Amanda Woodward

Amanda Woodward has pioneered the development of experimental methods to investigate social cognition in infants and young children. Her research has yielded fundamental insights into infants’ social understanding and the processes that support conceptual development early in life. Her current work investigates infants’ sensitivity to interpersonal social structure, the effects of cultural and community contexts in shaping children’s social learning strategies, and the neural processes involved in early social-cognitive development.

She was a founding member of the Center for Early Childhood Research and currently directs the Infant Learning and Development Laboratory and chairs the Developmental Program. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association for Psychological Science and the American Psychological Association.