Peter Kaplan

Peter Kaplan is Professor and Chair of the Psychology Department at the University of Colorado Denver, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. His research examines how maternal depression affects infant learning outcomes, mother-child communication, and developmental trajectories.

Research focuses on early childhood development, particularly infant learning capacities in depressed versus non-depressed family environments. Studies investigate acoustic properties of infant-directed speech, oxytocin-related genetic factors, and face processing preferences in developmental contexts.

Publications demonstrate longitudinal approaches to perinatal mental health, with recent work emphasizing psychometric validation of depression screening tools and gene-environment interactions in maternal-infant bonding.

Awards: NIH funding for maternal depression research (R01HD049732)

Advising/Grants: Principal Investigator on multiple NIH grants studying infant learning in depressed mothers

Labs/Teams: Conducts developmental psychology research through the Department of Psychology