Research Interests

My research concerns young children's "theory of mind" and language development, with a special interest the social-cultural, cognitive and neurobiological factors that pace development in these domains. Research from our lab uses naturalistic methods along with experimental and brain electrophysiological (EEG/ERP) methods to address these issues.

Selected Publications

Bahtiyar, S. & Sabbagh, M. A. (in press). Socio-cultural conventionality is a basis for selective learning in preschool children. Developmental Psychology.

Akhtar, N., Menjivar, J., Hoicka, E. & Sabbagh, M. A. (in press). Learning foreign labels from a foreign speaker: The role of (limited) exposure to a second language. Journal of Child Language.

Lackner, C. L., Sabbagh, M. A., Hallinan, E., Liu, X., & Holden, J. J. E. (in press). Dopamine receptor D4 gene variation predicts preschoolers' developing theory of mind. Developmental Science.

Harkness, K. L., Washburn, D., Theriault, J., Lee. L., & Sabbagh, M. A. (2011). Maternal history of depression is associated with enhanced theory of mind in depressed and nondepressed adult women. Psychiatry Research, 189, 91-96.

Harkness, K. L., Jacobson, J. A., Sinclair, B., Chan, E. & Sabbagh, M. A. (2011). For love or money?: What motivates people to know the minds of others? Cognition and Emotion,

Sabbagh, M. A., Hopkins, S. F. R., Benson, J. E., & Flanagan, J. R. (2010). Conceptual change and preschoolers' theory of mind: Evidence from load-force adaptation. Neural Networks, 43, 1043-1050.

Harkness, K. L., Jacobson, J. A., Duong, D. & Sabbagh, M. A. (2010). Mental state decoding in remitted major depression: Effects of sad versus happy mood induction. Cognition and Emotion, 24, 497-513.

Lackner, C. L., Bowman, L. C. & Sabbagh, M. A. (2010). Dopaminergic functioning and preschoolers' theory of mind. Neuropsychologia, 48, 1767-1774.

Henderson, A. M. E. & Sabbagh, M. A. (2010). Parents use of conventional and unconventional labels in conversations with their preschoolers. Journal of Child Language, 37, 793-816.

Sabbagh, M. A. & Shafman, D. (2009). How children block learning from ignorant speakers. Cognition, 112, 415-422.

Saylor, M. M., Sabbagh, M. A., Fortuna, A., & Troseth, G. (2009). Preschoolers use speakers’ preferences to learn words. Cognitive Development, 24, 125-132.

Sabbagh, M. A., Bowman, L. C., Evraire, L. & Ito, J. M. B. (2009). Neurodevelopmental bases of preschoolers’ theory-of-mind development. Child Development, 80, 1147-1162

Liu, D., Sabbagh, M. A., Gehring, W. J, & Wellman, H. M.. (2009). Neural correlates of theory of mind reasoning in adults and children. Child Development, 80, 318-326

Liu, D., Wellman, H. M., Tardif, T., & Sabbagh, M. A. (2008). Theory of mind development in Chinese children: A meta-analysis of false-belief understanding across languages and cultures. Developmental Psychology, 44, 523-531.

Sabbagh, M. A. & Seamans, E. L. (2008). Intergenerational transmission of theory-of-mind. Developmental Science., 11, 354-360.

Kalish C. W. & Sabbagh, M. A. (2007). Conventionality and cognitive development: Learning to think the right way. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 115, 1-9.

Sabbagh, M. A. & Henderson, A. M. E. (2007). How an appreciation of conventionality shapes early word learning. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 115, 25-38.

Sabbagh, M. A. & Flynn, J. (2006). Mid-frontal EEG alpha asymmetries predict individual differences in one aspect of theory of mind: Mental state decoding. Social Neuroscience, 1, 299-308.

Sabbagh, M. A., Moses, L. J., & Shiverick, S. M. (2006). Executive functioning and preschoolers' understanding of false beliefs, false photographs, and false signs. Child Development, 77, 1034-1049.

Sabbagh, M. A., Xu, F., Carlson, S. M., Moses, L. J., Lee, K., (2006). Executive functioning and theory of mind in preschool children from Beijing, China: Comparisons with U.S. preschoolers, Psychological Science, 17, 74-81.

Lee, L., Harkness, K. L., Sabbagh, M. A., & Jacobson, J. A. (2005). Mental state decoding abilities in clinical depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 86, 247-258.

Harkness, K. L., Sabbagh, M. A., Jacobson, J. A., Chowdrey, N., & Chen, T. (2005). Sensitivity to subtle social information in dysphoric college students: Evidence for an enhanced theory of mind. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 999-1026. (order of 1st two authors is alphabetical).

Callanan, M. A. & Sabbagh, M. A.(2004). Multiple labels in conversations between young children and their mothers. Developmental Psychology, 40, 746-763.

Sabbagh, M. A. (2004). Recognizing and reasoning about mental states: Understanding orbitofrontal contributions to theory of mind and autism. Brain and Cognition, 55, 209-219.

Liu, D., Sabbagh, M. A., Gehring, W. J., & Wellman, H. M. (2004). Decoupling beliefs from reality in the brain: An ERP study of theory of mind. NeuroReport. 15, 991-995.

Saylor, M. M. & Sabbagh, M. A. (2004). Different kinds of information affect word learning in the preschool years: The case of part-term learning. Child Development, 75, 395-408

Sabbagh, M. A., Moulson, M., & Harkness, K. L. (2004). Neural correlates of mental state recognition in human adults: An ERP study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16, 415-426.

Sabbagh, M. A., Wdowiak, S. & Ottaway, J. M. (2003). Do word learners ignore ignorant speakers? Journal of Child Language, 30, 905-924

Saylor, M. M., Sabbagh, M. A., & Baldwin, D. A. (2002). Children use implicit contrast as a pragmatic cue to word meaning. Developmental Psychology, 38, 993-1103

Sabbagh, M. A. & Baldwin, D. A. (2001). Learning words from knowledgeable versus ignorant speakers: Links between preschoolers’ theory of mind and semantic development. Child Development, 72, 1054-1070.

Sabbagh, M. A. & Gelman, S. A. (2000). Buzzsaws and Blueprints: What children need (or don’t need) to learn language. Journal of Child Language, 22, 715-726. Followed by commentary and response.

Sabbagh, M. A. & Taylor, M. (2000). Neural correlates of theory of mind reasoning in adults: An event-related potential study. Psychological Science, 11, 46-50.

Callanan, M. A., Cervantes, C. A. & Sabbagh, M. A. (1999). Conversation and conceptual development: Challenges, alternatives and future directions. Human Development, 42, 356-361.

Sabbagh, M. A. (1999). Communicative intentions and language: Evidence from right hemisphere damage and autism. Brain and Language, 70, 29-69.

Sabbagh, M. A. & Clegg, B. A. (1999). Some costs of assimilating data to the implicit/explicit distinction. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 783-784.

Sabbagh, M. A. & Callanan, M. A. (1998). Metarepresentation in action: Children’s theories of mind developing and emerging in parent-child conversations. Developmental Psychology, 34, 491-502.

Taylor, M. & Sabbagh, M. A. (1996). Review of Children Talk About the Mind. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 42, 612-619.