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The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ, T +44 (0)1227 764000
Dr Erika NurmsooLecturer in Psychology |
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Research interests
My research explores children's cognitive and social development. In particular, I am interested in how children's developing social understanding supports their cognitive development, and vice versa. Recent questions I have investigated include:
- How do children understand drawings and other representations? Are they flexible, allowing an ambiguous drawing to represent multiple referents? What role does the artist's intent play in children's interpretation of symbols?
- How do children judge whether to believe information that another has told them? When asking questions, do children consider whether a source is likely to give good information?
- What do children understand about the eyes? Under what circumstances will they use another person's eye gaze to judge what that person likes, wants, or fears? Can they use gaze cues to identify friendships in others?
Key publications
Nurmsoo, E., & Robinson, E. J. (2009). Children's Trust in Previously Inaccurate Informants Who Were Well- or Poorly- Informed: When Past Errors Can Be Excused. Child Development, 80, 23-27.
Nurmsoo, E., & Robinson, E. J. (2009). Identifying unreliable informants: Do children excuse past inaccuracy? Developmental Science, 12, 41-47.
Robinson, E. J. & Nurmsoo, E. (2009). When do children learn from unreliable speakers? Cognitive Development, 24, 16-22.
Nurmsoo, E., & Bloom, P. (2008). Preschoolers' perspective-taking in word learning: Do they blindly follow eye gaze? Psychological Science, 19, 211-215
Robinson, E. J., Haigh, S. N., & Nurmsoo, E. (2008). Children's working understanding of knowledge sources: Confidence in knowledge gained from testimony. Cognitive Development, 23, 105-118
Also view these in the Kent Academic Repository
Articles
Nurmsoo, Erika and Einav, Shiri and Hood, Bruce M. (2012)
Best friends: children use mutual gaze to identify friendships in others.
Developmental Science, 15 (3). pp. 417-425. ISSN 1363-755X.
Abstract
This study examined childrens ability to use mutual eye gaze as a cue to friendships in others. In Experiment 1, following a discussion about friendship, 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds were shown animations in which three cartoon children looked at one another, and were told that one target character had a best friend. Although all age groups accurately detected the mutual gaze between the target and another character, only 5- and 6-year-olds used this cue to infer friendship. Experiment 2 replicated the effect with 5- and 6-year-olds when the target character was not explicitly identified. Finally, in Experiment 3, where the attribution of friendship could only be based on synchronized mutual gaze, 6-year-olds made this attribution, while 4- and 5-year-olds did not. Children occasionally referred to mutual eye gaze when asked to justify their responses in Experiments 2 and 3, but it was only by the age of 6 that reference to these cues correlated with the use of mutual gaze in judgements of affiliation. Although younger children detected mutual gaze, it was not until 6 years of age that children reliably detected and justified mutual gaze as a cue to friendship.
2010-11 |
Imitation with and without pedagogical cues |
£2,000 |
Contact details
| Address: |
School of Psychology |
| Tel: | +44 (0)1227 824381 |
| Fax: | +44 (0)1227 827030 |
| Email: | E.Nurmsoo@kent.ac.uk |
| Office: | Keynes A2.08 |
| Office Hours: | Tuesday 11am-12 noon, Thursday 3-4pm |