Lecture on babies’ perceptions April 18

9:11 a.m., April 12, 2005--Paul Quinn, professor of psychology, will discuss “Why Do Babies Perceive Horses as Humans, But not Humans as Horses?” at 4 p.m., Monday, April 18, in 204 Gore Hall, as part of UD’s Cognitive Science Colloquium Lecture Series. The talk is free and open to the public.

Quinn will present behavioral, computational and electrophysiological data that indicate how young infants categorize humans and animals. His findings suggest that perceptual expertise can occur early in development.

The talk will conclude with thoughts about the role perception of humans might play in the acquisition and organization of knowledge by infants.

Quinn, who earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology with honors from Brown University in 1981, also received a doctorate in psychology from Brown in 1986. Before coming to UD, Quinn taught at the University of Iowa and Washington & Jefferson College, and has held visiting positions at Brown University, the Medical Research Council (United Kingdom) and the University of Minnesota.

His research interests include early cognitive and brain development, with a particular focus on the abilities of young infants to represent information about objects and space.

An associate editor for both Child Development and Developmental Science, Quinn also serves on the editorial boards of Psychological Science, Infant Behavior and Development, the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology and Monographs of the society for Research in Child Development. Quinn is a regular panel member of the Cognition and Perception Study Section with the Center for Scientific Review at the National Institutes of Health.

For more information, (302) 831-6806.

Article by Jerry Rhodes

E-mail this article

To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here.