Faculty
Note: Prof. Ganea will be accepting new students in 2012
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Associate Editor, British Journal of Developmental Psychology
Director, Language and Learning Lab
Keywords:
Cognitive development; symbolic development; word learning; picture books; pragmatics and social cognition
Research 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
Research Interests
My primary research area is early cognitive development. I investigate the processes involved in young children's learning about the world through symbolic means, such as language, pictures, videos, and replica objects. I am 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. My research is focusing on the social, linguistic and representational factors that influence children’s learning about the world. I am also interested in how children develop an understanding of the pragmatics of language and of social cognition.
Applied/Clinical Interests
I am interested in the application of research on children’s symbolic development in Kindergarten and Elementary classrooms.
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.
Ganea, P. A., Shutts, K., Spelke, E., & DeLoache, J, S. (2007). Thinking of things unseen: Infants’ use of language to update object representations. Psychological Science, 18(8), 734-739.
Ganea, P. A., & Saylor, M. M. (2007). Infants’ use of shared linguistic information to clarify ambiguous requests. Child Development, 78(2), 493-502.
Saylor, M. M., & Ganea, P. A. (2007). Infants interpret ambiguous requests for absent objects. Developmental Psychology, 43(3), 696-704.
Ganea, P. A. (2005). Contextual factors affect absent reference comprehension in 14-month-olds. Child Development, 76(5), 989-998.
Ganea, P. A., Lillard, A. S., Turkheimer, E. (2004). Preschooler’s understanding of the role of mental states and action in pretense. Journal of Cognition and Development, 5, 213-238.