Judith A. Hudson Associate Professor Ph.D. 1984, City University of New York Cognitive development Memory development Autobiographic memory Narrative

I am an associate professor in the psychology dept. of Rutgers University and head the Child Development Lab for research on cognitive development in young children. I also supervise the Douglass-Psychology Child Study Center, an on-campus child care center that serves as a research and teaching lab.

Research Interests

Children's Understanding of Future Time. I am currently studying how young children develop a concept of future time through conversations with parents about future, real-world events. Research indicates that mothers' use of temporal language when talking to young children may affect their developing time concepts.

Development of Planning. I am also interested in the development of children's ability to plan for the future and carry out their plans in laboratory and real-world contexts. My research examines effects of children's event knowledge, time understanding, and personality factors in different planning tasks.

Memory Development. I study memory development in young children from 1 to 6 years of age. I am particularly interested in how reminders such as viewing photographs and videos or talking about past events influences children's long-term memory.

Autobiographic Memory and Narrative. My research on children's autobiographic memory development has examined how children learn to construct memory narratives through conversations with parents about past events. I am also interested in the effect of emotional content are children's memory narratives.

Effects of Odor on Autobiographic Memories and Dreams. In recent work, I have been examining effects of odor on the emotional content of memory narratives and dream reports.
 

Shapiro, L. R., & Hudson, J. A. (2004). Effects of internal and external supports on preschool children's event planning. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 25(1), 49-73.

Deocampo, J. L. & Hudson, J. A. (2003). Young children’s use of photographs and scale models as reminders, Memory, 11 (1), 13-25.

Hudson, J. A. (2002). "Do you know what we’re going to do this summer?": Mothers' talk to preschool children about future events. Journal of Cognition and Development, 3(1), 49-71.

Hudson, J. A. (2001). The remembered and anticipated self: Mother-child talk about past and future events. In K. S. Skene and C. Moore (Eds.)., The development of the temporally extended self in preschool children: Theory and research (pp. 53-74). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Hudson, J. A., & Sheffield, E. G. (1999). The role of reminders in young children's memory development. In L. Balter and C. Tamis-Lemonde (Eds.), Child psychology: A handbook of contemporary issues, (pp. 193-214). New York: Garland.

Graduate Program

I am interested in bringing in one or more new graduate students starting in 2004. Please contact me if you have interests in memory development, autobiographic memory and narrative, or children's understanding of time.  (My contact information is given below.)

Teaching

Undergraduate Courses:

Infant and Child Development
Infant and Child Development, Honors
Infant and Child Development Laboratory
Cognitive Development
Field Work in Psychology: Day Care

Address

Department of Psychology
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
53 Avenue E, Room 425 Tillett Hall
Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-8040

(732)445-3172 (office)
(732)445-0036 (fax)

jhudson@rci.rutgers.edu