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Susan Hespos

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Susan J. Hespos
EducationReed College (BA)
Emory University (MA, PhD)
Scientific career
FieldsPsychology, Cognitive Science, Developmental Psychology
InstitutionsWestern Sydney University

Susan J. Hespos is an American developmental psychologist serving as the Professor of Infant Studies and Leader of BabyLab in the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour, and Development, as well as the School of Education at Western Sydney University.[1]

Hespos' research shows that babies think before they speak. Her work provides the earliest evidence of cognitive abilities in infants and illustrates how early thinking establishes the foundation for adult reasoning. She has used a range of methods and has studied individuals of various ages and cultures. She advocates for a theoretical perspective known as core knowledge, which asserts that beneath the differences among humans lies a set of perceptual and conceptual capacities that are shared.[2][3][4]

Hespos has served as Associate Editor for Developmental Psychology (2016 – 2020), Associate Editor for Cognitive Psychology (2022 – 2024),[5] and a member of the editorial board of Psychological Science (since 2020).[6]

Education and career

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Hespos earned a B.A. in psychology from Reed College in 1990, a M.A. in cognitive psychology in 1993, and a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology in 1996, from Emory University.[7] She secured a competitive grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) for postdoctoral research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, with Renée Baillargeon. After two years, she transitioned to a postdoctoral position at Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Elizabeth Spelke and was awarded the McDonnell-Pew Junior Scientist Award.[8] From 2001 to 2005, she joined Vanderbilt University as an assistant professor.[9] In 2005, she joined the Psychology Department at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA. Over the next 18 years, she advanced through the ranks of assistant, associate, and full professor.[10]

From 2020 to 2022, Hespos served in a partial appointment role at Western Sydney University as the Leader of the MARCS BabyLab. In 2023, she moved to Sydney to take a full-time position at the MARCS Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Development and School of Education.[11][1]

At Northwestern, Hespos completed three-year terms as both the director of graduate studies[12] and the director of the Cognitive Division.[13] At the MARCS Institute, she serves as the director of impact and engagement.[14]

Media

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Hespos has been interviewed, and her research has been highlighted in media outlets, including science documentaries like Netflix's "Babies" (Part 2, Episode 1),[15] radio shows such as NPR, and news publications including the Los Angeles Times,[16] HuffPost,[17] The Economist,[18] ABC,[19] and Scientific American.[20]

Research

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Hespos' research focuses on nature of early representation abilities, and the process of developmental change.[21][22][23] She employs behavioral and neuroscience methods to ask infants questions about how they understand their world,[24][25][21][26] shedding light on the basic principles that guide cognition and learning throughout the lifespan.[27] Her infant research specifies the nature of thinking in young infants to advance understanding of two things: how language capitalizes on pre-existing cognitive abilities[21][28] and how these abilities relate to the cognitive abilities of other species.[29][30][31]

Hespos' research with children has shown that guided play promotes the development of cognitive skills (such as language and reading), social skills (like emotion regulation), and quantitative skills (including mathematics and spatial reasoning).[32]

She has highlighted how everyday interactions with young children—such as describing objects during a walk, singing songs, or telling stories—can enhance their vocabularies, prepare them for school, and create a strong foundation for lifelong learning.[33] Her work is part of Playful Learning Landscapes, a global initiative that engages low-income communities in transforming public spaces into learning opportunities beyond formal education.[34]

Selected articles

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  • Simon, T. J., Hespos, S. J., & Rochat, P. (1995). Do infants understand simple arithmetic? A replication of Wynn (1992). Cognitive development, 10(2), 253-269. https://doi.org/10.1016/0885-2014(95)90011-X
  • Rochat, P., & Hespos, S. J. (1997). Differential rooting response by neonates: Evidence for an early sense of self. Infant and Child Development, 6(3‐4), 105-112.
  • Hespos, S. J., & Baillargeon, R. (2001). Reasoning about containment events in very young infants. Cognition, 78(3), 207-245. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-0277(00)00118-9
  • Hespos, S. J., & Spelke, E. S. (2004). Conceptual precursors to language. Nature, 430(6998), 453-456. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02634
  • Ferry, A. L., Hespos, S. J., & Waxman, S. R. (2010). Categorization in 3‐and 4‐month‐old infants: an advantage of words over tones. Child development, 81(2), 472-479. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01408.x
  • Ferry, A., Hespos, S. J., & Waxman, S. (2013). Non-human primate vocalizations support categorization in very young human infants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(38), 15231 – 15235. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221166110
  • Hespos, S., Gentner, D., Anderson, E., & Shivaram, A. (2021). The origins of same/different discrimination in human infants. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 37, 69 – 74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.10.013

References

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  1. ^ a b "MARCS | Professor Susan Hespos -| Director, Impact and Engagement". www.westernsydney.edu.au.
  2. ^ "The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour, and Development".
  3. ^ "Professor of Infant Studies, Leader of BabyLab, Director of Impact and Engagement - Overview".
  4. ^ "Susan Hespos - Google Scholar". scholar.google.com.
  5. ^ "Editorial Board -". Cognitive Psychology. 148: 101633. February 1, 2024. doi:10.1016/S0010-0285(24)00004-5 – via ScienceDirect.
  6. ^ "2023 Psychological Science Editorial Team". Association for Psychological Science - APS.
  7. ^ "Susan Hespos, Author at - Startup Daily".
  8. ^ "James S. McDonnell Foundation - Legacy Program - McDonnell-Pew Program in Cognitive Neuroscience". grants.jsmf.org.
  9. ^ "CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE LABORATORYPeople". www.psy.vanderbilt.edu.
  10. ^ "Susan Hespos: School of Education and Social Policy - Northwestern University Profile". sesp.northwestern.edu.
  11. ^ "BabyLab | Researchers - BabyLab". www.westernsydney.edu.au.
  12. ^ "Patel: Youre never too busy to smile". May 16, 2013.
  13. ^ "Diversity Studies - Northwestern University Department of Psychology". groups.psych.northwestern.edu.
  14. ^ "MARCS | Research Development Portfolio". www.westernsydney.edu.au.
  15. ^ Xia, Vivian (March 6, 2020). "Northwestern psychology NU Professor Susan Hespos featured on Netflix docuseries 'Babies' Netflix's "Babies"".
  16. ^ Hotz, Robert Lee (July 24, 2004). "Now for the Way Babies See It". Los Angeles Times.
  17. ^ "Babies Born With Intuitive Grasp Of Physics, Scientists SayKnow Physics? What Study Shows". HuffPost. January 25, 2012.
  18. ^ "Learning from lemurs". The Economist.
  19. ^ "Babies Come Packed With Natural Knowledge". ABC News.
  20. ^ Smith, Dana G. "AI Learns What an Infant Knows about the Physical World". Scientific American.
  21. ^ a b c Hespos, Susan J.; Spelke, Elizabeth S. (July 31, 2004). "Conceptual precursors to language". Nature. 430 (6998): 453–456. Bibcode:2004Natur.430..453H. doi:10.1038/nature02634. PMC 1415221. PMID 15269769.
  22. ^ Ferry, Alissa L.; Hespos, Susan J.; Waxman, Sandra R. (September 17, 2013). "Nonhuman primate vocalizations support categorization in very young human infants". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 110 (38): 15231–15235. Bibcode:2013PNAS..11015231F. doi:10.1073/pnas.1221166110. PMC 3780887. PMID 24003164.
  23. ^ Anderson, Erin M.; Chang, Yin-Juei; Hespos, Susan; Gentner, Dedre (July 1, 2018). "Comparison within pairs promotes analogical abstraction in three-month-olds". Cognition. 176: 74–86. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2018.03.008. PMID 29549761 – via ScienceDirect.
  24. ^ "Do infants understand simple arithmetic? A replication of Wynn (1992).APA PsycNet".
  25. ^ Hespos, Susan J; Rochat, Philippe (August 1, 1997). "Dynamic mental representation in infancyinfancy1". Cognition. 64 (2): 153–188. doi:10.1016/S0010-0277(97)00029-2. PMID 9385869 – via ScienceDirect.
  26. ^ "Language: Life without Numbers: Current Biology".
  27. ^ Hespos, Susan J.; vanMarle, Kristy (January 31, 2012). "Physics for infants: characterizing the origins of knowledge about objects, substances, and number". WIREs Cognitive Science. 3 (1): 19–27. doi:10.1002/wcs.157. PMID 26302470 – via CrossRef.
  28. ^ Hespos, Susan J.; Piccin, Thomas B. (January 31, 2009). "To generalize or not to generalize: spatial categories are influenced by physical attributes and language". Developmental Science. 12 (1): 88–95. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00749.x. PMID 19120416 – via CrossRef.
  29. ^ Hespos, Susan; Shivaram, Apoorva (September 30, 2022). "Can a computer think like a baby?". Nature Human Behaviour. 6 (9): 1191. doi:10.1038/s41562-022-01395-7. PMID 35817933 – via www.nature.com.
  30. ^ Gentner, D.; Shao, R.; Simms, N.; Hespos, S. (2021). "Learning Same and Different Relations: Cross-Species Comparisons". Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences.
  31. ^ Hespos, S.; Gentner, D.; Anderson, E.; Shivaram, A. (2021). "The origins of same/different discrimination in human infants". Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences.
  32. ^ "Structure-mapping processes enable infants' learning across domains including APA PsycNet".
  33. ^ Shivaram, Apoorva; Chavez, Yaritza; Anderson, Erin; Fritz, Autumn; Jackson, Ryleigh; Edwards, Louisa; Powers, Shelley; Libertus, Melissa; Hespos, Susan (June 16, 2021). "Brief Interventions Influence the Quantity and Quality of Caregiver-Child Conversations in an Everyday Context". Frontiers in Psychology. 12. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.645788. PMC 8242245. PMID 34220615.
  34. ^ "Scientific Publications on PLL". Playful Learning Landscapes Action Network.
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