melissa KoenigAssistant professor Office: 174 Child Development Language acquisition, cognitive development, pragmatics and social cognition, word learning |
My research focuses on how children acquire knowledge from other people. Currently, this question takes two directions: First, I am interested in the social factors that influence their learning about the world and second, I study how children develop a pragmatic understanding of language.
(a) How do infants and young children understand and exploit the distinctive characteristics of other people as sources of information? How do children balance the potential benefit of learning and the risk of being misinformed? When do infants appreciate the possibility that an utterance might be false? Do children and adults evaluate speakers differently? Our research addresses these questions through a range of projects. We are especially interested in how children identify candidate information sources, children’s selective trust, notions of reliability, source monitoring, and children’s understanding of expertise.
(b) How do we come to understand the internal significance of language? Meaning is connected to speaker-oriented notions like saying, asking, doubting, believing, supposing and so on. The relation between what sentences mean and the beliefs, questions and doubts that speakers express is complex and subtle. How do children learn about the many pragmatic functions of their language? Our research looks especially at children between the ages of 1-5 and uses multiple methodologies.
Recent publications
Koenig, M. A. & Harris, P. L., (2008). The basis of epistemic trust: Reliable testimony or reliable sources? Episteme, (4), 264-284.
Koenig, M. A. & Woodward, A. L., (2007). Word learning. Oxford Handbook of Psycholinguistics. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Pasquini, E. S., Corriveau, K. H., Koenig, M. A. & Harris, P. L., (2007). Preschoolers monitor the relative accuracy of informants. Developmental Psychology, 43(5), 1216-1226.
Harris, P.L. & Koenig, M. A., (2007). Imagination and testimony in cognitive development: The cautious disciple? In I. Roth (Ed.), Imaginative Minds. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Harris, P. L., & Koenig, M. A. (2006). Trust in Testimony: How Children Learn about Science and Religion. Child Development, 77 (3), 505-524.
Koenig, M. A., & Harris, P. L., (2005). Preschoolers mistrust ignorant and inaccurate speakers. Child Development, 76, (6), 1261- 1277.
Koenig, M. A. & Harris, P. L. (2005). The role of social cognition in early trust. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, (10), 457-459.
Koenig, M. A., Clement, F., & Harris, P. L., (2004). Trust in Testimony: Children’s Use of True and False Statements. Psychological Science, 15, (10), 694-698.
Koenig, M. A. & Echols, C. H. (2003).
Infants’ Understanding of False Labeling Events: The
Referential Role of Words and the People who Use them.
Cognition, 87, (3), 181-210.
March 2008