 | Patricia Ganea email: patricia.ganea@utoronto.ca Department: Applied Psychology and Human Development | |
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Research Overview Dr. Ganea's primary research area is early cognitive development. She investigates the processes involved in young children's learning about the world through symbolic means, such as language, pictures, videos, and replica objects. She is especially interested in children's use of language to think and communicate about what is perceptually not present. Developing the ability to communicate about absent objects and events is a major cognitive achievement, one that enables children to learn about the world indirectly. Her research is focusing on the social, linguistic and representational factors that influence children’s learning about the world. She is also interested in how children develop an understanding of the pragmatics of language and of social cognition. In applied practice, Dr. Ganea is interested in the application of research on children’s symbolic development in Kindergarten and Elementary classrooms. Reseach Projects/Activities: •Understanding of displaced speech •Pragmatics and social cognition •Updating of mental representations via language •Learning and transfer from picture books •Science learning in young children Representative Publications Ganea, P. A., Ma, L., & DeLoache, J. S. (2011). Young children’s learning and transfer of biological information from picture books to real animals. Child Development. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01612.x Ganea, P. A., Koenig, M. A., Gordon, M.K. (2011). Changing your mind about things unseen: Toddlers’ sensitivity to prior reliability. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 109, 445-453. Saylor, M. M., Ganea, P. A., & Vasquez, M. (2011). What’s mine is mine: Twelve-month-olds use possessive pronouns to identify referents. Developmental Science, 14, 859-864. Tare, M., Chiong, C., Ganea, P. A., & DeLoache, J. S. (2010). Less is More: How manipulative features affect children’s learning from picture books. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 31, 395-400. Ganea, P. A. & Harris, P. L. (2010). Not doing what you are told: Early perseverative errors in updating mental representations via language. Child Development, 81, 457-463. Ganea, P. A., Allen, M. A., Butler, L., Carey, S., & DeLoache, J. S. (2009). Toddlers’ referential understanding of pictures. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 283-295. Ma, L. & Ganea, P. A. (2009). Dealing with conflicting information: Young children’s reliance on what they see versus what they are told. Developmental Science, 2009, 1-10. DeLoache, J. S. & Ganea, P. A. (2009). Symbol-based learning in infancy. In A. Needham & A. Woodward (Eds.), Learning and the infant mind. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Ganea, P. A., Pickard, M. & DeLoache, J. S. (2008). Transfer between picture books and the real world by very young children. Journal of Cognition and Development, 9, 46-66.
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