My research interests are in cognitive development with a focus on knowledge acquisition, intuitive insight and explanation, and conceptual change. In order for them to grow into fully mature members of adult community, young children must have some understanding of mental behavior, and my work looks to increase our understanding of how young children come to make sense of the world about which they have not been explicitly taught previously.
My current research examines our intuitions about the essence of individual identity and the role the brain plays in sustaining the identity. Adults know that the crucial role that the brain plays goes beyond controlling physical and psychological functioning; it represents the very existence of the entity that owns it, and in turn it gives that entity its identity. Children's concept of identity is investigated in various categories such as ownership, and culpability as well as cognition and behavior.
