Welcome!
The Kids in Developmental Science (KIDS) Lab is directed by Dr. Madison Pesowski and is based in the Department of Psychology at the University of the Fraser Valley.
We study how children think about people, including how they reason about others' emotions, behaviors, and internal mental states, like ideas and preferences. We are also interested in children's understanding of concepts like ownership, and how they use this understanding in their social reasoning.
April 2025
KIDS Lab members presented at UFV Student Research Day. Congratulations to all presenters for your hard work and engaging presentations!
Our honours student, Sim, submitted her thesis this month! It's been so rewarding to see all of her hard work come together, and while it's bittersweet to say goodbye, we're so excited to see what she does next! Congratulations Sim!
One of our lab members, Alyssa, recieved an Undergraduate Student Research Award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)! We are so grateful for this award as it will support our research on how children reason about ownership. Congratulations Alyssa!
March 2025
We hosted our second annual "Psych'd About" event ("Psych'd About Play") on the UFV Campus! We want to thank all of the undergraduate student volunteers and the wonderful families who joined us for making it a success! We look forward to continuing this tradition next year!
June 2024
Two of our graduating lab members will be starting psychology graduate programs in the fall. Ariel will be attending Brock University and Ekam will be attending the University of Manitoba. We wish you all the best and can't wait to see the amazing things you'll accomplish!
May 2024
Dr. Pesowski was awarded an Discovery Grant by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)! This award will support our research examining how children think about ownership. We are very grateful for this opportunity and we're excited to see what this project will uncover!
April 2024
Our honours student, Sam, presented a poster of his work at the Northwest Cognition and Memory Conference, which was hosted at the University of Victoria!
March 2024
We hosted our first event ("Psych'd About Reading") on the UFV campus! Thank you to the many undergraduate student volunteers and the families who attended for making it a success! We intend to host another event like this next year, and hope to see you there!
KIDS lab members presented at UFV Student Research Day. Congratulations to Ariel and Ekam for presenting their first talk, and to Sam and Taylor for presenting their first posters!
Our honours students, Ariel and Sam, served as panel discussants to talk about the honours program at UFV. If you're a psychology student who is interested in the program, be sure to look for this event next year!
Dr. Pesowski attended the biennial meeting of the Cognitive Development Society in Pasadena, California! At the conference, our collaborators at UCSD presented a poster on our work investigating how children and adults reason about where owners place their property.
September 2023
Two of our lab members, Ekam and Ariel, presented a poster on our work examining children’s beliefs about education at the Western Canadian Conference on Undergraduate Research and Psychology!
July 2023
Dr. Pesowski gave an invited talk at the Ownership Reloaded Workshop at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
June 2023
We are excited to announce that our lab will have our first Honors Thesis students starting this fall -- Welcome Ariel and Sam!
May 2023
We submitted our first paper! Thank you to all the families who participated and the research assistants who helped with the project -- you made this research possible!
April 2023
Former lab member Amanda Hooge was accepted to a graduate program at the University of Calgary! Congratulations Amanda!
Dr. Pesowski published a paper with Dr. Lindsey Powell (UCSD) in the journal Cognitive Development that discusses how children might think of ownership as a concept. Read the paper here
March 2023
Dr. Pesowski, together with Dr. Adena Schachner (University of California San Diego; UCSD), Dr. Lindsey Powell (UCSD) and Dr. Mina Cikara (Harvard) published a paper in the journal Cognition! Read the paper here
February 2023
Dr. Pesowski joined the Centre for Philosophy for Children at UFV as a Faculty Associate. Interested in learning about the Centre? Click here to find out more!
December 2022
Dr. Pesowski, together with Dr. Shaylene Nancekivell (U of Manitoba), Dr. Arber Tasimi (Emory University), and Dr. Ori Friedman (U of Waterloo) published a paper that reviews how children think about ownership and value.
October 2022
Our lab began a new collaboration with Dr. Michelle Superle (UFV) on the 20 Harvest Challenge. Interested in learning about the project? Click here to find out more!
September 2022
Our PI, Dr. Madison Pesowski, joined the faculty at UFV!
