Research Areas:
Developmental Psychology
My research focuses on development in children’s understanding of mental processes and mental representations between early and middle childhood. I am especially interested in how children’s understanding of mind influences their evaluations of their own beliefs, and their judgments of others’ beliefs and behavior. My master’s thesis and dissertation address how development in children’s understanding of emotion and evidence interpretation affects their moral evaluations.
Woolley, J. D., Browne, C. A., & Boerger, E. A. (in press). Constraints on children’s judgments of magical causality. Journal of Cognition and Development.
Woolley, J. D., Boerger, E. A., & Markman, A. B. (2004). A visit from the Candy Witch: Factors influencing young children’s belief in a novel fantastical being. Developmental Science, 7, 456 -468.
Woolley, J. D. & Boerger, E. A. (2002). Development of beliefs about the origins and controllability of dreams. Developmental Psychology, 38, 24-41.