Susan Gelman

Susan Gelman is Heinz Werner Collegiate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, where she directs the Conceptual Development Lab. Her pioneering research examines how children form and use categories to understand their world, with influential contributions to essentialism theory.

Research explores language-thought relationships across cultures, examining how linguistic input shapes conceptual development. Current investigations address origins of essentialist reasoning in children, analyzing how young learners infer hidden properties beyond surface appearances.

The lab conducts developmental studies with children aged 5-12, investigating categorization biases and causal reasoning patterns across diverse domains.