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Psychology

D-Index
37
Citations
7875
World Ranking
9086
National Ranking
4816

Overview

Deborah Kelemen is affiliated with Boston University in the United States and has contributed extensively to the fields of psychology and social sciences. Their research primarily focuses on topics related to animal and plant science education, child and animal learning development, evolution and science education, psychology of moral and emotional judgment, and social and intergroup psychology.

Their work spans several specialized subfields, including social psychology, developmental and educational psychology, sociology and political science, cognitive neuroscience, and the history and philosophy of science.

Deborah Kelemen has published in a range of academic venues, with frequent appearances in Evolution Education and Outreach, Cognition, Journal of Cognition and Development, Topics in Cognitive Science, and the Journal of Environmental Psychology.

Some of their recent papers include:

  • Teaching natural selection in early elementary classrooms: can a storybook intervention reduce teleological misunderstandings? (2020, Evolution Education and Outreach)
  • Inhibiting intuition: Scaffolding children's theory construction about species evolution in the face of competing explanations (2021, Cognition)
  • Are Humans Part of the Natural World? U.S. Children's and Adults' Concept of Nature and its Relationship to Environmental Concern (2023, Topics in Cognitive Science)
  • The moral, or the story? Changing children's distributive justice preferences through social communication (2020, Cognition)
  • Beliefs about Origins and Eternal Life: How Easy Is Formal Religious Theory Development? (2021, Journal of Cognition and Development)

Frequent co-authors include Sarah A. Brown, Samuel Ronfard, Lizette Pizza, Léa Tân Combette, and Natalie Emmons.

Best Publications

  • Are Children “Intuitive Theists”? Reasoning About Purpose and Design in Nature

    Deborah Kelemen

  • The human function compunction: teleological explanation in adults.

    Deborah Kelemen;Evelyn Rosset

  • The scope of teleological thinking in preschool children.

    Deborah Kelemen

  • Professional physical scientists display tenacious teleological tendencies: purpose-based reasoning as a cognitive default.

    Deborah Kelemen;Joshua Rottman;Rebecca Seston

  • Why are rocks pointy? Children's preference for teleological explanations of the natural world.

    Deborah Kelemen

  • Function, goals and intention: children's teleological reasoning about objects

    Deborah Kelemen

  • Intuitions About Origins: Purpose and Intelligent Design in Children's Reasoning About Nature

    Deborah Kelemen;Cara DiYanni

  • Young children's rapid learning about artifacts.

    Krista Casler;Deborah Kelemen

  • Young Children Can Be Taught Basic Natural Selection Using a Picture-Storybook Intervention:

    Deborah Kelemen;Natalie A. Emmons;Rebecca Seston Schillaci;Patricia A. Ganea

  • Inferring Design: Evidence of a Preference for Teleological Explanations in Patients With Alzheimer's Disease

    Tania Lombrozo;Deborah Kelemen;Deborah Zaitchik

  • British and American children's preferences for teleo-functional explanations of the natural world

    Deborah Kelemen

  • The essence of artifacts: Developing the design stance

    Deborah Kelemen;Susan Carey

  • Tainting the soul: Purity concerns predict moral judgments of suicide

    Joshua Rottman;Deborah Kelemen;Liane Young

  • Reasoning about artifacts at 24 months: the developing teleo-functional stance.

    Krista Casler;Deborah Kelemen

  • Question-asking in childhood: A review of the literature and a framework for understanding its development

    Samuel Ronfard;Imac M. Zambrana;Tone K. Hermansen;Deborah Kelemen

  • The divided mind of a disbeliever: Intuitive beliefs about nature as purposefully created among different groups of non-religious adults

    Elisa Järnefelt;Elisa Järnefelt;Caitlin F. Canfield;Deborah Kelemen

  • Syntactic cues in the acquisition of collective nouns

    Paul Bloom;Deborah Kelemen

  • Preschool children’s views on emotion regulation: Functional associations and implications for social-emotional adjustment

    Tracy A. Dennis;Deborah A. Kelemen

  • Using a bad tool with good intention: young children's imitation of adults' questionable choices.

    Cara DiYanni;Deborah Kelemen

  • Developmental Continuity in Teleo-Functional Explanation: Reasoning about Nature Among Romanian Romani Adults

    Krista Casler;Deborah Kelemen

Frequent Co-Authors

Liane Young
Liane Young Boston College
Tania Lombrozo
Tania Lombrozo Princeton University
Susan Carey
Susan Carey Harvard University
Paul Bloom
Paul Bloom Columbia University
Tracy A. Dennis
Tracy A. Dennis Hunter College
Ann L. Brown
Ann L. Brown University of California, Berkeley
Patricia A. Ganea
Patricia A. Ganea University of Toronto
John D. Coley
John D. Coley Northeastern University

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