Contact Information
Email
(615) 322-5567
321 Hobbs
Research Area
Education
Ph.D. (University of Oregon, 2001)
Curriculum Vitae
Advising
Megan Saylor
Associate Professor of Psychology and Human Development
Member, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development
Dr. Saylor's research focuses on how children learn about language and the mind. In one line of research she asks how infants and children use information about others' minds (what they know and want) to figure out what they mean when they use novel words or ask for absent things. In another line of research she asks what adults and preschoolers understand about the minds of computers and robots.
Representative Publications
- Saylor, M. M. (2000). Time-stability and adjective use by child and adult English speakers. First Language, 20 (1), 91-120.
- Baldwin, D. A., Baird, J. A., Saylor, M. M., & Clark, A. (2001). Infants parse dynamic action. Child Development, 72, 655-948.
- Saylor, M. M., Sabbagh, M. A., Baldwin, D. A. (2002). Children use whole-part juxtaposition as a pragmatic cue to word meaning. Developmental Psychology, 38, 993-1003.
- Saylor, M. M. (2004). 12- and 16-month-old infants recognize of properties of mentioned absent things. Developmental Science, 7, 599-611
- Saylor, M. M., & Baldwin, D. A. (2004). Discussing those not present: Comprehension of references to absent caregivers. Journal of Child Language,31, 537-560.
- Saylor, M. M., & Sabbagh, M. A. (2004). Different kinds of information affect word learning in the preschool years: The case of part-term learning. Child Development, 75, 395-408.
- Saylor, M. M., & Carroll, C. B. (2008). Direct and Indirect cues to knowledge states during word learning. Journal of Child Language, 35, 1-11.
- Saylor, M. M., Sabbagh, M. A., Fortuna, A. & Troseth, G. (2009). Preschoolers use speakers’ preferences to learn words. Cognitive Development, 5, 125-132.
- Saylor, M. M., Somanader, M., Levin, D. T., & Kawamura, K. (in press). Defying expectations: How do young children deal with hybrids of basic categories? British Journal of Developmental Psychology.
- Saylor, M. M., Ganea, P, & Vazquez, M. D., &. (in press). What’s mine is mine: Twelve -month-olds use possessive pronouns to identify referents. Developmental Science.
- Killingsworth, S., Saylor, M. M., & Levin, D. T. (in press). Intentional understanding through a machine’s eyes. Social Cognition.