Faculty research projects
Stephanie Carlson, Carlson Lab
Cognitive development
Our research examines the development of executive
function/self-regulation, social understanding, and pretend
play/symbolism in young children. We are particularly interested
in the interactions among these skills, and study them using
behavioral (cross-sectional and longitudinal), neuroimaging, and
cross-cultural approaches. Current studies investigate executive
function and bilingualism/biculturalism (Spanish-English;
Korean-English), measurement tools for executive function in
preschoolers, symbolic thought and conscious control of action,
emotion regulation, neural correlates of decision-making,
parenting and cultural influences on executive function and
social understanding, children’s teaching ability as an index of
social understanding, and the development of role-play and
imaginary companions.
W. Andrew Collins
Socialization, social cognition, family relations; also:
Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (with Drs.
Egeland and Sroufe)
Processes of change in peer and romantic relationships are the focus
of my current research. In one line of work, we are conducting intensive
interviews and observations with the participants in this project,
who are now in their early twenties, and their romantic partners.
In addition, we are studying autonomy in late adolescence and young
adulthood in relation to competence measured in earlier developmental
periods.
Nicki R. Crick,
The Crick Social Development
Lab
Developmental research on the development of relational and physical
aggression
My research team has focused recently on the study of relational
aggression (e.g., using social exclusion or rumor spreading as a
form of retaliation), a form of aggression that has been shown to
be more characteristic of girls than are the physical, overt forms
of aggression that traditionally have been studied in the past.
Byron Egeland,
Minnesota
Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children
Developmental psychopathology, abuse and maltreatment; also:
Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (with Drs.
Sroufe and Collins)
Together with my collaborators, I continue to conduct a longitudinal
study of high-risk children and their families which began in 1975.
The aims include identifying the antecedents and developmental pathways
leading to behavior problems and psychopathology as well as competence
and resilience. We are not assessing developmental adaptation in
adulthood and I am interested in identifying the factors that are
related to the onset of disorders (e.g. Borderline Personality)
and the desistence of disorders (e.g. antisocial) during this period.
Michael K. Georgieff, M.D.
Early nutrition and cognitive development
Our laboratory studies
the effect of fetal and newborn nutrition on cognitive
development. Late fetal and early newborn deficits in iron,
protein, zinc and other nutrients seems to target the
hippocampus, thus affecting short term memory functioning and
long-term cognitive development. From a clinical research
perspective, much of our research happens in the Center for
Neurobehavioral Development, of which I am the Director, and on
the Newborn Intensive Care Nursery.
Abigail Gewirtz
Children's exposure to traumatic events, parenting,
prevention research
Our research team focuses on the impact of exposure to violence
on observed parenting practices and children's development, and
on the implementation of evidence-based prevention and treatment
interventions in community settings.
Megan R. Gunnar,
The Gunnar Lab
Social and biological aspects of development
Our research focuses on the emotional and social processes that
regulate physiological responses to stressful events early in childhood.
Much of my work involves a stress-sensitive neuroendrocine system,
the adrenocortical system. Recently, I have begun to explore the
impact of abuse and neglect on the development of neuroendocrine
and autonomic responsivity. My students and I are particularly interested
in following the development of international children adopted from
institutional (orphanage) rearing environments.
Canan Karatekin,
The Karatekin Lab
Clinical child neuropsychology, information processing, working
memory, attention, executive functions
Our lab is interested in investigating cognitive processes in children
and adolescents with psychiatric and neurological disorders. This
research can lead to a better understanding of the basic nature
and normal development of the processes, the neurobiological bases
and mechanisms of dysfunction in the disorders, as well as improved
treatment options for the children and their families.
Melissa Koenig,
Early Language and Learning Lab
Language acquisition, cognitive development, pragmatics and
social cognition, word learning
Our research interests lie at the interface of social cognition
and language development. Currently, my work focuses on the
different kinds of information children use to determine the
reliability of a message. I am also interested in young
children’s developing understanding of mental states as
expressed in communication as well as how they come to
appreciate language as a conventional system.
Michael P. Maratsos
Theory and history of development
I am interested in historical and anthropological studies of development,
with some particular interest in the importance of economic and
technological factors in the societal construction of childhoods,
and the reaction range of human nature in dealing with these. I
am also interested in the ramifications for developmental theory,
of the variability caused by such factors.
Ann S. Masten,
Project Competence Lab
Developmental psychopathology, stress and coping, humor
With my research team, I study the processes that may account for
the development of competence in risky environments, with a focus
on the protective processes that help children overcome adversity
or avoid the dangers that arise in ordinary life as well as the
extraordinary situations of war and trauma.
Anne D. Pick, professor
emeritus
Perceptual development and cognitive processes
My research is concerned with perceptual learning during infancy
and early childhood. I am particularly interested in how multisensory
experiences guide or promote early perceptual learning. My colleagues
and I are investigating the emergence of joint visual attention
during infancy as well as preschool children’s categorization of
objects and object representations (i.e., drawings or photographs).
We are investigating the role of functional properties of objects
and of exploratory activity in how children classify objects.
Herbert L. Pick
Perceptual development, learning
My research is concerned with spatially coordinated behavior,
broadly construed. My colleagues and I are particularly interested
in the ways one combines sensory and cognitive skills to accomplish
behavior in the spatial environment. On the cognitive side, some
investigations are focused on the way children and adults organize
their spatial knowledge and how they use that knowledge for finding
their way and for giving spatial directions to others. On the sensory
and perceptual side, a central question in my research is the identification
of information for guiding locomotion.
Arthur J. Reynolds
The focal point of my current work is as Director of the
Chicago Longitudinal Study, one of
the largest and most extensive studies of the effects of early childhood
intervention. The project tracks the life-course development of
1,500 children who attended early childhood programs in inner-city
Chicago. The main focus is on the effects of the Child-Parent Center
program, a school-based intervention from preschool to the early
school grades.
Maria D. Sera,
Language
and Cognitive Development Laboratory
My research focuses on the relation between language and
cognitive development. Current projects focus on the relation
between developing knowledge of spatial constructions in ASL and
developing mental rotation and perspective-taking skills,
understanding the nature of grammatical gender effects on
categorization, the relation between knowledge of classifiers in
Chinese, Hmong, and Japanese and conceptual development,
understanding the nature of differences between children and
adults in their representation of object shapes, and the
acquisition of English as a second language by native
Spanish-speaking preschoolers.
L. Alan Sroufe,
Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children
Socioemotional development, developmental psychopathology,
also: Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (with
Drs. Egeland and Collins)
My research involves the complementary study of normal and abnormal
development. The basic strategy of that research is to define the
salient developmental issues for each period, then trace normative
pathways and delineate developmental deviations. The research articulates
a general model of development and psychopathology where behavior
is seen as a joint product of past history and current circumstances
The focus of my recent work is on adjustment in adolescence and
the transition to adulthood.
Kathleen Thomas,
Cognitive Developmental
Neuroimaging Lab
Cognitive development, implicit learning, pediatric neuroimaging,
functional magnetic resonance imaging
Research in my laboratory explores the development and neurobiological
correlates of nondeclarative or implicit learning during the preschool
and school age periods. Our studies examine stimulus and response
factors that constrain learning at different ages and relate these
cognitive changes to ongoing brain development.
Richard A. Weinberg
Behavior genetics, assessment, preschool education
My research program has focused on the development of individual
differences in intellectual skills, personality characteristics,
psychosocial adjustment, and other variables from early childhood
through young adulthood. I have employed the adoption method to
study the effects of environments and genetic endowment on human
development.
Albert Yonas,
The Yonas Lab
Perceptual development
Our work centers on how infants and preschool children come to perceive
the visual world. It isolates the visual information that makes
perception possible and explores when in development infants become
sensitive to that information. The research has explored various
cues to three-dimensional layout of the environment and more recently
has investigated how shadows, transparency, and highlights are interpreted
by infants.
Philip David Zelazo,
The Zelazo Lab
Developmental cognitive neuroscience
Our lab focuses on the study of the development and neural bases
of executive function, or the conscious control of thought,
action, and emotion. We use a variety of approaches, from
experimental to cross-cultural to electrophysiological (EEG/ERP),
to explore different theories of executive function including
Cognitive Complexity & Control theory and the Levels of
Consciousness model.