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Susan Gelman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Susan Gelman
Gelman in 2016
Born (1957-07-24) July 24, 1957 (age 67)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materOberlin College, Stanford University
Scientific career
FieldsPsychology and linguistics
InstitutionsUniversity of Michigan
Websitesites.lsa.umich.edu/gelman-lab
External videos
video icon “Henry Russel Lecture 2021”, University of Michigan, Gelman's lecture begins @17 minutes in.

Susan A. Gelman (born July 24, 1957) is currently Heinz Werner Distinguished University Professor of psychology and linguistics and the director of the Conceptual Development Laboratory at the University of Michigan.[1] Gelman studies language and concept development in young children.[2][3] Gelman subscribes to the domain specificity view of cognition, which asserts that the mind is composed of specialized modules supervising specific functions in the human and other animals.[4][5][6] Her book The Essential Child is an influential work on cognitive development.

Gelman was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2008[7] and the National Academy of Sciences in 2012.[8] She has served as the President of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology (2018)[9] and the President of the Cognitive Development Society (2005-2007).[10][11] Gelman was a founding co-editor of the journal the Annual Review of Developmental Psychology.[12]

Education

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Gelman received her B.A., Psychology and Classical Greek from Oberlin College in 1980, and her Ph.D. in psychology, with a Ph.D. minor in Linguistics from Stanford University in 1984.[13] Her PhD advisor was Ellen Markman.[14]

Career

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Gelman is currently the Heinz Werner Distinguished University Professor of psychology and linguistics and the director of the Conceptual Development Laboratory at the University of Michigan.[1]

She was previously the Frederick G. L. Huetwell professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.[15]

Research

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Gelman directs the Conceptual Development Lab in the Psychology Department of the University of Michigan. Most of the studies conducted at the lab focus on children between the ages of 2 and 10, and are carried out in a home-like laboratory setting or in local preschools and middle schools.[16]

Gelman is the author of over 200 publications in psychology research or related articles.[17] Her research focuses on cognitive development, language acquisition, categorization, inductive reasoning, causal reasoning, and the relationship between language and thought.[18]

Her books include:

  • Gelman, Susan (2003). The essential child: Origins of essentialism in everyday thought. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199345014.
  • Banaji, Mahzarin R.; Gelman, Susan A., eds. (2013). Navigating the social world : what infants, children, and other species can teach us. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199361069.
  • Hirschfeld, L. A.; Gelman, S. A., eds. (1994). Mapping the Mind : Domain Specificity in Cognition and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780511752902.

Essentialism

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Gelman has been a major contributor to essentialism and relating essentialist ideas to varying aspects in psychology. Gelman's work within the two fields share a familiar subsection: development of children. Her work has established that children, within a given age range, are able to detect underlying essences or root causes for predicting observed behaviors. Gelman's work has yielded insights into how children acquire language. Her book The Essential Child: Origins of Essentialism in Everyday Thought is an influential work on cognitive development and essentialism that has been cited more than 2000 times.[19]

Research areas and topics of interest

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Awards

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Family

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Her younger brother is the statistician Andrew Gelman of Columbia University.[29] The cartoonist Woody Gelman was her uncle.[30]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Susan Gelman". University of Michigan. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  2. ^ Foster-Hanson, E.; Leslie, S.J. (2016). "How does generic language elicit essentialist beliefs?". In Rhodes, M.; Papafragou, A.; Grodner, D.; Mirman, D.; Trueswell, J.C. (eds.). Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (PDF). Philadelphia, PA: Cognitive Science Society. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  3. ^ Gelman, Susan A. (1 January 2009). "Learning from Others: Children's Construction of Concepts". Annual Review of Psychology. 60 (1): 115–140. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093659. ISSN 0066-4308. PMC 2829654. PMID 18631027. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  4. ^ Visala, Aku (28 June 2013). Naturalism, Theism and the Cognitive Study of Religion: Religion Explained?. Surrey, England: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-4094-8155-3. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  5. ^ Smith, Michael Sharwood; Truscott, John (2014). The Multilingual Mind: A Modular Processing Perspective. Cambridge University Press. p. 30. ISBN 9781107729605.
  6. ^ Carey, Susan (2011). The Origin of Concepts. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 272, 383.
  7. ^ a b "Susan A. Gelman". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  8. ^ a b Wadley, Jared (2012-05-03). "Psychology researcher Susan Gelman elected to National Academy of Sciences". Record Update. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  9. ^ "Past Presidents". Society for Philosophy and Psychology. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  10. ^ "About CDS (Past Officers)". Cognitive Development Society. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  11. ^ Wellman, Henry M.; Ornstein, Peter A.; Woodward, Amanda; Uttal, David (2017). "History of the Cognitive Development Society: The First 16 Years". Journal of Cognition and Development. 18 (3): 392–397. doi:10.1080/15248372.2016.1276915. S2CID 151490715.
  12. ^ "Annual Review of Developmental Psychology Editorial Committee". Annual Reviews Directory. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  13. ^ Schlissel, Mark S. (July 16, 2020). "Regents Communication: Henry Russel Lecturer for 2021" (PDF). University of Michigan. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  14. ^ "Ellen Markman". LinguisTree. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  15. ^ a b Wadley, Jared (May 2, 2012). "Psychology researcher Susan Gelman receives top scientific honor". University of Michigan News. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  16. ^ "Conceptual Development Lab". Conceptual Development Lab. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  17. ^ a b "Susan Gelman CV" (PDF). SGVITA 12.24.20. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  18. ^ "Susan A. Gelman". Microsoft Academic. Archived from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  19. ^ "Susan Gelman". Google Scholar. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  20. ^ Wadley, Jared (January 31, 2023). "17 U-M faculty members named 2022 AAAS Fellows". University of Michigan. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  21. ^ "G. Stanley Hall Award for Distinguished Contribution to Developmental Psychology". Developmental Psychology. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  22. ^ "Mentor Award in Developmental Psychology". Developmental Psychology. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  23. ^ "James McKeen Cattell Fund Fellowship Recipients". Association for Psychological Science. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  24. ^ "Eleanor Maccoby Book Award in Developmental Psychology". Developmental Psychology. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  25. ^ Bauer, Patricia J. (13 April 2007). "The Cognitive Development Society Best Authored Book Award". Journal of Cognition and Development. 8 (2): 257–258. doi:10.1080/15248370701202513. ISSN 1524-8372. S2CID 145531750. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  26. ^ "Susan A. Gelman". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  27. ^ "Robert L. Fantz Memorial Award for Young Psychologists". American Psychological Foundation. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  28. ^ No Authorship Indicated (1992). "Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology: Susan A. Gelman". American Psychologist. 47 (4): 481–483. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.47.4.481. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  29. ^ Galef, Julia; Gelman, Susan (December 13, 2015). "Susan Gelman on 'How essentialism shapes our thinking'". Rationally Speaking: Official Podcast of New York City Skeptics. Episode RS 149. Full transcript (PDF). Retrieved 2018-05-12.
  30. ^ Gelman, Andrew (14 July 2006). "Uncle Woody". Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
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