Meet Our Team

Post Doctoral Fellows Supervised

Dr. E. Morin-Lessard, 2018 - 2021

Dr. R. Hentges, 2016 - 2020

Current Position: Research Assistant Professor. East Tennessee State University

Dr. V. San Juan, 2014 - 2018
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Bradley University

Dr. S. Geffen, 2014 - 2016
Current Position: Assistant Professor, USC Dornsife

Dr. C.K. Friesen, 2001 - 2002 (NSERC PDF)
Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of North Dakota

Ph.D Students Supervised

N. Ju, 2016 - 2022 (Eyes High International Award)
Preschoolers’ use of perspective and knowledge differences in communication 

M. Zepeda, 2018 - 2022 (SSHRC Doctoral) 
Preschoolers’ inferences about accented speech  

J. Thacker, 2015 - 2019 (SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship)
Preschoolers’ sensitivity to speaker characteristics in communicative interactions     

J. Switzer, 2015 - 2019  (Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship)
Preschoolers use social categories to guide inductive inferences      

E. Vukatana, 2013 - 2017 (Vanier SSHRC)
Infants' Acquisition of Category-Property Links: Exploring 7- to 11-month-olds' Abilities
Current Position: Clinical Psychologist, Adjunct Professor, Halifax

M. Khu, 2012 - 2016 (SSHRC and Killam Support)
Preschoolers' Emotional and Cognitive Perspective-taking During Online Language Processing 
Current Position: Clinical Psychologist, Calgary

S. Owens, 2011 - 2015 (SSHRC & AIHS Graduate Support)
Children's Interpretation of Filled Pauses in Referential Communication: Exploring the Functions of Discourse Status and Object Familiarity
Current Position: Clinical Psychologist, Calgary

J. Keates, 2005- 2011 (SSHRC & AHFMR Graduate Support)
From Picture Books to the Real World: Infants' Generalization of Non-obvious Object Properties
Current Positions: Assistant Professor, University of Manitoba & Clinical Psychologist, Grace Hospital, Winnipeg

S. Nayer, 2004-2008 (SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship Support) 
Generics guide toddlers' inductive inferences
Current Position: Clinical Psychologist, Israel

E. Nilsen, 2003-2007 (SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship Support)
The relations between children's communicative perspective-taking and executive functioning
Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Waterloo

A. N. Welder, 1997-2003 (NSERC & AHFMR Graduate Support)
The effect of animacy cues and labels on infants' categorization of novel objects with similar outsides or similar insides
Current Position: Clinical Psychologist, Kelowna

J. Turner, 2001-2003 (NSERC graduate support)
The influence on ontological kind and linguistic information on infant categorization

Ph.D Students Co-Supervised

H. MacKenzie, 2010 - 2013 (co-supervised with Dr. S. Curtin)
The Influence of Contact and Form on 12-Month-Olds' Sound Object-Associations

J. Berman, 2009 - 2013 (SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship & AHFMR support; co-supervised with Dr. C. Chambers)
Preschoolers' Use of Vocal Affect as a Cue to Referential Intent
Current Position: Clinical Psychologist, Ontario

E. Tourigny, 2006-2010 (co-supervised with Dr. A. McKeough)
Assessing the impact of an instructional program for First Nations children

M. Schroeder, 2005-2010 (co-supervised with Dr. A. McKeough)
School-aged children's understanding of the scientific process

S. Bird, 2007-2009 (co-supervised with Dr. A. McKeough)
A sense of time, a sense of place: Examining Anishinaabe identity development within and between generations

MSc. Students Supervised

M. Zepeda, 2016 - 2018 (SSHRC CGS, QE II support)
Examining the effect of category-training on 11-month-olds' property generalizations

J. Thacker, 2013 - 2015
5-Year-Olds’ Use of Disfluency and Speaker Identity in Referential Communication

J. Switzer, 2013 - 2015
A Bat is Not a Bird: Infants’ Use of Distinct Labels to Guide Inductive Reasoning

E. Vukatana, 2011 - 2013 (SSHRC CGS support)
Early Inductive reasoning: Examining 11-Month-Olds' Abilities

M. Khu, 2010 - 2012 (QE II, AGS Scholarship, Curtin Family Graduate Scholarship)
Learning from picture books: The effect of naming on infants' transfer of nonobvious properties

S. Owens (formerly Collins), 2009 - 2011 (SSHRC CGS support)
Preschoolers' sensitivity to speaker action constraints to infer communicative intent

J. Berman, 2007 - 2009 (SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship Support)
Preschoolers' appreciation of speaker affect as a cue to a speakers' intentions

H. Mackenzie, 2007 - 2009 (NSERC Canada Graduate Support)
12-month-olds privilege words over other linguistic sounds in an associative learning task

J. Keates, 2005 - 2007 (SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship Support)
Labeling context influences infants' inductive inferences about non-obvious properties

K. Meagher, 2003 - 2005 (NSERC Canada Graduate Support)
The roll of comparison in 4-year-olds' categories
Current Position: Clinical Psychologist, Red Deer

S. Nayer, 2002 - 2004 (NSERC Canada Graduate Support) 
Preschooler's adapt their communicative behaviours based on their parents' knowledge state

C.S. Kilbreath, 2001- 2003 (NSERC Canada Graduate Support)
The influence of gestures and object labels on infants' inductive inferences
Current Position: Ethics Resource Officer, University of Calgary

A. Henderson, 2001- 002 (NSERC graduate support)
Two-year-olds' appreciation of the conventionality of novel labels in indirect word learning contexts
Current Position: Assistant professor, University of Auckland

B.L. Brooks, 1999 - 2001 (NSERC & AHFMR graduate support)
An examination of the communicative and linguistic abilities of children adopted from Romanian orphanages
Current Position: Clinical Psychologist, Alberta Children's Hospital

A.H. Pencer, 1998-2000 (NSERC & AHFMR graduate support)
Twenty-four-month-olds’ use of attentional cues in lexical acquisition
Current Position: Clinical Psychologist, IWK Children's Hospital, Halifax

A.N. Welder, 1997-1999 (NSERC & AHFMR graduate support)
What promotes inductive inferences in infancy? Generalizing knowledge about nonobvious properties

MSc. Students Co-Supervised

H. MacKenzie, 2007-2009 (NSERC CGS graduate support; co-supervised with Dr. S. Curtin)
Ohh! Ahh! Do 12-month-olds privilege words in an associative learning task?

A. Romaine, 2007-2009 (co-supervised with Dr. A. McKeough)
The development of oral narrative in First Nations students
Current Position: School Psychologist

H. Stock, 2005-2007 (SSHRC CGS graduate support; co-supervised with Dr. A. McKeough)
Do Plinkers live in trees? How generics and speaker knowledge guide preschoolers' inductive inferences
Current Position: School Psychologist

M. Schroeder, 2003-2005 (co-supervised with Dr. A. McKeough)
Why I look like Mommy and Daddy: Teaching preschoolers about inheritance