Center for Research on INTERPERSONAL Behavior (CRIB)

WELCOME TO THE CRIB

Start date: July 2024!
University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)
Psychological and Brain Sciences Department

Here in the CRIB, we're interested in how children come to navigate the world. 

CURRENT RESEARCH THEMES

We study how babies, children, and adults think about:

ACTIONS AND MINDS

When we observe others acting in the world, we can often infer their goals, beliefs, and experiences. 

What are the developmental origins of our abilities to reason about others' minds? How do we overcome differences between our own and others' minds?

Representative papers:
Woo, Liu, and Spelke (in press, Dev. Sci.)
Woo, Chisholm, and Spelke (in revision)

SOCIAL BEINGS

From birth, children often depend on others to learn new skills and knowledge and to achieve their goals

What representations form our early-emerging knowledge of the social world? How do we come to identify individuals who may teach us and help us achieve our goals?

Representative papers:
Woo et al. (2022, Annual Rev. of Dev. Psych.)
Woo and Spelke (2023, Child Dev.)

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

A social interaction can involve multiple individuals, each with their own goals, beliefs, experiences, etc. There can be a lot to track. 

As adults, we make sense of others' social interactions. How do babies and children come to make sense of the minds of social agents?

Representative papers:
Woo et al. (2023, Dev. Sci.)
Woo et al. (2023, TiCS)


CONTACT INFO

Email | bmwoo@ucsb.edu
Twitter | @brandonmwoo

Join The Team 

If you're interested in joining as a grad student or a postdoc, you can find out more here.