Research Interests

My research program explores cognition from a developmental and evolutionary perspective. I examine the origins of our cognitive capacities, focusing primarily on our abilities to distinguish and reason about animate and inanimate objects, to interpret the behavior and infer the mental states of others, and to recognize and use tools and physical representations of space. Each is examined in a comparative manner, studying infants, young children, and non-human primates. The research thus relies upon both developmental and comparative psychology theory to form and test hypotheses about these abilities.

Selected Publications

Kuhlmeier, V.A. (in press). The social perception of helping and hindering. In M.D. Rutherford & V.A. Kuhlmeier (Eds.), Social Perception. MIT/Bradford Press.

Kuhlmeier, V.A.  (in press).  Disposition attribution in infancy.  In M. Banaji, & S. Gelmen (Eds.), Developmental Social Cognition.

Sabbagh, M., Benson, J., & Kuhlmeier, V.A.  (in press).  False belief understanding in preschoolers and infants.  In M. Legerstee, D. Haley, & M. Bornstein (Eds.), The Developing Infant Mind: Integrating Biology and Experience, Guilford Press.

Dunfield, K.A., & Kuhlmeier, V.A. (in press).  Evidence for partner choice in toddlers: Considering the breadth of other-oriented behaviours. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Kuhlmeier, V.A., & Robson, S.J.  (in press).  Diagnosing goal attribution: commentary on Hernik and Southgate.  Developmental Science.

Dunfield, K.A., Kuhlmeier, V.A., O’Connell, L., & Kelley, E.  (2011).  Examining the diversity of prosocial behavior:  helping, sharing, and comforting in infancy. Infancy, 16(3), 227-247.

Newman, G.E., Keil, F.C., Kuhlmeier, V.A., & Wynn, K.  (2010). Early understandings of the link between agents and order.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 17140-17145.

Camilleri, J.A., Kuhlmeier, V.A., Chu, J.Y.Y.  (2010). Recognizing helpers and hinderers depends on behavioral intentions of the character and psychopathic characteristics of the observer. Evolutionary Psychology, 8, 303-316.

Dunfield, K.A., & Kuhlmeier, V.A.  (2010).  Intention-mediated selective helping in infancy. Psychological Science, 21, 523-527.

Kuhlmeier, V.A., Troje, N., and Lee, V.  (2010). Young infants detect the direction of biological motion in point-light displays.  Infancy, 15, 83-93.

Yamaguchi, M., Kuhlmeier, V.A., Wynn, K., & vanMarle, K.  (2009).  Continuity in Social Cognition from Infancy to Childhood.  Developmental Science, 12, 746-752.

Hallinan, E.V., & Kuhlmeier, V.A. (2008). Ontongeny, phylogeny, and the relational reinterpretation hypothesis.  Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31, 138-139.

Kuhlmeier, V.A. (2005).  Symbolic insight and perseveration: Two problems facing young children on symbolic retrieval tasks.  Journal of Cognition and Development, 6, 365-380.

Kuhlmeier, V.A. & Birch, S.A.J.  (2005).  Steps toward categorizing ‘motivation’:  Abilities, Limitations, and Conditional Constraints.  Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 706-707.

Kuhlmeier, V.A., Bloom, P., & Wynn, K.  (2004).  Do 5-month-old infants see humans as material objects?  Cognition, 94, 95-103.

Kuhlmeier, V.A., Wynn, K., & Bloom, P.  (2004).  People v. Objects: A reply to Rakison and Chicchino.  Cognition, 94, 109-112.

Kuhlmeier, V.A., & Boysen, S.T.  (2003).  Animal Cognition.  In: Macmillan Publishers Limited, Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science.

Kuhlmeier, V.A., Wynn, K., & Bloom, P.  (2003).  Attribution of Dispositional States by 12-month-olds.  Psychological Science, 14, 402-408.

Kuhlmeier, V.A. & Bloom, P.  (2003).  You can dance if you want to.  Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25, p. 630-631. 

Kuhlmeier, V.A., & Boysen, S.T.  (2002).  Chimpanzees' recognition of the spatial and object similarities between a scale model and its referent.  Psychological Science, 13, 60-63.

Kuhlmeier, V.A., & Boysen, S.T.  (2001).  The effect of response contingencies on chimpanzee scale model task performance.  Journal of Comparative Psychology, 115, 300-306.

Kuhlmeier, V.A.; Boysen, S.T; & Mukobi, K.M.  (1999).  Scale model comprehension by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).  Journal of Comparative Psychology, 113 (4), 396-402.