Susan Graham

My research focuses on language and cognitive development during the infancy and preschool years. Specifically, I am interested in how young children learn the meanings of words and the role that cognitive factors and social/interactional factors play in this process. I am also interested in how language guides children's reasoning about object categories and object properties. Information on my most recent publications can be found on the Language and Cognitive Development Lab's web page.

Member of the Ch.I.L.D. Research Group

Canada Research Chairs Program
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

MacKenzie, H., Curtin, S., & Graham, S.A. (in press). 12-month-olds’ phonotactic knowledge guides their word-object mappings. Child Development.

Nilsen, E.S., & Graham, S. A. (in press). The development of preschoolers’ appreciation of communicative ambiguity. Child Development.

Graham, S.A.,Booth, A.E., & Waxman, S.R. (in press). Words are not features of objects: Only consistently applied nouns guide 4-year-olds’ inferences about object categories. Language Learning and Development.

Graham, S.A., Nilsen, E.S., Friesen, C.K., Johnson, J. (2011). Examining the role of attention and intention in two-year-olds’ acquisition of novel words. Enfance, 3, 311-328.

MacKenzie, H., Graham, S.A., & Curtin, S. (2011). 12-month-olds privilege words over other linguistic sounds in an associative learning task. Developmental Science, 14, 249-255.

Graham, S.A., Nayer, S.L., & Gelman, S.A. (2011). Two-year-olds use the generic/non-generic distinction to guide their inferences about novel kinds. Child Development, 82, 493–507.

Schroeder, M., Graham, S., McKeough, A., Stock, H., & Palmer, J. (2010). Gender differences in preschoolers’ understanding of the concept of ‘life.’ Journal of Early Childhood Research, 8, 227-238.

Graham, S.A., Namy, L., Gentner, D., & Meagher, K.D. (2010). The role of comparison in preschoolers’ novel object categorization. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 107, 280-290.

Berman, J.M.J., Chambers, C.G., & Graham, S.A. (2010). Preschoolers' appreciation of speaker vocal affect as a cue to referential intent. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 107, 87-99.

Graham, S.A., Welder, A.N., Merrifield, B. & Berman, J.M.J. (2010). Preschoolers’ extension of novel words to animals and artifacts. Journal of Child Language, 37, 913-927.

Diesendruck, G., & Graham, S.A. (2010). Kind matters: A reply to Samuelson & Perone. Cognitive Development, 25 149-153.

Graham, S.A., & Diesendruck, G. (2010). Fifteen-month-old infants attend to shape over other perceptual properties in an induction task. Cognitive Development, 25, 111-123.

Graham, S.A., Nilsen, E.S., & Collins, S. & Olineck. K.M. (2010). The role of gaze direction and mutual exclusivity in guiding 24-month-olds’ word mappings.  British Journal of Developmental Psychology. 28, 449-465.

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