downloadable CV (PDF, 68 K)

POSITIONS

Rutgers University

Postdoctoral Research Associate, May 2008 -- present

Sponsor: Alan M. Leslie

EDUCATION

Yale University
Ph.D. in Psychology, May 2008
M.Phil. in Psychology, Jun. 2006
M.S. in Psychology, Dec. 2005
Advisor: Paul Bloom

Australian National University, Research School of Social Sciences

Visiting Researcher, Jul. 2009

Visiting Researcher, Jun. -- Aug. 2006

Stanford University
B.S. in Symbolic Systems (with honors), Jun. 2003

GRANTS and AWARDS

James B. Grossman Dissertation Prize, Yale University, May 2008. Awarded for an outstanding doctoral dissertation in psychology

Travel Award, Graduate Student Assembly Conference Travel Fund, Yale University, November 2007.

University Dissertation Fellowship, Yale University, September 2007.

John F. Enders Fellowship, Yale University, May 2007. Summer dissertation research grant

Travel Award, Graduate Student Assembly Conference Travel Fund, Yale University, October 2005

Firestone Award, Stanford Univeristy, June 2003. Given to the top honors research projects in each major

PUBLICATIONS

Published and In Press (* = peer reviewed)

*Weisberg, D. S. & Bloom, P. (2009). Young children separate multiple pretend worlds. Developmental Science, 12(5), 699-705.

Weisberg, D. S. (2009). The vital importance of imagination. In M. Brockman (Ed.), What's Next? Dispatches on the Future of Science. New York: Vintage Books.

*Weisberg, D. S. & Goodstein, J. (2009). What belongs in a fictional world? Journal of Cognition and Culture, 9, 69-78.

*Weisberg, D. S. (2008). Caveat lector: The presentation of neuroscience information in the popular media. The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice, 6(1) 51-56.

Weisberg, D. S. & Leslie, A. M. (2008). Let’s put it to a test. [Response to
H. M. Wellman & J. G. Miller, “Including deontic reasoning as fundamental to
theory of mind.”] Human Development, 51(2).

*Weisberg, D. S.; Keil, F. C.; Goodstein, J.; Rawson, E.; & Gray, J. (2008). The seductive allure of neuroscience explanations. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20(3), 470-477.

Weisberg, D. S. & Bloom, P. (2007). Why do some people resist science? Science and Public Affairs. 22.

*Bloom, P. & Weisberg, D. S. (2007, May 18). Childhood origins of adult resistance to science. Science, 316(5827), 996-997.

       An expanded version of this article is posted on Edge.

*Skolnick, D. & Bloom, P. (2006). What does Batman think about SpongeBob? Children’s understanding of the fantasy/fantasy distinction. Cognition, 101(1), B9-B18.

Skolnick, D. & Bloom, P. (2006). The intuitive cosmology of fictional worlds. In S. Nichols (Ed.), The Architecture of the Imagination: New Essays on Pretense, Possibility, and Fiction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Skolnick, D. (2005-2006). [Review of the book Play, Development, & Early Education.] Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 25(1), 90-93.

Under Revision and Under Review

Weisberg, D. S. Why are imaginary companions sometimes noncompliant?

Weisberg, D. S. & Sobel, D. M. Domain differences in young children's construction of impossible and strange fictional stories.

Weisberg, D. S. & Leslie, A. M. The role of victims' emotions in young children's moral judgments.

In Preparation

Weisberg, D. S.; Sobel, D. M.; Goodstein, J.; & Bloom, P. Preschoolers are reality-prone when constructing stories.

Weisberg, D. S. & Gopnik, A. Counterfactual cognition: Why what isn't real really matters.

Weisberg, D. S.; Leslie, A. M.; & Hauser, M. The effect of harm and hypothetical
reasoning abilities on preschoolers’ moral judgments.

Weisberg, D. S. Distinguishing imagination from reality. For The Oxford Handbook
of the Development of Imagination, edited by M. Taylor.

Buchsbaum, D.; Weisberg, D. S.; & Gopnik, A. Preschoolers demonstrate
counterfactual causal reasoning in the context of a pretend scenario.

PRESENTATIONS

Invited Talks and Colloquia

Penn Neuroethics Program, University of Pennsylvania. April 2009.
Department of Psychology, UC Berkeley. March 2009.
Department of Psychology, Barnard College. February 2009.
Department of Psychology, Stanford University. November 2008.
Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University. September 2008.
Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, UC Irvine. April 2008.
Department of Human Development, Cornell University. December 2007.
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois – Chicago. November 2007.
Department of Psychology, University of Miami. November 2007.
Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh. February 2007.
Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. July 2006.
Literary Theory and Cognition Working Group, Yale University. February, 2006.

Conferences and Workshops

Weisberg, D. S. (2009). What influences children's moral judgments? Paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Philosophical Association. New York: December 2009.

Weisberg, D. S. & Leslie, A. M. (2009). Preschoolers focus on harm, not just emotions, in their moral judgments. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Cognitive Development Soceity. San Antonio, TX: October 2009.

Weisberg, D. S. & Leslie, A. M. (2009). Do emotions underlie children’s moral judgments? Paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology. Bloomington, ID: June 2009.

Weisberg, D. S. (2009). Are children really fantasy-prone? Paper presented at
the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. Denver,
CO: April 2009.

Sobel, D. M. & Weisberg, D. S. (2009). Strange but true: Children and adults
consider causal domains when discriminating impossible from possible but weird
events. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in
Child Development. Denver, CO: April 2009.

Weisberg, D. S. (2009). [Commentary on P. Harris, “Imagining a larger circle: Young children who choose not to eat meat.”] Presented at the Workshop on Imagination, Mind, and Morality, Yale University. New Haven, CT: March 2009.

Weisberg, D. S. (2009). A psychologically realistic account of models as fictions. Paper presented at the Workshop on Models and Fiction, School of Advanced Study, University of London. London, England: March 2009.

Weisberg, D. S. (2008). Empathy and the novel and cognitive psychology. [Discussion of S. Keen, Empathy and the Novel.] Presented at the Center for the Study of the Novel, Stanford University. Stanford, CA: November 2008.

Weisberg, D. S. (2008). Seductive details and other errors of explanatory reasoning. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Washington, DC: July 2008.

Weisberg, D. S. & Weisberg, M. (2008). The death of similarity? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology. Philadelphia: June 2008.

Weisberg, D. S. (2007). Future directions for pretend play research. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Cognitive Development Society. Santa Fe, NM: October 2007.

Weisberg, D. S. (2007). The origin of imaginary companions. Poster presented at
the annual conference of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology. Toronto,
Canada: June 2007.

         Winner of the SPP Poster Prize for best poster presentation

Weisberg, D. S. (2007). Causation, categorization, explanation. [Commentary on T. Lombrozo, “Mechanisms and functions: Empirical evidence for distinct modes of understanding.”] Presented at the annual conference of the Society for Philosophy
and Psychology. Toronto, Canada: June 2007.

Weisberg, D. S. & Bloom, P. (2007). Children understand the multiplicity of fictional worlds. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. Boston, MA: March 2007.

Weisberg, D. S.; Goodstein, J.; & Bloom, P. (2007). The creation of fictional worlds. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. Boston, MA: March 2007.

Skolnick, D. (2006). You light up my brain. Paper presented at the Philosophy of Biology --- Dolphin Beach conference. Moruya Heads, NSW, Australia: August 2006.

Skolnick, D.; Goodstein, J.; & Bloom, P. (2006). The creation of fictional worlds. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology. St. Louis, MO: June 2006.

Skolnick, D. (2005). Aesthetics and psychology: Two cross-disciplinary collaborations. Paper presented at the Aesthetics Anarchy Conference . Bloomington, ID: May 2005.

Skolnick, D. & Bloom, P. (2005). Do five-year-olds understand fictional worlds? Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. Atlanta, GA: April 2005.

Zangl, R. & Skolnick, D. (2005). Incidental word learning: Two-year-olds can infer the referent of a novel word “on the fly” using linguistic and contextual cues. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. Atlanta, GA: April 2005.

Skolnick, D. & Fernald, A. (2003). Incidental word learning by two-year-olds. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. Tampa, FL: April 2003.

TEACHING

Teaching Fellow, Yale University

Developmental Psychology, taught by Prof. Frank Keil

Introduction to Personality Psychology, taught by Dr. Marc Brackett

Introduction to Cognitive Science, taught by Prof. Brian Scholl

Peer Editing

McDougal Center for Graduate Student Life, Yale University

Residential Writing program, Stanford University

Sophomore College Teaching Assistant, Stanford University

Language and Mind, taught by Prof. Anne Fernald

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Grant consultant for “Method in philosophical aesthetics: The challenge from the sciences,” an interdisciplinary grant from the United Kingdom Arts and Humanities Research Council (£600,000)

Organizer of “The role of testimony and domain knowledge in children’s
navigation of the reality/fiction distinction,” a symposium presented at the
biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development (Apr. 2009)

Organizer of “New directions in pretend play research,” a symposium presented at the biennial meeting of the Cognitive Development Society (Oct. 2007)

Co-organizer of “Fictional worlds and fictional characters,” a symposium presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development (Mar. 2007)

Co-coordinator for the Current Works in Developmental Psychology talk series (Sep. 2004 – May 2005)

Research assistant at the Yale Family Television Research and Consultation Center, under the direction of Dr. Dorothy Singer and Dr. Jerome Singer (Nov. 2003 – Sep. 2005)

Member of the organizing committee for the annual conference of the Child Language Research Forum (Jan. – Apr. 2002)

Reviewer: American Journal of Play, British Journal of Psychology, Cognition,
Cognitive Development, Developmental Science, European Journal of Psychology
of Education, European Review of Philosophy and Psychology, Judgment and
Decision Making, Society for Philosophy and Psychology annual conference (2006,
2008, 2009), Theory and Psychology, Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Professional Society Memberships: Association for Psychological Science.
Cognitive Development Society, Cognitive Science Society, Society for Philosophy
and Psychology, Society for Research in Child Development

REFERENCES

Alan Leslie, aleslie (at) ruccs.rutgers.edu, (732) 445-6152

Paul Bloom, paul.bloom (at) yale.edu, (203) 432-4619

Frank Keil, frank.keil (at) yale.edu, (203) 432-2389

Tamar Gendler (Philosophy), tamar.gendler (at) yale.edu, (203) 432-1694

last updated October 2009