The goal of this training program is to train four predoctoral students and up to four postdoctoral fellows each year in a broadly based program in developmental science at the University of Chicago. Trainees engage in a wide range of laboratory and field-based research that will enable them to conduct research on the basic science of development and to participate in serious ways in addressing and solving pressing practical problems. The program offers students exposure to a variety of studies and techniques, including experimental and naturalistic studies of infants, toddlers, and older children, gesture and narrative analysis, computational analysis, neuro-endocrine techniques, brain-imaging and electrophysiological techniques, and ethnographic studies. The program is comprised of a core of developmental faculty who are joined by additional faculty members with substantive interests in developmental issues. The training faculty focuses on three main content areas of research: cognitive, language, and social development. Across these content areas, the faculty investigates development at different levels of analysis -- the levels of individual psychological development, of biological influences on development, and of the social/contextual factors affecting development. The training faculty has a long tradition of collaborative research and teaching. Thus, students are exposed to multiple perspectives within each developmental research area, and they often engage in interdisciplinary research. The predoctoral program offers trainees a strong grounding in experimental psychology and provides specialized training in developmental science through courses, seminars, and research experiences. Predoctoral trainees and postdoctoral trainees attend the weekly developmental seminar. Postdoctoral trainees will have at least two mentors from the training faculty and will join a rich environment for postdoctoral investigations in the Department of Psychology.
| Gamez, Perla B; Shimpi, Priya M; Waterfall, Heidi R et al. (2009) Priming a perspective in Spanish monolingual children: the use of syntactic alternatives. J Child Lang 36:269-90 |
| Boyer, Ty W; Levine, Susan C; Huttenlocher, Janellen (2008) Development of proportional reasoning: where young children go wrong. Dev Psychol 44:1478-90 |
| Ehrlich, Stacy B; Levine, Susan C; Goldin-Meadow, Susan (2006) The importance of gesture in children's spatial reasoning. Dev Psychol 42:1259-68 |
