Amy E. Booth
Professor of Psychology and Human Development
My research focuses broadly on early cognitive development and learning, with a special emphasis on exploring the origins and outcomes associated with individual variability in pre-academic skills. In one ongoing longitudinal project, funded by the National Science Foundation, we are tracking children’s interests in, and ability to reason about, causal information from preschool through middle school with an eye towards understanding the origins and development of scientific literacy. In a second NSF-funded project, I am developing an artificially-intelligent dialogic reading tool in collaboration with post-docs Margaret Shavlik and Abigail Petulante, as well as Professor Emeritus Georgene Troseth. The goal of both of these projects is to better understand and support the development of key foundational skills so that we can develop help to overcome persistent opportunity gaps and maximize the developmental outcomes of all children in both science and language.
Representative Publications
1. Bae, J.*, Shavlik, M.*, Shatrowsky, C. E.*, Haden, C. A., & Booth, A. E. (2023). Predicting grade school scientific literacy from aspects of the early home science environment. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1113196
2. Shavlik, M.*, Köksal, Ö., French, B., Haden, C., Legare, C., Booth, A. (2022). Contributions of causal reasoning to early scientific literacy. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 224, 1-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105509
3. Booth, A., Shavlik, M.* & Haden, C. (2022). Exploring the foundations of early scientific literacy: Children’s causal stance. Developmental Psychology, 56(11), 2055-2064. DOI:10.1037/dev0001108
4. Booth, A., Shavlik, M.* & Haden, C. (2020). Parent’s causal talk: links to children’s causal stance and emerging scientific literacy. Developmental Psychology. DOI: 10.1037/dev0001108
5. Shavlik, M.*, Schwab, J.*, Davis-Kean, P. & Booth, A. (2020). Early word-learning skills: A missing link in understanding the vocabulary gap? Developmental Science. DOI: 10.1111/desc.13034
6. Shavlik, M.*, Bauer, J.* & Booth, A. (2020). Children’s preference for causal information in storybooks. Frontiers in Developmental Psychology, 11. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00666
7. Bauer, J.* & Booth, A. E. (2018). Exploring potential cognitive foundations of scientific literacy in preschoolers: causal reasoning and executive function. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 46, 275-284. DOI:10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.09.007.
8. Bauer, J.* & Booth, A. (2018). Relations Between Executive Functions and Causal Reasoning in Young Children. AERA Online Paper Repository. DOI: 10.302/1315192.
9. Bauer, J.*, McGroarty-Torres, K. & Booth, A. E. (2016). Causally-rich group play: A powerful context for building preschoolers’ vocabulary. Frontiers in Psychology: Developmental Psychology, 7: 997. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00997. PMC4925663.
10. Alvarez, A.* & Booth, A. (2016). Exploring individual differences in preschoolers’ causal stance. Developmental Psychology, 52(3), 411-422. DOI: 10.1037/dev0000085
11. Alvarez, A.* & Booth, A. (2015). Preschoolers prefer to learn causal information. Frontiers in Psychology: Developmental Psychology, 6(60). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00060. PMC4327508.
12. Booth, A. (2015). Effects of causal information on early word learning: Efficiency and Longevity. Journal of Cognitive Development, 33, 99-107. DOI: 10:1016/j.cogdev.2014.05.001.
13. Booth, A. & Alvarez, A.* (2015). Developmental changes in causal supports for early word learning. Language Learning and Development, 11(1), 80-92. DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2014.888900
* indicates student