Faculty

The core faculty members in the developmental program (W. Craig, S. Fitneva, T. Hollenstein, B. Kelley, V. Kuhlmeier, M. Morningstar, M. Sabbagh) have basic research interests in language, cognitive, emotional, and social development. Please see the Developmental Research page to find out more about specific research projects happening in the core labs of the developmental program.

Each of our program members also have research interests that extend beyond the traditional borders of Developmental Psychology into areas such as Animal Cognition, Neuroscience, Psycholinguistics, Psychophysiology, and Applied Developmental Psychology (e.g., autism, bullying, developmental disorders, child eyewitness). To this end, each of our faculty members collaborate with researchers in programs outside of Developmental Psychology including members from Clinical, Social/Personality, Cognitive Neuroscience, and the . Students in the Developmental Program are actively encouraged to take part in and initiate these cross-disciplinary collaborations at the Masters and Ph.D. level.


Wendy Craig

Wendy Craig, Ph.D.

Research Interests: Aggression, bullying, victimization, dating violence, sexual harassment, romantic relationships, peer relationships.

Stanka Fitneva

Stanka Fitneva, Ph.D.

Research Interests: Socio-cognitive development, esp. children's information seeking and trust; social and cognitive mechanisms in language learning and language processing; evidentiality; cross-cultural studies of cognitive development; language and thought; phonology and early language development; memory development; eye-tracking methods

Tom Hollenstein

Tom Hollenstein, Ph.D.

Research Interests: Adolescent emotional development, dynamic systems approaches, observational research, parent-child interactions, flexibility/rigidity, developmental transitions, psychophysiology, emotion regulation, youth digital experiences, digital parenting

Go to the Adolescent Dynamics Lab website

Elizabeth Kelley

Elizabeth Kelley, Ph.D.

Research Interests: Autism, language development, social cognitive development, atypical development, brain development, developmental cognitive neuroscience, neurodevelopmental disorders.

Go to the Autism Spectrum Disorders Lab website

Valerie Kuhlmeier

Valerie Kuhlmeier, Ph.D.

Research Interests: Early social cognitive development within evolutionary and comparative frameworks;
social learning, including recognizing animacy and intention; cooperation and prosocial behaviour

Michele Morningstar

Michele Morningstar, Ph.D.

Research Interests: Development of emotional communication and social cognition from childhood to adulthood; ways in which we learn to express and perceive emotional states through nonverbal cues, such as tone of voice.

Mark Sabbagh

Mark Sabbagh, Ph.D.

Research Interests: Theory of mind, semantic development, executive functioning, cross-cultural psychology, cognitive neuroscience, Autism.