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Amanda Woodward, Ph.D.
Professor Developmental
E-mail: awoodward@psyc.umd.edu
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Research and Teaching Interests:
My research explores the earliest stages of cognitive development and language acquisition. I am particularly interested in infants' abilities to make sense of other peoples’ actions, and the ways in which this ability contributes to language development.
By early childhood, we have a well-organized system of knowledge, sometimes termed folk psychology, that guides our reasoning about and responses to the actions of people. In my research, I ask whether the seeds of these abilities are present in early infancy, and how this knowledge develops during the first year of life. In much of my work, I use visual habituation methods to assess infants’ understanding of observed actions. I also use overt behaviors, including imitation, as a source of evidence. Using these techniques, my students and I have documented infants’ emerging sensitivity to others’ goal-directed actions, and we have begun to investigate the experiences and processes that give rise to this sensitivity.
I teach classes spanning Developmental Psychology, Infancy, Cognitive Development, and Language Acquisition. I also mentor graduate and undergraduate students in my laboratory. Interested students are encouraged to contact me directly via email.
For more information about my research and teaching, please see my web page.