underline = undergraduate/post-baccalaureate mentee
Tompkins, R. & Powell, L. J. (invited resubmission). Young children value and predict protective hindering of dangerous goals.
Studies 1–2/5 published in Tompkins & Powell (2025) CogSci Proceedings (see below)
Serbest, O., Tompkins, R., Dukler, N., Kaufman, S., & Liberman, Z. (under review). Probing impacts of exposure to diversity on children's language- and race-based categorization.
Powell, L. J., Pepe, B., & Tompkins, R. (invited chapter in prep). An early understanding of prosociality as concern for another's welfare. In I. A. Heck & L. P. Butler (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Development of Social Cognition.
Tompkins, R., Nguyễn, A. B., & Schachner, A. (full manuscript in prep). Architecture as a social signal: Protective elements shape children's and adults' reasoning about unfamiliar social groups.
Study 1/4 published in Nguyễn, Tompkins, & Schachner (2025) CogSci Proceedings (see below)
Tompkins, R., & Schachner, A. (full manuscript in prep). The development of linking children’s shared sleep arrangements to familial and caregiving relationships.
Studies 1–2/3 published in Tompkins & Schachner (2026) CogSci Proceedings (see below)
Tompkins, R., Boskovic, K., & Schachner, A. (conference proceedings manuscript in prep). Children understand that power in parent-child relationships is context-dependent.
Tompkins, R., Meacham, J., Nguyễn, A. B., & Schachner, A. (conference proceedings manuscript in prep). Children and adults expect groups to prioritize leaders’ social threat perception in intragroup decision-making contexts.
underline = undergraduate/post-baccalaureate mentee | * = equal contributors
Tompkins, R., & Schachner, A. (2026). The development of social evaluations of shared sleep arrangements. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 48, 4855-4862. [article]
Tompkins, R., Carrillo, B. A., Schachner, A., & Powell, L. J. (2026). Children’s beliefs about and preferences for protective versus risky parents and their children. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 48. [abstract]
Powell, L. J., & Tompkins, R. (2026). Relational models are too elaborate for basic social relationship reasoning. [Commentary on target article by Ashley J. Thomas]. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 49, Article e44. [article] [pdf]
Liberman, Z., & Tompkins, R. (2026). Young children's friendship expectations align with evolutionary frameworks. Evolution and Human Behavior, 47(4), Article 106880. [article] [pdf]
Tompkins, R. (2026). Paternalistic helping emerges early in humans [Journal Club article]. Nature Reviews Psychology, 5, 239. [article]
Tompkins, R., Chao, V., & Liberman, Z. (2025). Children can consider social relationships when evaluating liars. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 260, Article 106334. [article] [pdf]
Nguyễn, A. B. *, Tompkins, R. *, & Schachner, A. (2025). When walls talk: People make social inferences from towns’ protective features. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 47, 4627-4634. [article]
Tompkins, R., & Powell, L. J. (2025). Early evaluations of caregivers who help and hinder safe and dangerous goals. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 47, 4079-4086. [article]
Tompkins, R., Yang, C. A., & Vasquez, K. (2025). Through thick and thin: People think family will and ought to reconcile. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 47, 6326. [abstract]
Tompkins, R., Jara-Ettinger, J., & Schachner, A. (2025). Societal inferences from the physical world [Commentary on target article by Mark W. Moffett]. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 48, Article e73. [article] [pdf]
Tompkins, R., Vasquez, K., Gerdin, E., Dunham, Y., & Liberman, Z. (2024). Expectations of intergroup empathy bias emerge by early childhood. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 153(11), 2700-2714. [article] [pdf]
Vasquez, K., Tompkins, R., Olson, K. R., & Dunham, Y. (2023). Children's memory for gender-neutral pronouns. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 227, Article 105589. [article] [pdf]
Tompkins, R., Carrillo, B. A., Schachner, A., & Powell, L. J. (continuing). Children’s beliefs about and preferences for protective versus risky parents and their children.
Study 1/2 findings published in Tompkins et al. (2026) CogSci Proceedings abstract (see above)
Tompkins, R., Yang, C. A., & Vasquez, K. (continuing). Generational cohort significantly predicts social relationship-based reconciliation expectations and obligation judgments.
Study 1/2 findings published in Tompkins, Yang, & Vasquez (2025) CogSci Proceedings abstract (see above)
Tompkins, R. (continuing). A prophet is not without honor, save in his own house: Negative gossip is judged more permissible when coming from the family than friends-of.