Dr. Xiao Pan Ding
Learning to “Deceive” has Social and Cognitive Benefits
26 October 2021 (Tuesday), 4pm
Abstract:
Deception is a pervasive behavior among young children because it often serves adaptive, albeit sometimes immoral functions. In this talk, I will introduce my recent studies about how young children learn to deceive strategically and its social and cognitive benefits. The first study examined how the ability to deceive emerges in early childhood via a 10-session microgenetic method. The second study examined whether learning to deceive in early childhood promoted more advanced theory of mind and executive function skills. The third study examined whether learning to deceive can help young children to improve their epistemic vigilance. The three studies highlight the importance of learning strategic deceptive behavior in children’s social and cognitive development.
Biography:
Dr. Xiao Pan Ding has been an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology at the National University of Singapore since 2016. She directs NUS Child Development Lab (www.nuschildlab.com). Her research interest is children’s moral and cognitive behavior, specifically children’s honest and dishonest behavior. She uses both behavioural and neuroimaging methods to explore the cognitive and neural correlates underlying children’s deceptive behaviour.
