Amanda Woodward is the William S. Gray Professor of Psychology and Deputy Dean for Faculty Affairs in the Division of the Social Sciences. She was a founding member of the Center for Early Childhood Research. She completed her undergraduate degree at Swarthmore College in 1987 and her doctoral degree at Stanford University in 1992.  She joined the faculty at the University of Chicago in 1993.

Woodward has pioneered the development of experimental methods to investigate social cognition in infants and young children. Her research has yielded fundamental insights into infants' social understanding and the processes that support conceptual development early in life. Her current work investigates infants' sensitivity to interpersonal social structure, the effects of cultural and community contexts in shaping children's social learning strategies and the neural processes involved in early social-cognitive development.

Woodward’s research has been recognized by a number of awards, including the Ann L. Brown Award for Excellence in Developmental Research, the APA Boyd McCandless Award for an Early Career Contribution to Developmental Psychology and the John Merck Scholars Award. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association for Psychological Science and the American Psychological Association, and President of the Cognitive Development Society.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

•    Infant Cognition
•    Social Cognitive Development
•    Imitation
•    Theory of Mind 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

See lab webpage.

COURSES

•    From Action to Abstraction 
•    Cognitive Development
•    Mind