Department of Applied Psychology

Catherine Tamis-LeMonda

Professor of Applied Psychology

Catherine Tamis-LeMonda

Phone: (212) 998-5399
Email:

My research is focused on the cultural and social contexts of language, cognitive and social development in infants' first years of life. How do infants' interactions with mothers, fathers and other members of their families and social networks affect their learning trajectories and later school readiness? How might paths to developmental outcomes differ across communities that vary in cultural priorities and parenting practices? Through longitudinal inquiry my students and I follow infants from birth through preschool, visiting babies and families in their homes, schools and communities using naturalistic observations, interviews and direct assessments of development. Our goal is to advance a richer understanding of how learning unfolds in different cultural and ethnic groups in the U.S. as well as internationally. This naturalistic research is coupled with laboratory investigations (with colleague Karen Adolph), in which we also examine how infants come to understand and recognize that others are useful sources of social information. Infants are tested in novel locomotor situations, where we examine their bids to others for assistance and information about how to act under situations of uncertainty and risk. Together, the work I conduct in naturalistic and laboratory settings promises to inform theories about the ways in which infants and parents negotiate meaning through everyday social exchanges.


Degrees Held

  • Ph.D. New York University
    Developmental Psychology
  • B.A. New York University
    Psychology

Awards

  • Principal Investigator (for NYU as a local site), Administration for Children, Youth and Families (ACYF), National Institute of Child Development (NICHD), Ford Foundation, and Mathematica Policy Research, ôFather Involvement in the Lives of Low Income Chi
  • 2001 : Principal Investigator (with Drs. Joshua Aronson, Diane Hughes, Niobe Way, Hiro Yoshikawa), Center for Research in Education, Development and Culture, National Science Foundation
  • 2002 : Co-Principal Investigator (with Karen Adolph), Infant-Mother Negotiation of Risk. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
  • 2001 : Principal Investigator (with Dr. Mark Spellmann), Pathways to childrenÆs school readiness: Longitudinal follow-up on the Early Head Start sample, Administration for Children Youth and Families (ACYF).
  • 1994 : American Mensa Education and Research Foundation Award for Excellence in Research,
  • 1987 : National Institute of Child Health and Development IRTA Fellowship,

Publications

  • Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Shannon, J. S., & Spellmann, M. (2002). Low-income adolescent mothersÆ knowledge about domains of child development. Infant Mental Health Journal, 23(1-2), 88-103.
  • Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Wang, S., Koutsouvanou, E. and Albright, M. (2002). Childrearing Values in Greece, Taiwan, and the United States. Parenting: Science and Practice, 2 (3), 185-208.
  • Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Bornstein, M. H., & Baumwell, L. (2001). Maternal Responsiveness and ChildrenÆs Achievement of Language Milestones, Child Development, 72 (3), 748-767.
  • Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., & Cabrera, N. (Eds.) (2002). Handbook of Father Involvement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: New Jersey.
  • Balter, L., & Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. (Eds.) (2006). Child Psychology: A Handbook of Contemporary Issues, 2nd Edition. Psychology Press: New York.
  • Shannon, J., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., London, K., & Cabrera, N. (2002). Beyond Rough and Tumble: Low-Income FathersÆ Interactions and ChildrenÆs Cognitive Development at 24 Months. Parenting: Science and Practice, 2 (2), 77-104.
  • Cabrera, N., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Bradley, B., Hofferth, S. & Lamb, M. (2000). Fatherhood in the 21st Century. Child Development, Millenium Issue, 71, 1, 127-136.
  • Mondschein, E., Adolph, K., & Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. (2000). Gender Bias in MothersÆ Expectations about Infant Crawling. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology., 77, 304-316.
  • Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., & Cabrera, N. (1999). Perspectives on Father Involvement: Research and Social Policy (with commentary by Ross Thompson). Society for Research in Child Development, Social Policy Report, Vol. XIII, No. 2.
  • Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Bornstein, M. H., Kahana-Kalman, R., Baumwell, L., & Cyphers, L. (1998). Predicting variation in the timing of language milestones in the second year: An events-history approach. Journal of Child Language, 25, 675-700.
  • Mothers and Fathers at Play with their Two- to Three- Year Olds
  • Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Shannon, J. D., & Cabrera, N. (2004). Mothers and Fathers at Play with their two- to three-year olds, Child Development, 2004
  • Homer, B. & Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. (Eds.) (2005). The Development of Social Cognition and Communication. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Associtaes.

Courses

  • Social Cognition and Communication
  • Infant Development
  • Developmental Psychology

Research Interests

  • Education, development and culture
  • Child development
  • Father involvement
  • Cognitive development
  • Language development and social cognition