Developmental Psychology

PSY 300 - Research Methods
PSY 301 - Child Development

My primary research focus is in the area of children’s social-cognition, with a particular interest in the following:

• Children’s understanding of complex emotions
• Children’s perspective-taking ability and manifestation of knowledge within narratives
• Children’s socio-cognitive understanding and its influence on children’s perceptions of bullying
• Parent-child discourse and its impact on children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development
• Precursors to—and consequences of—maternal mind-mindedness
• Risk factors in the development of social coordination and communication
• Effects of power mobility training for children with multiple, severe disabilities and their caregivers

• Children's Personal Accounts of Experiences with Bullying
• Evaluating Associations between Parental Mind-Mindedness and Child Developmental Outcomes through Meta-Analysis (collaboration with Dr. Jing Chen)
• Quantifying the Qualitative: Two Feasibility Studies Examining Maternal Perceptions of Power Mobility Training (as part of the Grand Valley Power Mobility Project - interdisciplinary collaboration with Drs. Lisa Kenyon, Physical Therapy, and John Farris, Engineering)

Kenyon, L.K., Farris, J.F., Aldrich, N.J., & Rhodes, S. (2017). Does power mobility training impact a child’s mastery motivation and spectrum of EEG activity? An exploratory project. Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology, 1-9. doi: 10.1080/17483107.2017.1369587

Aldrich, N.J., & Brooks, P.J. (2016). Linguistic and socio-cognitive predictors of school-age children’s narrative evaluations about jealousy. First Language, 1-20. doi: 10.1177/0142723716679797

Kenyon, L.K., Farris, J.F., Gallagher, C., Webster, L.M., Hammond, L., & Aldrich, N.J. (2015). Power mobility training for young children with multiple, severe impairments: A case series. Physical and Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics. Advanced online publication.

Aldrich, N.J., Brooks, P.J., Yuksel-Sokmen, P.O., Ragir, S., Flory, M.J., Lennon, E.M., Karmel, B.Z., & Gardner, J.M. (2015). Infant twins’ social interactions with caregivers and same-age siblings. Infant Behavior and Development, 41, 127-141.

Powers, K.L., Brooks, P.J., Aldrich, N.J., Palladino, M.A., & Alfieri, L. (2013). Effects of video-game play on information processing: A meta-analytic investigation. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 20, 1055-1079.