Psych prof at Univ. of Toronto, studying the dev't of social and moral cognition, learning, and behavio(u)r.
tecl.ca
Jessica Sommerville
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LAST CLASS of 2025/2026 academic year is in the books! I know what I'll be dancing to tonight!!
We are greatly looking forward CDS in Montreal next week!! Come see us at our talks and posters!
Stoked to share our new lab pub led by the amazing @normanjzeng.bsky.social ! After watching multi-party agent events, infants expect agents to preserve their moral "role" in a resource distribution task. Indiv. variability predicted by infants' social contact.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
“As adults, we think there are good people, bad people, and people who are somewhere in between,” says @jessicas.bsky.social, professor of psychology @artsci.utoronto.ca.
“It seems like infants are thinking the same way.”
👶 www.psych.utoronto.ca/news/infants...
Are you attending @cogdevsoc.bsky.social 2026? Come join us for an afternoon pre-conference workshop on motivation in development! We'll bring together developmental, educational, and computational perspectives to ask: Can we build a unified account of motivation across the lifespan? ✨
New paper out in Child Development (@srcdorg.bsky.social) with Dave Sobel (@candmlab.bsky.social)! ✨ We investigated how 5- to 7-year-old children decide to take on easy versus hard tasks while pursuing a goal. doi.org/10.1093/chid...
Shine a spotlight on exceptional #infantstudies researchers by nominating for the Distinguished Early Career Contribution Award, Outstanding Dissertation Award and Translational Research Award. Close March 26, 2026.
infantstudies.org/merit-awards/
This research investigated infants’ ability to make moral character inferences. For a wide range of moral roles, infants could use an agent’s past moral behavior to revise their expectations for future moral behavior.
@normanjzeng.bsky.social
@jessicas.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
The first generation to grow up with AI deserves healthy social relationships. I'm pleased to be a part of this international, interdisciplinary Research Fellowship childhoodandailab.org/our-fellows-... with the #ChildhoodAndAILab from #AIChildSafety.org.
Loved working on this paper with Kat (lead) and Hyo!
Using eye-gaze methods, this research investigated infants’ ability to make moral character inferences. For a wide range of moral roles, infants could use an agent’s past moral behavior to revise thei...
Using eye-gaze methods, this research investigated infants’ ability to make moral character inferences. For a wide range of moral roles, infants could use an agent’s past moral behavior to revise thei...
Research by psychologists at the University of Toronto suggests that we begin to make moral character judgments as early as 12-months-old while also recognizing that individuals can exist along a mora...
www.psych.utoronto.ca
Abstract. We examined potential processes by which children decide to make hard as opposed to easy choices to accomplish a goal. Five- to 7-year olds (N =
Officially out TODAY in Child Development! It's good to try challenging tasks and explore on your own, but not when it might be too hard and help isn't available. Children get that. w/ Kat Shannon, Aneesa Conine-Nakano, Willem Frankenhuis, @mcxfrank.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/chidev/advan...
Hyowon (Hyo) Gweon
Abstract. The effectiveness of social learning depends on whether learners receive help when they need it. In four preregistered studies, U.S. 4–6-year-old
Hello bsky! Excited to share this paper as my very first post / repost :-) We show that children are sensitive to whether an adult offered promised help, and strategically consider this to decide what task to pursue (easy or hard?) and whether to explore vs. seek help!
Hyowon (Hyo) Gweon
What do kids choose to do when they think that someone will help them? What about when no one will help?
New paper: "Young children strategically adapt to unreliable social partners" - led by Kat Shannon, with @hyogweon.bsky.social and Willem Frankenhuis.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
