Our Focus
Development of neonatal social responsiveness
Our research
Development of intersensory perception in animal and human infants, with a focus on the role of selective attention in perceptual processing, learning, and memory; the influence of prenatal sensory stimulation on behavioral development, particularly the prenatal origins of infant perceptual and social biases and predispositions; the effects of hormones of maternal origin on perceptual and social development. Theoretical efforts address the assumptive base of the nature-nurture debate, the role of experience in development, the origins of phenotypic variation, psychobiological systems theory, the relations between developmental and evolutionary theory, and the history of developmental thinking in biology and psychology.
Depth and breadth
of our research
Development
Our research focuses on the development of intersensory perception in animal and human infants
Hormones
We also strive to understand the effects of hormones of maternal origin on perceptual and social developmen.
Perception
We try to understand the role of selective attention in perceptual processing, learning and memory.
Social
We study the effects of prenatal sensory stimulation of the embryo on infant social biases and predispositions.
Experience
Our work also focuses on the role of experience in development and theoretical efforts address the nature-nurture debate.
Memory
Our work will help elucidate the role of postnatal and prenatal sensory stimulation and selective attention on and.
Current research
Roboquail
In this study we use robotic hen models to understand the role of redundancy across movement patterns and vocalizations in guiding chicks’ attraction to social stimuli.
Researchers: John Paul, Abdullah Ahmad, Nashya Linares