Yr Athro Merideth Gattis
(hi/ei)

PhD FLSW

Athro Seicoleg

: GattisM@caerdydd.ac.uk
: +44 29208 70034
: Adeilad y Tŵr, Plas y Parc, Caerdydd, CF10 3AT

: Sylwebydd y cyfryngau
: Ar gael fel goruchwyliwr ôl-raddedig

My research interests are in cognition and development, and my research is conducted with infants, children, and adults.

My research with Development@Cardiff seeks to move our understanding of cognition beyond the nature/nurture divide, asking detailed questions about how nature and nurture interact to produce thinking and reasoning.

To answer these questions, we compare human behaviour across different environmental factors. Those environmental factors include parenting practices as well as the broader influence of culture and language.

Date
Type

2024

Truong, Q. C., Gattis, M., Barber, C. C., Middlemiss, W., Au, T. and Medvedev, O. N. 2024. Applying Rasch methodology to examine and enhance precision of the baby care questionnaire. Journal of Child and Family Studies 33, pp. 166-178. (10.1007/s10826-023-02772-0)
Perra, O., Winstanley, A., Sperotto, R. and Gattis, M. 2024. Attention control in preterm and term 5-month-old infants: Cross-task stability increases with gestational age. Infancy (10.1111/infa.12574)

2022

Mascheroni, E. et al. 2022. The role of experience in parenting beliefs of British and Italian women during pregnancy. Infant Mental Health Journal 43(6), pp. 835-848. (10.1002/imhj.22014)
Ionio, C., Mascheroni, E., Landoni, M. and Gattis, M. 2022. Caring for twins during infancy: A systematic review of the literature on sleeping and feeding practices amongst parents of twins. Journal of Neonatal Nursing 28(5), pp. 305-311. (10.1016/j.jnn.2021.08.017)
Hoicka, E., Soy-Telli, B., Prouten, E., Leckie, G., Browne, W. J., Nurmsoo, E. and Gattis, M. 2022. The Early Social Cognition Inventory (ESCI): an examination of its psychometric properties from birth to 47 months. Behavior Research Methods 54, pp. 1200-1226. (10.3758/s13428-021-01628-z)
Gattis, M., Winstanley, A. and Bristow, F. 2022. Parenting beliefs about attunement and structure are related to observed parenting behaviours. Cogent Psychology 9(1), article number: 2082675. (10.1080/23311908.2022.2082675)
Ionio, C. et al. 2022. Monochorionic twins and the early mother-infant relationship: an exploratory observational study of mother-infant interaction in the post-partum period. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19(5), article number: 2821. (10.3390/ijerph19052821)

2021

Kucirkova, N., Gattis, M., Spargo, T., Seisdedos de Vega, B. and Flewitt, R. 2021. An empirical investigation of parent-child shared reading of digital personalized books. International Journal of Educational Research 105, article number: 101710. (10.1016/j.ijer.2020.101710)

2020

Gattis, M., Winstanley, A., Sperotto, R., Putnik, D. L. and Bornstein, M. H. 2020. Foundations of attention sharing: orienting and responding to attention in term and preterm 5-month-old infants. Infant Behavior and Development 61, article number: 101466. (10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101466)

2019

Gerson, S., Weinstein, N., Paulmann, S. and Gattis, M. 2019. Infants attend longer to controlling versus supportive directive speech. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 187, article number: 104654. (10.1016/j.jecp.2019.06.007)

2018

Cameron-Faulkner, T., Melville, J. and Gattis, M. 2018. Responding to nature: Natural environments improve parent-child communication. Journal of Environmental Psychology 59, pp. 9-15. (10.1016/j.jenvp.2018.08.008)

2017

Cameron-Faulkner, T., McDonald, R., Serratrice, L., Melville, J. and Gattis, M. 2017. Plant yourself where language blooms: Direct experience of nature changes how parents and children talk about nature. Children Youth and Environments 27(2), pp. 110-124. (10.7721/chilyoutenvi.27.2.0110)

2015

Hilbrink, E. E., Gattis, M. and Levinson, S. C. 2015. Early developmental changes in the timing of turn-taking: a longitudinal study of mother-infant interaction. Frontiers in Psychology 6, article number: 1492. (10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01492)

2014

Winstanley, A., Sperotto, R. G., Putnick, D. L., Cherian, S., Bornstein, M. H. and Gattis, M. 2014. Consistency of maternal cognitions and principles across the first five months following preterm and term deliveries. Infant Behavior and Development 37(4), pp. 760-771. (10.1016/j.infbeh.2014.09.005)

2013

Hilbrink, E., Sakkalou, E., Ellis-Davies, K., Fowler, N. and Gattis, M. L. 2013. Selective and faithful imitation at 12 and 15 months. Developmental Science 16(6), pp. 828-840. (10.1111/desc.12070)
Over, H., Carpenter, M., Spears, R. and Gattis, M. L. 2013. Children selectively trust individuals who have imitated them. Social Development 22(2), pp. 215-224. (10.1111/sode.12020)
Sakkalou, E., Ellis-Davies, K., Fowler, N., Hilbrink, E. and Gattis, M. L. 2013. Infants show stability of goal-directed imitation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 114(1), pp. 1-9. (10.1016/j.jecp.2012.09.005)
Evans, L., Tsai, P., Wu, D. H., Lien, Y. and Gattis, M. L. 2013. The dimensional arrow: agreement in directional mapping of dimensions among Mandarin Chinese- and English-speakers. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 66(9), pp. 1729-1738. (10.1080/17470218.2013.763832)
Scott, K., Sakkalou, E., Ellis-Davies, K., Hilbrink, E., Hahn, U. and Gattis, M. 2013. Infant contributions to joint attention predict vocabulary development. Presented at: 35th Annual meeting of the Cognitive Science SocietyProceedings of the 35th Annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Preceedings of the Cognitive Science Society pp. 3384-3389.
Winstanley, A. and Gattis, M. L. 2013. The Baby Care Questionnaire: A measure of parenting principles and practices during infancy. Infant Behavior and Development 36(4), pp. 762-775. (10.1016/j.infbeh.2013.08.004)

2012

Ellis-Davies, K., Sakkalou, E., Fowler, N., Hilbrink, E. and Gattis, M. L. 2012. CUE: The continuous unified electronic diary method. Behaviour Research Methods 44(4), pp. 1063-1078. (10.3758/s13428-012-0205-1)
Perra, O. and Gattis, M. L. 2012. Attention engagement in early infancy. Infant Behavior and Development 35(4), pp. 635-644. (10.1016/j.infbeh.2012.06.004)
Hoicka, E. and Gattis, M. L. 2012. Acoustic differences between humorous and sincere communicative intentions. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 30(4), pp. 531-549. (10.1111/j.2044-835X.2011.02062.x)
Sakkalou, E. and Gattis, M. L. 2012. Infants infer intentions from prosody. Cognitive Development 27(1), pp. 1-16. (10.1016/j.cogdev.2011.08.003)

2010

Perra, O. and Gattis, M. L. 2010. The control of social attention from 1 to 4 months. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 28(4), pp. 891-908. (10.1348/026151010X487014)
Over, H. and Gattis, M. L. 2010. Verbal imitation is based on intention understanding. Cognitive Development 25(1), pp. 46-55. (10.1016/j.cogdev.2009.06.004)

2008

Hoicka, E., Jutsum, S. and Gattis, M. L. 2008. Humor, abstraction, and disbelief. Cognitive Science 32(6), pp. 985-1002. (10.1080/03640210801981841)
Hoicka, E. and Gattis, M. L. 2008. Do the wrong thing: How toddlers tell a joke from a mistake. Cognitive Development 23(1), pp. 180-190. (10.1016/j.cogdev.2007.06.001)
Gattis, M. L. 2008. Diagrams are visual analogies. International Journal of Psychology 43(3-4), pp. 169-169.
Perra, O. and Gattis, M. L. 2008. Reducing the mapping between perception and action facilitates imitation. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 26(1), pp. 133-144. (10.1348/026151007x224442)

2005

Want, S. C. and Gattis, M. L. 2005. Are “late-signing” deaf children “mindblind”? Understanding goal directedness in imitation. Cognitive Development 20(2), pp. 159-172. (10.1016/j.cogdev.2004.12.003)
Gattis, M. L. 2005. Inferencing from spatial information. Spatial Cognition & Computation 5(2-3), pp. 119-137. (10.1080/13875868.2005.9683800)

2004

Gattis, M. L. 2004. Mapping relational structure in spatial reasoning. Cognitive Science 28(4), pp. 589-610. (10.1016/j.cogsci.2004.02.001)
Wohlschläger, A., Gattis, M. L. and Bekkering, H. 2004. Action generation and action perception in imitation: an instance of the ideomotor principle. In: Frith, C. D. and Wolpert, D. eds. The Neuroscience of Social Interaction: Decoding, Influencing, and Imitating the Actions of Others. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 131-158.

2003

Wohlschlager, A., Gattis, M. L. and Bekkering, H. 2003. Action generation and action perception in imitation: An instantiation of the ideomotor principle. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B - Biological Sciences 358(1431), pp. 501-515. (10.1098/rstb.2002.1257)
Gattis, M. L. 2003. How similarity shapes diagrams. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2685, pp. 249-262. (10.1007/3-540-45004-1_15)

2002

Gattis, M. L. 2002. Structure mapping in spatial reasoning. Cognitive Development 17(2), pp. 1157-1183. (10.1016/S0885-2014(02)00095-3)
Gattis, M. L. 2002. Imitation is mediated by many goals, not just one [Letter]. Developmental Science 5(1), pp. 27-29. (10.1111/1467-7687.00201)
Gattis, M. L., Bekkering, H. and Wohlschläger, A. 2002. Goal-directed imitation. In: Meltzoff, A. N. and Prinz, W. eds. The Imitative Mind: Development, Evolution and Brain Bases. Cambridge Studies in Cognitive and Perceptual Development Vol. 6. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 183-205., (10.1017/CBO9780511489969.011)

2001

Gattis, M. L. ed. 2001. Spatial schemas and abstract thought. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gattis, M. L. 2001. Space as a basis for abstract thought. In: Gattis, M. L. ed. Spatial Schemas and Abstract Thought. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 1-12.
Gattis, M. L. 2001. Mapping conceptual and spatial schemas. In: Gattis, M. L. ed. Spatial Schemas and Abstract Thought. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 223-245.
Gattis, M. L. 2001. Space as a basis for reasoning. In: Gero, J. S., Tversky, B. and Purcell, T. eds. Visual and Spatial Reasoning in Design II. Sydney, Australia: Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition, University of Sydney, pp. 15-24.

2000

Bekkering, H., Wohlschlager, A. and Gattis, M. L. 2000. Imitation of gestures in children is goal-directed. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Section A: Human Experimental Psychology 53(1), pp. 153-164. (10.1080/027249800390718)
Gattis, M. L. and Dupeyrat, C. 2000. Spatial strategies in reasoning. In: Schaeken, W. et al. eds. Deductive Reasoning and Strategies. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 153-176.

1998

Schnall, S. and Gattis, M. L. 1998. Transitive inference by visual reasoning. Presented at: Twentieth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Madison, WI, USA, 1-4 August 1998 Presented at Gernsbacher, M. A. and Derry, S. J. eds.Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum pp. 929-934.
Gattis, M. L., Bekkering, H. and Wohlschläger, A. 1998. When actions are carved at the joints [Letter]. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 21(5), pp. 691-692. (10.1017/S0140525X98301740)
Gattis, M. 1998. Mapping relational structure in visual reasoning. Presented at: Mind III: Spatial Cognition - Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society of Ireland, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland, 17-19 August 1998.
Gattis, M. L. 1998. Mapping conceptual and spatial schemas. Presented at: Advances in Analogy Research, Sofia, Bulgaria, July 1998 Presented at Holyoak, K., Gentner, D. and Kokinov, B. eds.Advances in Analogy Research: Integration of Theory and Data from the Cognitive, Computational, and Neural Sciences. NBU Series in Cognitive Sciences Sofia: New Bulgarian University pp. 210-220.

1996

Gattis, M. L. and Holyoak, K. J. 1996. Mapping conceptual to spatial relations in visual reasoning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 22(1), pp. 231-239. (10.1037/0278-7393.22.1.231)
Bekkering, H., Wohlschläger, A. and Gattis, M. L. 1996. Motor imitation: What is imitated?. Corpus, Psyche et Societas 3(2), pp. 68-74.

1995

Holyoak, K. J. and Gattis, M. L. 1995. Review of Children's understanding: The development of mental models by G. S. Halford [Book Review]. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 41, pp. 402-407.
Gelman, R. and Gattis, M. L. 1995. Trends and developments in educational psychology in the United States. In: Recent trends and developments in educational psychology: Chinese and American perspectives. Educational studies and documents Vol. 61. Paris: UNESCO, pp. 23-52.

1994

Holyoak, K. J. and Gattis, M. L. 1994. Implicit assumptions about implicit learning. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 17(3), pp. 406-407. (10.1017/S0140525X00035159)
Richardson-Klavehn, A., Gattis, M., Joubran, R. and Bjork, R. A. 1994. Intention and awareness in perceptual identification priming. Memory & Cognition 22(3), pp. 293-312. (10.3758/BF03200858)

I study social cognition, including imitation, joint attention, and early communication. I am interested in the development of attention regulation, and how it influences social cognition. I am currently conducting two longitudinal studies of social cognition, First Steps and Special Delivery. More information is available on my research group web pages.

I also study spatial cognition, especially as it relates to abstract thinking and reasoning. Studies of perceptual reasoning in Chinese- and English-speaking populations are giving us new insights into how dimensional concepts such as size, loudness, and hue are represented in the human mind.

Funding

2012: ESRC. £99,805 for 2 years. Cultural & individual influences on parenting during infancy
2010: Waterloo Foundation. PhD Studentship. Development following preterm birth
2010: Nuffield. £14,400 for 3 months. Gaze following and emotion processing in human infants
2008: Waterloo Foundation. £12,000 for 1 year. Development@Cardiff participant programme
2008: ESRC. Competition studentship award. The role of joint attention in social cognition and language development
2008: Wellcome/NIH. £70,000 for 4 years. Mother-child interaction and the development of imitation in preterm infants
2008: Leverhulme. £252,343 for 3 years. Infant imitation in natural contexts
2007: Nuffield. £1,400 for 3 months. Developing a corpus of social learning in human infants
2006: Royal Society. £12,000 for 3 years. A comparison of linguistic polarity in Mandarin Chinese and English
2006: Wellcome Trust. £1,020 for 3 months. Infant ability to detect intention through acoustic cues
2005: Nuffield. £1,400 for 3 months. Infant imitation and attention
2005: ESRC. £42,000 for 1 year. Early imitation and disengagement
2001: ESRC. £37,000 for 18 months. Early imitation and gaze following
2000: Nuffield Foundation. £99,730 for three years. Social cognition in deaf and hearing children. PI Stephen Want
2000: British Council. £5,200 for two years. Goal-directed imitation.

I have also received various travel awards from the British Academy, Cardiff University, and the Royal Society.

Research group

Development@Cardiff.

Research collaborators

I teach across all levels of the undergraduate curriculum.

At Level 1, I lecture on what counts as scientific evidence, and I conduct academic tutorials aimed at developing critical thinking and analytic skills. At Level 2, I lecture on cognitive development in PS2011 Developmental Psychology.

My lecture topics include infant perception, attention, and social cognition. I also conduct academic tutorials, and a practical in developmental research.

I supervise research projects and research internships on cognition and development.

Undergraduate education

B.A. (1985): Gordon College, Massachusetts; Psychology (Magna cum Laude; Honours Scholar Fellowship).

Postgraduate education

Ph.D. (1995): supported by NSF; supervised by Professor Keith Holyoak; University of California, Los Angeles; Psychology; dissertation title: 'From Implicit Learning of Visual Patterns to Explicit Knowledge of a Dynamic System'.

Anrhydeddau a dyfarniadau

Visiting Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 2005; Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 2005-2006.

Aelodaethau proffesiynol

Cymdeithas Gwyddor Gwybyddol
Recordiadau Sain Dydd o Amgylcheddau Ieithyddol Plant (DARCLE®)
International Society for Infant Studies
Cymdeithas Ryngwladol ar gyfer Astudio Datblygiad Ymddygiad
Cymdeithas Ddysgedig Cymru

Safleoedd academaidd blaenorol

October 2014: promoted to Professor, Cardiff University, UK
October 2011: Reader, Cardiff University, UK
2007-2011: Senior Lecturer, Cardiff University
2002-2007: Lecturer, Cardiff University
1998-2002: Lecturer, Sheffield University
1995-1998: Max Planck Institute Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research, Munich, Germany.

Reviewer

Reviewer for Academic Presses: IOS Press, MIT Press, Oxford University Press
Reviewer for journals: Applied Cognitive Psychology, British Journal of Social Psychology, Cognition, Cognitive Development, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Science, Developmental Psychology, Developmental Science, Infancy, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Thinking and Reasoning.

Pwyllgorau ac adolygu

Grant reviewing: ESRC, European Commission, National Science Foundation (USA)
Editorial Board, Psychological Science

I supervise postgraduate research on cognition and development, and that research can be conducted with infants, children, or adults. I am interested in how social and spatial cognition are related to the development of thinking and reasoning. I am particularly interested in interactions between culture and cognition.

Current studies of social cognition in my laboratory focus on infants. We are conducting experimental studies of attention regulation, imitation and mimicry, intention understanding, and the role of intonation and other acoustic features of speech in mental state understanding. In addition to cross-sectional studies of cognitive development we are currently conducting two longitudinal studies of cognitive and communicative development, one with typically-developing infants only, and one that compares infants born preterm with infants born full term. Both of these longitudinal studies begin from birth and follow development across infancy and early childhood.

Current studies of perceptual reasoning in my laboratory focus on adults. We are conducting experimental studies of perceptual discrimination and organization in different language cultures, to better understand how the interaction between perception and language influences perceptual reasoning.

If you are interested in applying for a PhD, or for further information regarding my postgraduate research, please contact me directly, or submit a formal application.

Current students

Katherine Ellis-Davies: Katherine studies the development of attentional control; mother-infant interaction; communicative and cognitive development.
Katherine Scott: Katherine studies the development of communication and cognition.
Rebecca Sperotto: Rebecca’s research focuses on the social, cognitive and brain development of preterm infants.
Alice Winstanley.: Alice's research focuses on the social and cognitive development of preterm infants.

Goruchwyliaeth gyfredol

Nicola Parkin

Myfyriwr ymchwil

Magie Junker