Early Social Cognition
From early in life, children are learning about the people around them. We study how infants and young children make sense of others’ actions, intentions, and social behaviour. We are especially interested in how children begin to evaluate helpful and unhelpful actions, and how these early social experiences relate to development over time.
Selected publications
Tan, E., & Hamlin, J. K. (2022). Infants’ neural responses to helping and hindering scenarios. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 54, 101095. [paper]
Tan, E., & Hamlin, J. K. (2022). Mechanisms of social evaluation in infancy: A preregistered exploration of infants’ eye-movement and pupillary responses to prosocial and antisocial events. Infancy, 27(2), 255–276. [paper]
Tan, E., Mikami, A. Y., & Hamlin, J. K. (2018). Do infant sociomoral evaluation and action studies predict preschool social and behavioral adjustment? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 176, 39–54. [paper]
Emotion, Motivation, and Prosocial Behaviour
Children do not just notice what happens to other people. They also feel and respond to it. We study how emotions and motivations shape early prosocial behaviour, including when children choose to help, give, or respond to others’ needs. A central goal of this work is to understand how positive emotions may support children’s emerging concern for others.
Selected publications
Tan, E., Van de Vondervoort, J. W., Dhaliwal, J., Aknin, L. B., & Hamlin, J. K. (2026). Toddlers are happier giving to others than to themselves. Developmental Science, 29(3), e70171. [paper]
Tan, E., & Hamlin, J. K. (2024). Toddlers’ affective responses to sociomoral scenes: Insights from physiological measures. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 237, 105757. [paper]
Social Behaviours and Development Over Time
Children bring their own personalities, preferences, and experiences to social situations. We study how early social behaviour and temperament are connected to children’s later social and emotional lives. This research helps us better understand the many different ways children grow, relate to others, and navigate their worlds.
Selected publications
Tan, E., Zeytinoglu, S., Morales, S., Buzzell, G. A., Almas, A. N., Degnan, K. A., Chronis-Tuscano, A., Henderson, H., Pine, D. S., & Fox, N. A. (2023). Social versus non-social behavioral inhibition: Differential prediction from early childhood of long-term psychosocial outcomes. Developmental Science, e13427. [paper]
Tan, E., Mikami, A. Y., Luzhanska, A., & Hamlin, J. K. (2021). The homogeneity and heterogeneity of moral functioning in preschool. Child Development, 92(3), 959–975. [paper]
Brain Processes in Cognitive Development
Children’s brains are active, changing systems that support how they think, learn, and respond to the world. We study patterns of brain activity that are connected to cognitive development, including attention, learning, and general cognitive functioning. This work helps us understand how brain activity and thinking skills develop together across childhood.
Selected publications
Tan, E., Troller-Renfree, S. V., Morales, S., Buzzell, G. A., McSweeney, M., Antúnez, M., & Fox, N. A. (2024). Theta activity and cognitive functioning: Integrating evidence from resting-state and task-related developmental electroencephalography (EEG) research. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 67, 101404. [paper]
Tan, E., Tang, A., Debnath, R., Humphreys, K. L., Zeanah, C. H., Nelson, C. A., & Fox, N. A. (2023). Resting brain activity in early childhood predicts IQ at 18 years. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 63, 101287. [paper]
