Associate Professor
Area: Developmental

Contact information:
Email: fisher49@andrew.cmu.edu
Psychology office: 335I Baker Hall
Psychology phone: 412-268-8656

Director,
Cognitive Development Laboratory
www.psy.cmu.edu/cognitivedevelopmentlab

Research Interests:

Cognitive Development; Inductive Generalization; Category- Based Reasoning; Language & Cognition; Attention & Learning

I am interested in development of category-based reasoning. Category-based reasoning is often considered a hallmark of human cognition. Consider this example: imagine one learns a new fact, for instance that crocodile embryos do not have sex chromosomes. Would one then generalize this newly-learned piece of knowledge to other animals, such as alligators? Adults readily do so and consider this task to be trivially easy. However, the task is not quite easy for preschoolers. One line of research in my lab explores how children develop the ability to spontaneously engage in the process of category-based reasoning.

I am also interested in the development of selective sustained attention, particularly endogenously-driven sustained attention. This line of research in my lab is devoted specifying the relation of exogenously- and endogenously-driven sustained attention to performance on different types of learning problems.
 

Publications:

Fisher, A.V. (2011). Processing of perceptual information is more robust than processing of conceptual information in preschool-age children: Evidence from costs of switching. Cognition, 119, 253-264. PDF

Fisher, A.V., Matlen, B., & Godwin, K.E. (2011). Semantic Similarity of Labels and Inductive Generalization: Taking a Second Look. Cognition, 118, 432-438. PDF

Kloos, H., Fisher, A.V., & Van Orden, G.C. (2010). Situated naïve physics: Task constraints decide what children know about density. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139, 625-337.

Fisher, A.V. (2011). Automatic shifts of attention in the Dimensional Change Card Sort task: Subtle changes in task materials lead to flexible switching. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 108, 211-219. PDF

Fisher, A.V. (2010). Mechanisms of induction early in development. In M. Banich & D. Caccamise (Eds.) Generalization of Knowledge: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (pp. 89-112). New York: Psychology Press.

Fisher, A.V. (2010). What’s in the name? Or how rocks and stones are different from dogs and puppies. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 105, 198-212. PDF

Fisher, A.V., & Kloos, H. (in press). Development of selective sustained attention: The Role of Executive Functions. In L. Freund, P. McCardle, and J. Griffin (Eds.), Executive Function in Preschool Age Children: Integrating Measurement, Neurodevelopment and Translational Research. APA Press.

Godwin, K.E., Matlen, B., & Fisher, A.V. (in press). Development of category-based reasoning in 4- to 7-year-old children: The influence of label co-occurrence and kinship knowledge. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. PDF

Fisher, A.V., Thiessen, E. D., Godwin, K.E., Kloos, H., & Dickerson, J.P. (2012). Assessing selective sustained attention in 3- to 5-year-old children: Evidence from a new paradigm. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 114(2), 275-294. PDF

Sloutsky, V.M., & Fisher, A.V. (2012). Linguistic labels: Conceptual markers or object features? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 111, 65-86.

Lawson, C. & Fisher, A.V. (2011). It's in the sample: The effects of sample size on the development of inductive generalization. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 110, 499-519. PDF

Fisher, A.V. (2011). Processing of perceptual information is more robust than processing of conceptual information in preschool-age children: Evidence from costs of switching. Cognition, 119, 253-264. PDF

Fisher, A.V., Matlen, B., & Godwin, K.E. (2011). Semantic similarity of labels and inductive generalization: Taking a second look. Cognition, 118, 432-438.

Fisher, A.V. (2011). Automatic shifts of attention in the Dimensional Change Card Sort task: Subtle changes in task materials lead to flexible switching. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 108, 211-219.

Sloutsky, V. M., & Fisher, A.V (2008). Attentional learning and flexible induction: How mundane mechanisms give rise to smart behaviors. Child Development, 79, 639-651. PDF

Fisher, A. V. (2007). Are developmental theories of learning paying attention to attention? Cognition, Brain, and Behavior, 11, 635-646. PDF

Sloutsky, V. M., Kloos. H., & Fisher, A. V. (2007-b). What’s beyond looks? Reply to Gelman and Waxman. Psychological Science, 556-557. PDF

Sloutsky, V. M., Kloos, H., & Fisher, A. V. (2007-a). When looks are everything: Appearance similarity versus kind information in early induction. Psychological Science, 179-185. PDF

Sloutsky, V. M., & Fisher, A. V. (2005). Similarity, Induction, Naming, and Categorization (SINC): Generalization or verbal inductive reasoning? Response to Heit and Hayes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 134, 606-611. PDF

Fisher, A. F., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2005). When induction meets memory: Evidence for gradual transition from similarity-based to category-based induction. Child Development. PDF

Sloutsky, V. M., & Fisher, A. V. (2004-a). Induction and categorization in young children: A similarity-based model. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133 (2), 166 – 188 PDF

Sloutsky, V. M., & Fisher, A. V. (2004-b). When development and learning decrease memory: Evidence against category-based induction in children. Psychological Science, 15 (8), 553 – 558. PDF

Sloutsky, V. M., Lo, Y.-F., & Fisher, A. V. (2001-a). How much does a shared name make things similar: Linguistic labels and the development of inductive inference. Child Development, 72, 1695-1709.
 

Assistants to Dr. Fisher:

Amy Barrett, Lab Manager
Megan Petroccia, Project Coordinator
Laura Pacilio, Research Assistant

Current Graduate Students:

Karrie Godwin,  kegodwin@andrew.cmu.edu

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Related Links:

Curriculum Vitae (pdf file)

Cognitive Development Laboratory

CMU Directory Information

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