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Overview
I am a developmental psychologist who studies social and cognitive development, with a focus on children's reasoning about people. One primary line of research, which is being conducted both in the U.S. and in China, focuses on how children present information to others, and how they evaluate information that others present. I am also interested in beliefs related to achievement motivation, the relation between language and person perception, and flexibility in children's thinking.

Research Interests
Social Cognition
Cross-Cultural Influences
Conceptual Development
Inductive Inference
Social Categories, including Gender
Reasoning about Traits and Abilities
Achievement Motivation
Self Presentation
Source Reasoning
Development of Critical Thinking Skills

Ongoing Projects
I am currently exploring the development of children's beliefs systems and patterns of inductive inference in four primary lines of research.

  2. My colleague Kang Lee I are conducting cross-cultural investigations of children's conceptions of lying and truth telling. We are doing much of this work in the U.S. and China. One topic concerns how children reason about lying in politeness situations. We are also looking at children's beliefs and expectations concerning the hiding or distorting of information about the self (e.g., regarding positive or negative academic performance).


  4. My graduate student Caroline Gee and I are investigating children's critical thinking skills by examining how they draw upon others as sources of information. Specifically, we are looking at how children evaluate and make use of information about speakers' motives and knowledge, and relevant communicative processes.


  6. Another line of research concerns the ways that subtle linguistic cues can affect the social inferences people make. This research is being conducted in both English and in Spanish.


  8. I am investigating children's ability conceptions and achievement motivation, focusing on the following questions:

    2. What is the nature of young children's conceptions of ability, and how do these conceptions change with development?

    4. What factors systematically shape ability conceptions?

    6. What individual differences in ability conceptions are evident, and what are their implications?


Publications

Heyman, G.D. (in press). Talking about success: Implications for achievement motivation. Journal of Applied Devlopmental Psychology.

Heyman, G.D. (in press). Children's critical thinking when learning from others. Current Directions in Psychological Science.

Heyman, G.D., Sweet, M.A., & Lee, K. (in press). Children's reasoning about lie-telling and truth-telling in politeness contexts. Social Development.

Heyman, G.D., Fu, G., & Lee, K. (in press). Reasoning about the disclosure of success and failure to friends among children in the U.S. and China. Developmental Psychology.

Gee, C.L. & Heyman, G.D. (2007). Children's evaluation of other people's self-descriptions. Social Development, 16, 800-810.

Gelman, S.A., Heyman, G.D., & Legare, C.H. (2007). Developmental changes in the coherence of essentialist beliefs about psychological characteristics. Child Development, 78, 757-774.

Heyman, G.D., Fu, G., & Lee, K. (2007). Evaluating claims people make about themselves: The development of skepticism. Child Development, 78, 367-375.

Fu, G., Xu, F., Cameron, C.A., Heyman, G.D., & Lee, K. (2007). Cross-cultural differences in children's choices, categorizations, and evaluations of truths and lies. Developmental Psychology, 43, 278-293.

Heyman, G.D., & Giles, J.W. (2006). Gender and psychological essentialism. Enfance, 58, 293-310.

Heyman, G.D., & Compton, B.J. (2006). Context sensitivity in children's reasoning about ability across the elementary school years. Developmental Science, 9, 616-627.

Giles, J.W., & Heyman, G.D. (2005). Preschoolers' use of trait-relevant information to evaluate the appropriateness of an aggressive response. Aggressive Behavior, 31, 498-509.

Heyman, G.D., & Legare, C.H. (2005). Children's evaluation of sources of information about traits. Developmental Psychology, 41, 636-647.

Giles, J.W., & Heyman, G.D. (2005). Young children's beliefs about the relationship between gender and aggressive behavior. Child Development, 76, 107-121.

Giles, J.W., & Heyman, G.D. (2004). Conceptions of aggression and withdrawal in early childhood. Infant and Child Development, 13, 407-421.

Giles, J.W., & Heyman, G.D. (2004). When to cry over spilled milk: Young children's use of category information to guide inferences about ambiguous behavior. Journal of Cognition and Development, 5, 359-382.

Heyman, G.D., & Legare, C.H. (2004). Children's beliefs about gender differences in the academic and social domains. Sex Roles, 50, 227-236.

Heyman, G.D., & Giles, J.W. (2004). Valence effects in reasoning about evaluative traits. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 50, 86-109.

Giles, J.W., & Heyman, G.D. (2003). Preschoolers' beliefs about the stability of antisocial behavior: Implications for navigating social challenges. Social Development, 12, 182-197.

Heyman, G.D., Phillips, A.T., & Gelman, S.A. (2003). Children's reasoning about physics within and across ontological kinds. Cognition, 89, 43-61.

Giles, J.W., & Heyman, G.D. (2003). Preschoolers' beliefs about the stability of antisocial behavior: Implications for navigating social challenges. Social Development, 12, 182-197.

Heyman, G.D., Gee, C.L., & Giles, J.W. (2003). Preschool children's reasoning about ability. Child Development, 74, 516-534.

Heyman, G.D, & Diesendruck, G. (2002). The Spanish ser/estar distinction in bilingual children's reasoning about human psychological characteristics. Developmental Psychology, 38, 407-417.

Heyman, G.D., Martyna, B., & Bhatia, S. (2002). Gender and achievement-related beliefs among engineering students. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 8, 43-54.

Giles, J.W., Gopnik, A., & Heyman, G.D. (2002). Source monitoring reduces the suggestibility of preschool children. Psychological Science, 13, 228-291.

Heyman, G.D. (2001). Children's interpretation of ambiguous behavior: Evidence for a "boys are bad" bias. Social Development, 10, 230-247.

Gelman, S.A., Hollander, M., Star, J., & Heyman, G.D. (2000). The role of language in the construction of kinds. In D.L. Medin (Ed.), The Psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 39, pp. 201-263). San Diego: Academic Press.

Heyman, G.D., & Gelman, S.A. (2000). Beliefs about the origins of human psychological traits. Developmental Psychology, 36, 663-678.

Heyman, G.D. & Gelman, S.A. (2000). Preschool children's use of novel attributes to make inductive inferences about people. Cognitive Development, 15, 263-280.

Heyman, G.D., & Gelman, S.A. (2000). Preschool children's use of trait labels to make inductive inferences. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 77, 1-19.

Gelman, S.A., & Heyman, G.D. (1999). Carrot-eaters and creature-believers: The effects of lexicalization on children's inferences about social categories. Psychological Science, 10, 489-493.

Heyman, G.D., & Gelman, S.A. (1999). The use of trait labels in making psychological inferences. Child Development, 70, 604-619.

Heyman, G.D., & Dweck, C.S. (1998). Children's thinking about traits: Implications for judgments of the self and others. Child Development, 69, 391-403.

Heyman, G.D., & Gelman, S.A. (1998). Young children use motive information to make trait inferences. Developmental Psychology, 34, 310-321.

Cain, K.M., Heyman, G.D., & Walker, M.E. (1997). Preschoolers' ability to make dispositional predictions within and across domains. Social Development, 6, 53-75.

Heyman, G.D., & Dweck, C.S. (1994). The development of motivation. International Encyclopedia of Education. Pergamon Press.

Heyman, G.D., & Dweck, C.S. (1992). Achievement goals and intrinsic motivation: Their role and their relation in adaptive motivation. Motivation and Emotion, 16, 231-247.

Heyman, G.D., Dweck, C.S. & Cain, K.M. (1992). Young children's vulnerability to self-blame and helplessness: Relationship to beliefs about goodness. Child Development, 63, 401-415.


Grants
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Children's Conceptions of Lying: East-West Comparisons, 2005-2010
principal investigator (in collaboration with Kang Lee)

Pacific Rim Research Program
Culture and Honesty: American and Chinese Children's Concepts
and Moral Judgments of Truth- and Lie-Telling, 2003-2004
co-investigator (with Kang Lee)

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
The Development of Ability Conceptions, 2000-2004
principal investigator

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
The Development of Trait Conceptions, 1995-1998
competitive postdoctoral fellowship

Summaries of Recent Findings
Conceptions of Ability
Sources of Information about People
The Physics of Animate and Inanimate Entities

Research Opportunities
Research opportunities are available in my lab for highly motivated students with an excellent GPA in Psychology classes and a strong interest in developmental psychology research. If you are interested, please fill out the application and return it by campus mail or email (instructions are on the form).
Psych 199 Application



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