Research Interests

I am interested in the development of everyday reasoning about the social world and in the ways such folk psychologies affect learning in other contexts, such as school. I am especially interested in the how small manipulations in experimental methods evoke different qualities of reasoning, such as when we feel obligated to do our best, or when the stakes seem high. In addition, I seek to characterize cases in which we seek optimal information for judgments versus those in which we use relatively little information. So, one question I ask is, “Does more mental work always yield better judgment?”

In addition, much of my research focuses on cognitive development in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. I investigate social cognition and design research-based interventions in collaboration with the Kelly Autism Program at WKU. Children with ASD can exhibit unusual social skills. Often their atypical behaviors are attributed to a lack of “theory of mind.” One question I ask is whether children with Autism improve behave more adaptively when we try to “train up” their theory of mind or if they are trained to use their own models for thinking about the social world. That is, children with ASD may learn more when they use their areas of strength rather than trying to adopt a reasoning model that, for them, does not exist.

Other research with ASD seeks to compare social constructivist approaches to social skills training to more direct, adult-supported interventions. In this research, I ask whether children learn more quickly to transfer skills to peer interactions if they construct their own "rules" for interaction and enforce those among themselves versus adults imposing such behavioral limits. In addition, I am researching a variety of new technologies for delivering social skills training.

Courses I Teach

• PSY 310 - Educational Psychology
• PSY 321 - Child Developmental Psychology
• PSY 421 - Early Adolescent Psychology
  

I received my Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005, and my B.A. from Indiana-Purdue University, Ft. Wayne, Indiana in 1995.

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