معرفی
David M. Sobel is a Professor of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences at Brown University and serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies. He leads the Causality and Mind lab, focusing on children’s learning mechanisms, causal reasoning, and social cognition. His research explores how children grasp scientific concepts in early education, learn from parent-child interactions, and develop fairness norms. Sobel has authored three books, over 100 journal articles, and received grants from NSF and NIH. He teaches courses on cognitive development, social learning, and moral development.
Education: B.A. in Psychology and Computer Science (Swarthmore College, 1995); Ph.D. in Psychology (UC Berkeley, 2001). Collaborates with the Providence Children’s Museum to study learning in informal settings. Advising contributions include creating the Advising Matters blog for departmental advising strategies. Active in curriculum development, including CLPS 0610 (Children’s Thinking) and advanced topics courses like Theory of Mind and Play/Imagination.
Research highlights include work on selective social learning, children’s prosocial behavior, and metacognitive understanding of learning. His lab’s funded projects address causal reasoning, Bayesian models of learning, and developmental neuroscience mechanisms underlying attention and language acquisition.
Teaching and mentorship: Oversee undergraduate programs while maintaining a research focus on bridging developmental psychology with educational practice. Key collaborators include Professors Morgan, Malle, and Jenkins in interdisciplinary projects.
