Melissa M Kibbe
Biographic Data
| ID | 5759163 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Melissa M Kibbe |
| GIVEN NAMES | Melissa M |
| FAMILY NAME | Kibbe |
| SIGNATURE | KIBBE M M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Boston University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9088-2523 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Ancillary cognitive demands impact children’s behavior in common possibility reasoning tasks.
Minimal object representations in the infant mind
Children’s reasoning about possible outcomes of events in the present and the future
When making decisions, we often must consider multiple alternative outcomes of events that will happen in the future, or of events that have already happened but the outcome is unknown. How do children navigate uncertainty across different points in time? Here, we tested several developmental hypotheses for children's ability to reason about possibilities in the present and in the future. In two experiments ( n = 192, U.S. 3- and 4-year-olds), ch…
What Kinds of Computations Can Young Children Perform Over Non-Symbolic Representations of Small Quantities
Children can manipulate non-symbolic representations of both small quantities of objects (about four or fewer, represented by the parallel individuation system) and large quantities of objects (represented by the analog magnitude system, or AMS). Previous work has shown that children can perform a variety of non-symbolic operations over AMS representations (like summing and solving for an unknown addend), but are not able to perform further opera…
Three-year-olds' ability to plan for mutually exclusive future possibilities is limited primarily by their representations of possible plans, not possible events
Competition Between Object Topology and Surface Features in Children’s Extension of Novel Nouns
Objects’ topological properties play a central role in object perception, superseding objects’ surface features in object representation and tracking from early in development. We asked about the role of objects’ topological properties in children’s generalization of novel labels to objects. We adapted the classic name generalization task of Landau et al. (1988, 1992). In three experiments, we showed children (n = 151; 3–8-year-olds) a novel obje…
“Plan chunking” expands 3-year-olds' ability to complete multiple-step plans
The ability to use knowledge to guide the completion of goals is a critical cognitive skill, but 3-year-olds struggle to complete goals that require multiple steps. This study asked whether 3-year-olds could benefit from “plan chunking” to complete multistep goals. Thirty-two U.S. children (range = 35.75–46.59 months; 18 girls; 9 white, 3 mixed race, 20 unknown; tested between July 2020 and April 2021) were asked to complete “treasure maps,” retr…
An object's categorizability impacts whether infants encode surface features into their object representations
Infants encode the surface features of simple, unfamiliar objects (e.g., red triangle) and the categorical identities of familiar, categorizable objects (e.g., car) into their representations of these objects. We asked whether 16–18‐month‐olds ignore non‐diagnostic surface features (e.g., color) in favor of encoding an object's categorical identity (e.g., car) when objects are from familiar categories. In Experiment 1 ( n = 18), we hid a categori…
Tracking what went where across toddlerhood
Two experiments examined the development of the ability to encode, maintain, and update integrated representations of occluded objects' locations and featural identities in working memory across toddlerhood. Sixty-eight 28- to 40-month-old US toddlers (13 Asian or Pacific Islander, 6 Black, 48 White, 1 multiracial; 40 girls; tested between February 2015 and July 2017) tracked the locations of different color beads that were hidden simultaneously …
Development of updating in working memory in 4–7-year-old children
Children live in a dynamic environment, in which objects continually change locations and move into and out of occlusion. Children must therefore rely on working memory to store information from the environment and to update those stored representations as the environment changes. Previous work suggests that the ability to store information in working memory increases through infancy and childhood. However, less is known about the development of …
Children's understanding of economic demand
Development of multiple object tracking via multifocal attention
Multifocal attention is the ability to simultaneously attend to multiple objects, and is critical for typical functioning. Although adults are able to use multifocal attention, little is known about the development of this ability. In two experiments, we investigated multifocal attention in 6-8-year-old children and adults using a child-friendly, computerized multiple object tracking task designed to encourage the use of multifocal attention. We …
Six‐Month‐Old Infants Predict Agents’ Goal‐Directed Actions on Occluded Objects
Infants can infer agents’ goals after observing agents’ goal‐directed actions on objects and can subsequently make predictions about how agents will act on objects in the future. We investigated the representations supporting these predictions. We familiarized 6‐month‐old infants to an agent who preferentially reached for one of two featurally distinct objects following a cue. At test, the objects were sequentially occluded from the infant in the…
Rules Infants Look By
What drives infants’ attention in complex visual scenes? Early models of infant attention suggested that the degree to which different visual features were detectable determines their attentional priority. Here, we tested this by asking whether two targets—defined by different features, but each equally salient when evaluated independently—would drive attention equally when pitted head‐to‐head. In Experiment 1, we presented 6‐month‐old infants wi…
No prominent works on this page.
Rules Infants Look By
What drives infants’ attention in complex visual scenes? Early models of infant attention suggested that the degree to which different visual features were detectable determines their attentional priority. Here, we tested this by asking whether two targets—defined by different features, but each equally salient when evaluated independently—would drive attention equally when pitted head‐to‐head. In Experiment 1, we presented 6‐month‐old infants wi…
Six‐Month‐Old Infants Predict Agents’ Goal‐Directed Actions on Occluded Objects
Infants can infer agents’ goals after observing agents’ goal‐directed actions on objects and can subsequently make predictions about how agents will act on objects in the future. We investigated the representations supporting these predictions. We familiarized 6‐month‐old infants to an agent who preferentially reached for one of two featurally distinct objects following a cue. At test, the objects were sequentially occluded from the infant in the…
Development of multiple object tracking via multifocal attention
Multifocal attention is the ability to simultaneously attend to multiple objects, and is critical for typical functioning. Although adults are able to use multifocal attention, little is known about the development of this ability. In two experiments, we investigated multifocal attention in 6-8-year-old children and adults using a child-friendly, computerized multiple object tracking task designed to encourage the use of multifocal attention. We …
Children's understanding of economic demand
Tracking what went where across toddlerhood
Two experiments examined the development of the ability to encode, maintain, and update integrated representations of occluded objects' locations and featural identities in working memory across toddlerhood. Sixty-eight 28- to 40-month-old US toddlers (13 Asian or Pacific Islander, 6 Black, 48 White, 1 multiracial; 40 girls; tested between February 2015 and July 2017) tracked the locations of different color beads that were hidden simultaneously …
Development of updating in working memory in 4–7-year-old children
Children live in a dynamic environment, in which objects continually change locations and move into and out of occlusion. Children must therefore rely on working memory to store information from the environment and to update those stored representations as the environment changes. Previous work suggests that the ability to store information in working memory increases through infancy and childhood. However, less is known about the development of …
Competition Between Object Topology and Surface Features in Children’s Extension of Novel Nouns
Objects’ topological properties play a central role in object perception, superseding objects’ surface features in object representation and tracking from early in development. We asked about the role of objects’ topological properties in children’s generalization of novel labels to objects. We adapted the classic name generalization task of Landau et al. (1988, 1992). In three experiments, we showed children (n = 151; 3–8-year-olds) a novel obje…
“Plan chunking” expands 3-year-olds' ability to complete multiple-step plans
The ability to use knowledge to guide the completion of goals is a critical cognitive skill, but 3-year-olds struggle to complete goals that require multiple steps. This study asked whether 3-year-olds could benefit from “plan chunking” to complete multistep goals. Thirty-two U.S. children (range = 35.75–46.59 months; 18 girls; 9 white, 3 mixed race, 20 unknown; tested between July 2020 and April 2021) were asked to complete “treasure maps,” retr…
An object's categorizability impacts whether infants encode surface features into their object representations
Infants encode the surface features of simple, unfamiliar objects (e.g., red triangle) and the categorical identities of familiar, categorizable objects (e.g., car) into their representations of these objects. We asked whether 16–18‐month‐olds ignore non‐diagnostic surface features (e.g., color) in favor of encoding an object's categorical identity (e.g., car) when objects are from familiar categories. In Experiment 1 ( n = 18), we hid a categori…
Three-year-olds' ability to plan for mutually exclusive future possibilities is limited primarily by their representations of possible plans, not possible events
What Kinds of Computations Can Young Children Perform Over Non-Symbolic Representations of Small Quantities
Children can manipulate non-symbolic representations of both small quantities of objects (about four or fewer, represented by the parallel individuation system) and large quantities of objects (represented by the analog magnitude system, or AMS). Previous work has shown that children can perform a variety of non-symbolic operations over AMS representations (like summing and solving for an unknown addend), but are not able to perform further opera…
Ancillary cognitive demands impact children’s behavior in common possibility reasoning tasks.
Minimal object representations in the infant mind
Children’s reasoning about possible outcomes of events in the present and the future
When making decisions, we often must consider multiple alternative outcomes of events that will happen in the future, or of events that have already happened but the outcome is unknown. How do children navigate uncertainty across different points in time? Here, we tested several developmental hypotheses for children's ability to reason about possibilities in the present and in the future. In two experiments ( n = 192, U.S. 3- and 4-year-olds), ch…
Psychology (12 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (10 works) · Cognitive psychology (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Artificial Intelligence (7 works) · Developmental psychology (7 works) · Cognition (6 works) · Cognitive development (6 works) · Mathematics (4 works) · Neuroscience (4 works)