Dr Elena Hoicka
Lecturer, Developmental Psychology, PsychologyUniversity of Stirling Stirling FK9 4LA Scotland, UK + 44 (0) 1786 467649
elena.hoicka@stir.ac.uk
Ph.D. Psychology, Cardiff University, 2007
Hon. B.Sc. Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of Toronto, 2003
NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2006-2008
Press Coverage
Over 100 mentions online, internationally
BBC Radio Scotland's MacAuley and Co. February, 2012: radio interview.
The Daily Record, November, 2011: “Joking around can give children head-start in life according to Scottish researchers” Link
BBC Newsnight Scotland, October, 2011: 5-minute feature on research on joking and pretending
BBC Good Morning Scotland, October, 2011: radio interview
Central FM, October, 2011: radio interview
BBC News Online, October, 2011: “Joking and pretending ‘key to toddler learning”. Link
The Mirror, October, 2011: “Parents who joke with toddlers ‘give them a head start”. Link
The Toronto Sun, October, 2011, “Joking with kids helps them learn: Study”. Link
The Daily Telegraph, October, 2011: “Joking aside, fun can provide real lesson in life for toddlers.”
Scottish Daily Mail, October, 2011: “Toddling in for a good old laugh.”
The Scottish Sun, October, 2011: “School to play fool.”
Scotland on Sunday, September, 2011: “Have you heard the one about the children who are born to become comedy stars?"
Daily Record, November, 2010: " Scots researchers launch hunt to find whether mums or dads are funnier". LINK
Sunday Post, September, 2010: "What's the secret of a baby's laughter?"
Scottish Sunday Express, January, 2010: "Babies with a sense of humour? No kidding". LINK
Mind in the Making: The Science of Early Learning LINK
APA Monitor, November 2007: “The joke’s in you”. LINK
British Psychology Society (BPS) Research Digest, March, 2008: “Little comedians”. LINK
Related Links
Merideth Gattis, Cardiff University
Membership:
BPS graduate member
Cognitive Science Society
My broad research area is the development of social cognition and creativity in infants and toddlers. The current focus of my research examines
(1) whether young children understand that others can intentionally do the wrong thing, primarily through joking and pretending;
(2) how parents might teach their children about these concepts through tone of voice, and linguistic and action-based cues; and
(3) whether young children can be genuinely creative and generate their own novel jokes and acts of pretense, and whether this is a skill that can be learnt
PSY911: Intro to Psychology - language and development lectures
PSY9AO: Developmental Psychology
PSY9X7: Electives: The development of pretend play; The development of lying and deception
PRMP21: Child Development: Early years research and practise
I am currently looking for Ph.D. students who are interested in humour, creativity/innovation; pretend play, social cognition, social learning, deception.
I am also currently looking for volunteers who would be interested in gaining research experience in my lab.
PhD Students
Simone Bijvoet: Pretense, behavioural cues, and creativity in 2- and 3-year-old children
Cornelia Hien (Second Supervisor): Social and Linguistic Cues for Word-Learning
Mary Louise Cowan (Second Supervisor): Humour and Mate Choice
MSc Students
Eilidh Carey-Gardner: Prosodic ability in children with motor and language impairments
Samantha Barker: Deception understanding in toddlers
Former MSc Students
Jennifer Dent: Toddlers’ use of humorous cues to understand humorous intentions
Felicity Malla: Humour and trust in 3- and 4-year-olds
Hannah Newall: Intonation and word-learning in infants
Bebhinn O’Gara: Infants’ use of humorous cues to predict humorous actions
Argyro Kosmadaki: Children’s sense of humour, Emotional Intelligence and social competence
Catriona Martin: Children’s ability to differentiate humour and pretense
Elizabeth Popken: False belief understanding
Hoicka, E., & Akhtar, N. (in press). Early humor production. British Journal of Developmental Psychology. PDF
Akhtar, N., Menjivar, J., Hoicka, E., & Sabbagh, M. (2012). Learning novel labels from a foreign speaker: The role of (limited) experience with more than one language. Journal of Child Language.
Hoicka, E., & Gattis, M. (2011). Acoustic differences between toddler-directed humorous and sincere communicative intentions. British Journal of Developmental Psychology. DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-835X.2011.02062.x PDF
Hoicka, E., & Akhtar, N. (2011). Preschoolers joke with jokers, but correct foreigners. Developmental Science, 14, 848-858. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.01033.x PDF
Hoicka, E., & Wang, S. (2011). Fifteen-month-olds match vocal cues to intentional actions. Journal of Cognition and Development,12, 299-314. DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2010.542215 PDF
Hoicka, E., & Campbell, R. (2010). Abstract and belief-based language differentiate joking, pretending, and literal toddler-directed speech. In Ohlsson, S., & Catrambone, R. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1040-1045). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Hoicka, E., & Gattis, M. (2010). Wrongness and Representational Thought. In Ohlsson, S., & Catrambone, R. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1046-1051). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Hoicka, E., Jutsum, S., & Gattis, M. (2008). Humor, abstraction, and disbelief. Cognitive Science, 32, 985-1002. PDF
Hoicka, E., & Gattis, M. (2008). Do the wrong thing: How toddlers tell a joke from a mistake. Cognitive Development, 23, 180-190.PDF
Hoicka, E., & Gattis, M. (2006). The acoustic features of parental speech during storybook reading discriminate between humorous and sweet mental states [Abstract]. In Sun, R. (Ed.), Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (p. 2508).Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. PDF
Conference Presentations Hoicka, E., Sakkalou, E., Abel, K., Sperotto, R. G., & Gattis, M. (2012, June). From right to wrong: The flexibility of toddlers' action imitation. Paper to be presented at the biennial International Conference on Infant Studies, Minneapolis, USA. Bijvoet, S., & Hoicka, E. (2012, June). The Unusual Box Test: A non-verbal measure of divergent thinking for 2-year-olds. Poster to be presented at the biennial International Conference on Infant Studies, Minneapolis, USA. |
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Hoicka, E., & Akhtar, N. (2011, March). Humor Production in 2- and 3-Year-Olds during Freeplay. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Montreal, Canada.
Hoicka, E., & Butcher, J. (2011, January). Action and gesture differentiate pretend, joking, and literal acts. Poster presented at the 2011 Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development, Budapest, Hungary.
Hoicka, E. (2010, September). Acoustic cues to humorous, pretense and literal speech. Poster presented at the Fourth European Conference on Tone and Intonation, Stockholm, Sweden.
Hoicka, E. (2009, August). Humour and intention understanding in toddlers. Invited address for the XIV European Conference on Developmental Psychology, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Hoicka, E. (2009, August). Abstract language as a cue to irony. Paper presented at the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology annual conference, Budapest, Hungary.
Hoicka, E., & Akhtar, N. (2009, April). Toddlers differentially correct and create wrong labels from jokers and foreigners. In E. Hoicka (Chair), Children's willingness to accept object labels from native and foreign speakers. Symposium conducted at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, USA.
Hoicka, E., & Akhtar, N. (2009, April). Humor production in 2- and 3-year-olds. In G. Schafer (Chair), Moving forward with parent report - Hard-to-study behaviours and populations. Symposium conducted at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, USA.
Shapiro, L., Thorne, A., Hoicka, E., & Nelson, P.A. (2009, February). Comic relief: Identity exploration in humor between late adolescent friends. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Research on Identity Formation, Monterey, CA, USA.
Hoicka, E., & Gattis, M. (2008, June). Humour, wrongness, and secondary representation. Paper presented at the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology annual conference, Utrecht, Netherlands.
Hoicka, E., & Wang, S. (2008, March). Fifteen-month-old infants match humorous cues to humorous actions. In E. Hoicka & S. Wang (Co-chairs), Infants’ use of communicative cues to interpret others’ actions. Symposium conducted at the biennial International Conference on Infant Studies, Vancouver, Canada.
Hoicka, E., & Akhtar, N. (2008, March). Parent reports of humor production in 25-30-month-old toddlers. Poster presented at the biennial International Conference for Infancy Studies, Vancouver, Canada. Hoicka, E., & Gattis, M. (2007, March). Humor and disbelief in storybook reading. Poster session presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Boston, USA.
Hoicka, E., & Gattis, M. (2006, September). Jokes and mistakes: Who can tell the difference? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the British Psychology Society, Developmental Section, London, UK. |