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Assistant Professor, Psychology
1219 College Heights Blvd. #21030
Western Kentucky University 42101-1030
270-745-2209
carrie.pritchard@wku.edu
About Me
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY, where I teach classes in educational and developmental psychology. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005, and my B.A. from Indiana-Purdue University, Ft. Wayne, Indiana in 1995. My broad interests are in cognitive development. I am especially interested in how people reason, and whether they change their reasoning to fit different contexts (like school for example). In addition, much of my research focuses on cognitive development in children with Autism.
Teaching
I teach the Child and Adolescent Development and Educational Psychology. Current course information and information for enrolled students is available on Blackboard. Sample syllabi are provided so that you can get a general idea about course requirements and course structure.
Research
One research program is concerned with children's understanding of epistemic states, including how children make distinctions among them. People often must decide what to think or believe on the basis of inconclusive information or evidence. In this work I seek to characterize the way people deal with imperfect evidence and how children develop adult-like intuitions. I also seek to understand how context affects that process. That is, in some areas of our lives, we may feel no need for evidence and take our beliefs "on faith,"or rather blindly accept what we are told by another, while in other areas of our lives, we hold evidence to be strictly required. We may reason much more carefully in school, for example, than when talking to a friend. We might also reason more rigorously if there is something of value at stake.
In a second program of research I investigate social cognition and social behaviors in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Research in this area is conducted in collaboration with the Kelly Autism Project. We seek to understand routes into helping children develop understanding of others' minds and to develop social interactions based on those understandings.One question I ask is whether children with Autism can be trained to use information about the intentions of others in order to improve their relationships with others. For example, most of the time, we interpret someone bumping into us as an accident rather than an intentional act. Children with ASD often fail to understand the basis for others' behaviors, attributing intent where none is warranted and failing to understand that accidents can happen. These misunderstandings can lead to serious social consequences.
Other research projects seek to compare social constructivist approaches to social skills training to more direct, adult-supported interventions. In this research, I ask whether children learn more quickly to transfer skills to peer interactions if they construct their own "rules" for interaction and enforce those among themselves versus adults imposing such behavioral limits. In addition, I am researching long-distance social skills training via the Internet.
My research, presentations, publications, and training.
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