Developmental / Behaviour

Pat Mirenda, PhD, RN

Professor
autism spectrum disorder
positive behaviour support
applied behaviour analysis
augmentative and alternative communication
Jehannine Austin, PhD CGC

Professor
psychiatric disorders
genetics
genetic testing
genetic counseling
depression
bipolar
schizophrenia
mental illness
stigma
empowerment
Joanna Cheek

Clinical Instructor
Mindfulness
psychotherapy
psychosocial treatments
bipolar disorder
Dr. Catriona Hippman, PhD, CGC

Postdoctoral Fellow
Genetic counselling
genetic counseling
psychiatry
mental illness
postpartum depression
reproductive mental health
perinatal mental health
prenatal genetic screening
Down syndrome
disability
pharmacogenetics
pharmacogenomics
personalized medicine
antidepressants
antidepressant use in pregnancy
decision making in pregnancy
Dr. Matthew Chow, MD, FRCPC

Clinical Instructor
Mental Health
Children and Youth
Health Policy
Physicians
Physician Leadership
Liane Gabora, PhD

Professor
creativity
computational creativity
cultural evolution
computer models of cultural evolution
concepts
agent-based models
physical light as metaphor for psychological constructs
Amori Mikami, PhD

Professor
Peer relationships
friendships
peer rejection
bullying
social skills training
social networking
Facebook
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
ADHD
children
adolescents
Darko Odic, PhD

Assistant Professor
Cognitive development
language acquisition
mathematics
perception of time and space
psychophysics
visual cognition
preschoolers
confidence
statistics
Susan Birch, PhD Yale

Associate Professor
Social perspective taking
social learning
social cognition
imitation
nonverbal behavior
confidence
communication
decision-making
impression formation
child development
the study of children and adults' social perspective taking abilities (i.e., their abilities to reason about other peoples' mental states--their intentions, knowledge, and beliefs) and how their abilities to take another person's perspective impacts how they form impressions of others, learn from others, communicate with others, and informs a range of socials. Of particular interest is a) how children make inferences about what is credible information to learn (e.g., how they decide whether someone is a credible source of information based on how confident that person seems) and b) how a widespread bias in perspective taking referred to as 'the curse of knowledge bias' (a difficulty reasoning about a more naive perspective as the result of being biased by one's current knowledge) can impair communication (both written and in person) and decision-making across a range of fields (politics, law, education, economics, medicine, etc.)