About
Susan Hespos is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Department of Learning Sciences at the School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University. Her research focuses on object representation, numerical cognition, and spatial relationships in early development. She holds dual appointments, reflecting her interdisciplinary work bridging psychology and educational sciences.
Dr. Hespos earned her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Emory University (1996), followed by an MA in Cognitive Psychology (1993) and a BA in Psychology from Reed College (1990).
Her research interests emphasize foundational cognitive processes in infants and young children. She investigates how numerical and spatial reasoning emerge, the role of language in early categorization, and developmental neuroscience methodologies like optical imaging. These studies contribute to understanding the cognitive building blocks of human knowledge.
She has received notable awards, including the 2006 Distinguished Teaching Award from Northwestern’s Undergraduate Psychology Association and 2004 Professor of the Month at Vanderbilt University. Additionally, she was a McDonnell-Pew Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience Fellow at Dartmouth College (2000).
No information about her advisees or grants is provided in the text. She is affiliated with the School’s address at Walter Annenberg Hall, Evanston, IL, and reachable via hespos@northwestern.edu.
