Jessica Sommerville

Children's decision to challenge themselves on a novel task relates to their metacognitive monitoring of their ability 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 =

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...

I was so excited when I saw your name on the list! will you be at CDS?

Childhood and AI Lab welcome page

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.

Big news on #SaferInternetDay: I’ve been elected as a Research Fellow with the AIChildSafety.org Childhood & AI Lab.

Grateful to John Zoltner and the Lab for creating space for this kind of work.
🔗 lnkd.in/ggm6bgtv

#AIChildSafety #ChildhoodAndAI #ResponsibleAI #DevSci

Why do otherwise rational people disagree about the same evidence? Our new paper finds that group membership is a deeply rooted influence on how we form beliefs, leading even preschoolers to bias their evidential standards and form inaccurate beliefs.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

💥New paper alert! Dyadic Decisions About Effort: How Caregivers Shape Young Children’s Persistence (with @reutshachnai.bsky.social)

One of my favorites! If you’re curious about what we’ve been up to in @leonardlearnlab.bsky.social, take a look!
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The emergence of disadvantageous inequity aversion between 2–4 years When and how children begin responding to inequitable resource distributions, particularly those that put them at a disadvantage, remains unclear. Acr…

We propose that 2-year-olds show emerging sensitivity to disadvantageous outcomes, but only 4-year-olds' costly responses to unfairness reflect true disadvantageous inequity aversion.

Read more at:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New lab paper with Dave Sobel @candmlab.bsky.social and led by the remarkable @radovanovic.bsky.social and @jaeminhwang.bsky.social. Infants expect equality not only in resource distributions but also resource collections.

Figure shows the methods used in the paper's experiments. In the left column are the methods for Exp 1 (Collection) and in the right are the methods for Exp 2 (Distribution). In each video, three women sit at a table. One sits in the middle, serving as a collector/distributor, and two sit in the foreground with plates. During familiarization trials, resources were collected from or distributed to their plates with an occluder on the screen hiding the outcomes. During test trials, the same videos were played but with the outcomes shown such that infants either viewed an equal collection/distribution or an unequal collection/distribution.

Out in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social with @jaeminhwang.bsky.social, David Sobel (@candmlab.bsky.social), and @jessicas.bsky.social! Most studies of infants’ fairness expectations focus on resource distribution, but in everyday life, we engage in many different kinds of resource exchanges.

This paper about inferences that kids draw on the basis of parental incarceration is now published! Pretty version here: psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-.... Link to full text & summary in thread below.
🧪 #PsychSciSky #SocialPsyc #DevPsyc @socphilpsych.bsky.social

Is it wrong that I'm trying to use AI to try to come up with AI proof assignments for my students? (pls say no, or better yet, give me some suggestions!).

Big ideas in 180 seconds The 10th Annual Three Minute Thesis Competition showcased graduate students across the University of Miami presenting research in fields ranging from medicine and computer engineering to literature an...

Congrats, Dr. @tiffany6390.bsky.social! 👏

news.miami.edu/stories/2025...

Are you a US-based PhD student WITHOUT summer funding who is interested in adolescent development, trans youth, and/or gender? Reach out to me about applying to join my lab in Summer 2026 for the VIPS program! psych.princeton.edu/diversity/vi...

Who's afraid of AI?

toronto2025.ai

Hi #canadian researchers - please sign this petition to help ensure funding isn’t cut to tri council agencies (NSERC, SSHRC, and CIHR). We’re looking at potential 15% cuts to ALL federal spending including grants win.newmode.net/canadianasso...

congratulations!!!

two figurines on a white background. one side is labeled Labubu, with your typically furry Labubu figure. the other side is Lakiki, and it's fur has been photoshopped to be spiky.

📣📣📣 Hi Everyone! I'm accepting PhD students for the Fall 2026 cycle! Our lab topics include the developmental origins and elaboration of moral cognition/prosocial behavior, persistence, and optimism. More info below!!

Lazarus et al. (2025): A simple act with a lasting impact: Holding babies skin-to-skin in the NICU helped support their development and reduced differences linked to family income. Early touch can be a powerful way to promote equity from the very start #infancypapers doi.org/10.1111/infa...

Human newborns spontaneously attend to prosocial interactions Nature Communications - Abilities to distinguish between prosocial and antisocial actions are crucial for sustaining cooperative systems. Here, the authors show that human newborns with just 5 days...

New paper! Here (in Nature Communications) we (Ale Geraci, Luca Surian, Lucia Gabriella Tina, & I; work led/run by Ale) show that 5-day-old newborns selectively attend to two distinct forms of prosocial over antisocial action: approaching versus avoiding and helping versus hindering.
rdcu.be/evorW

Junior Specialist-Lab for Infant Learning And Cognition (LILAC), Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences University of California Santa Barbara is hiring. Apply now!

I'm hiring a full-time #labmanager for my new Lab for Infant Learning and Cognition (LILAC) at UCSB! The start date is flexible, but could be as early as August 1, 2025. Application review begins July 17th and will continue until the position is filled 👶🪴

recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02992

#academicjobs

Ah, thank you Andrea!!

🚨 Postdoc Opportunity!!!
The Toronto Early Cognition Lab (@UofT) is hiring a postdoc to study early optimism in infants & young children.
Work w/ multi-method approach, amazing undergrads & grads.
Start: Fall 2025 or later.
Details: jessica.sommerville@utoronto.ca
RTs appreciated 💫

Wow this is cool!!

Veena Dwivedi discusses limits to AI’s ability to ‘understand’ like a human brain YouTube video by Brock University

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PnO...
Check out this 1 min clip where I describe why it's impossible for AI to 'understand' language.
based on @theconversation.com article lnkd.in/gh97_cbW
#Neuroscience @brocku.ca

looking forward to reading it!

A neuroscientist explains why it’s impossible for AI to ‘understand’ language Describing artificial intelligence as having neural networks and understanding language has implications for how we understand both AI and the human brain.

Check out my new article in The Conversation Canada, based on my research in #Neuroscience at @brocku.ca theconversation.com/a-neuroscien...

2025 - CHS (ICIS Webinar) Conducting developmental studies online with Children Helping Science Melissa Kline Struhl ICIS Webinar 05/29/2025 1 1 Children Helping Science

Just had the chance to present on an @infantstudies.bsky.social panel about inexpensive methods for data collection with children - if you're curious about how Children Helping Science works/the kinds of studies you can run, this slide deck is a good place to start!

docs.google.com/presentation...

congratulations!!!

To try or not to try: That is the (developmental) question - The International Congress of Infant Studies

My ICIS blog post about some of our lab's recent work:
infantstudies.org/to-try-or-no...