My research is inspired by a deep curiosity about where our uniquely human social intelligence comes from. How do our earliest experiences, many of which happen in the context of our interactions with other humans, contribute to our developing sense of self? How could we transform the earliest available body-centered indicators of self into the ability to metacognize, introspect, remember our past and imagine our future?
I study the uniqueness of social intelligence in infancy, and the origins of our sense of self.
I am a Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Copenhagen where I direct the Centre for Early Childhood Cognition.
My research focuses on the origins and development of social cognition in infants. I was a postdoc and then a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellow at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development at Birkbeck College, London until 2015. I then moved to the University of Copenhagen and established the Center for Early Childhood Cognition with a European Research Council Consolidator Grant, in 2018.
About me
Our work suggests that the emergence of self profoundly changes human cognition but where does our self come from, and how does it develop? These are the kinds of questions we want to answer.
My lab uses different methods to investigate these questions, from fNIRS and EEG to pupillometry and infants’ observable behaviour. You can read more about these methods here. We have also developed a new eye-tracker in our lab, specifically designed to meet the unique challenges of pupillometry with infants.
Research
Emerging self-representation presents a challenge for young children’s perspective tracking.
*Yeung, E., Askitis, D., & Southgate, V. (2022) Open Mind, 6, 232-249.
Training self-other distinction facilitates perspective- taking in young children.
*Kampis, D., Duplessy Lukowski, H., & Southgate, V. (2023) Child Development, 94(4), 956-969.
An initial but receding altercentric bias in preverbal infants’ memory.
Manea, V., Kampis, D., Grosse Wiesmann, C., Revencu, B., & Southgate, V. (2023) Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 290:20230738.
Latest Publications
News
Trusting Others Over Self: Infants’ Unusual Bias Towards Outside Observations
Infants tend to trust others’ observations more than their own.
July 3, 2023
Eight-month-old babies rely more on other people’s attention than on their own observations, a study shows.
July 10, 2023
Babies Rely On The Observations Of Others
