Prof. Angeline Lillard is an associate professor in Psychology. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and concerns cognitive development in young children, particularly focusing on pretend play, education, and culture.
In pretend play, she has looked at issues like when children think of pretending as involving mental activity (as opposed to just physical activity), and when and how children know that people are pretending rather than doing things for real. Recently she has also begun to study what pretend representations are like, and how we can simultaneously negotiate pretend and real representations of the world.
Her work on culture concerns cultural variations in theories of mind, or the 'folk" ways that we interpret others' minds and actions. In education, her is particularly focused on Montessori education as an alternative to traditional education, and how current research in Psychology addresses some of its basic tenets.
She received the American Psychological Association's 1999 Boyd McCandless Award for distinguished early career contribution, was a visiting fellow of the British Psychology Society and The Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, and has delivered Keynote Addresses to psychologists in Japan, Great Britain, and Italy.
Angeline Lillard's Home Page
