Developmental Science

Research Focus

Developmental Science is concerned with describing and explaining human growth, change and variability in social, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive functioning across the lifespan at multiple timescales, levels of analysis, and across diverse contexts. Full-time members of the area conduct research that investigates individual and environmental processes that explain change and variability in emotions, behaviors, and cognitions in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, with the application of innovative quantitative modeling techniques. Currently, research in the DS cluster focuses on 4 main themes:

  • Cognitive Development and Aging - studies of executive function, normal and successful aging, and neuropsychology of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
  • Social Cognition - studies of the development of age stereotyping and ageism and impacts in real world contexts.
  • Developmental Neuroscience and Neurogenetics - studies of developing brain-gene-environment-cognition relations.
  • Social and Emotional Development - studies of mental health and psychopathology, emotion and behavioral self-regulation, and peer, family and teacher-child relations.

Associated Psychology Research Labs

Research in this cluster is multidisciplinary and collaborative. Many of the faculty and students within the DS cluster participate in research groups composed of researchers within the DS cluster and/or researchers in other departments at UofA and other institutions. These groups include:

Faculty

Roger Dixon
Wendy Hoglund
Pan Liu
Sandra Wiebe
Yao Zheng

Post-doctoral Fellows

Linzy Bohn

Research Associate

TBD

Graduate Students

Anjomshoae, Farzaneh
Bahmani, Bayimkhanim
Besoi Setzer, Alexandra
Caballero, Hebert
Drouin, Shannon
Gumnur, Vrushali Rao
Heal, Mackenzie
Kalinin, Valery
Li, Kehan
Meyer, Zachary
Pan, Cheryl
Predy, Larissa
Schoettler, Isabella
Shokrkon, Anahita
Zheng, Hao