Jessica Sommerville
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jessicas.bsky.social
Jessica Sommerville
@jessicas.bsky.social
1.5K followers 310 following 61 posts
Psych prof at Univ. of Toronto, studying the dev't of social and moral cognition, learning, and behavio(u)r.

tecl.ca
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jessicas.bsky.social
New lab paper, showing priming/demonstrating exploration in toddlers leads to increased persistence!! So proud of @radovanovic.bsky.social and @gracewujiameisun.bsky.social for leading this work!!!
September 2, 2026 at 7:08 PM
jessicas.bsky.social
#ICIS2026: Terrific symposium this morning on the motivations underlying persistence in infants and toddlers with @gracewujiameisun.bsky.social @jaeminhwang.bsky.social @francescopoli.bsky.social @amyneedham.bsky.social
July 7, 2026 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
uoftpsychology.bsky.social
“As adults, we think there are good people, bad people, and people who are somewhere in between,” says @jessicas.bsky.social, professor of psychology @artsci.utoronto.ca.

“It seems like infants are thinking the same way.”

👶 www.psych.utoronto.ca/news/infants...
Infants make nuanced moral character judgments as early as 12-months-old, study finds
Research by psychologists at the University of Toronto suggests that we begin to make moral character judgments as early as 12-months-old while also recognizing that individuals can exist along a mora...
www.psych.utoronto.ca
April 20, 2026 at 3:22 PM
jessicas.bsky.social
We are greatly looking forward CDS in Montreal next week!! Come see us at our talks and posters!
April 1, 2026 at 5:29 PM
jessicas.bsky.social
LAST CLASS of 2025/2026 academic year is in the books! I know what I'll be dancing to tonight!!
Alice Cooper - School's Out (from Alice Cooper: Trashes The World)
YouTube video by AliceCooperVEVO
www.youtube.com
March 31, 2026 at 7:14 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
mcxfrank.bsky.social
Loved working on this paper with Kat (lead) and Hyo!
hyogweon.bsky.social Hyowon (Hyo) Gweon @hyogweon.bsky.social · Mar 24
Officially out TODAY in Child Development! It's good to try challenging tasks and explore on your own, but not when it might be too hard and help isn't available. Children get that. w/ Kat Shannon, Aneesa Conine-Nakano, Willem Frankenhuis, @mcxfrank.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/chidev/advan...
March 24, 2026 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
commspsychol.nature.com
This research investigated infants’ ability to make moral character inferences. For a wide range of moral roles, infants could use an agent’s past moral behavior to revise their expectations for future moral behavior.
@normanjzeng.bsky.social
@jessicas.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Infants make moral character inferences in multi-agent social interactions - Communications Psychology
Using eye-gaze methods, this research investigated infants’ ability to make moral character inferences. For a wide range of moral roles, infants could use an agent’s past moral behavior to revise thei...
www.nature.com
March 23, 2026 at 5:07 PM
jessicas.bsky.social
Stoked to share our new lab pub led by the amazing @normanjzeng.bsky.social ! After watching multi-party agent events, infants expect agents to preserve their moral "role" in a resource distribution task. Indiv. variability predicted by infants' social contact.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Infants make moral character inferences in multi-agent social interactions - Communications Psychology
Using eye-gaze methods, this research investigated infants’ ability to make moral character inferences. For a wide range of moral roles, infants could use an agent’s past moral behavior to revise thei...
www.nature.com
March 23, 2026 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
bellafascendini.bsky.social
Are you attending @cogdevsoc.bsky.social 2026? Come join us for an afternoon pre-conference workshop on motivation in development! We'll bring together developmental, educational, and computational perspectives to ask: Can we build a unified account of motivation across the lifespan? ✨
March 10, 2026 at 5:17 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
infantstudies.bsky.social
Shine a spotlight on exceptional #infantstudies researchers by nominating for the Distinguished Early Career Contribution Award, Outstanding Dissertation Award and Translational Research Award. Close March 26, 2026.

infantstudies.org/merit-awards/
Text against a light blue background: Merit Awards - Distinguished Early Career Contribution, Outstanding Dissertation, Translational Research. Submission deadline: March 26
March 10, 2026 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
sarahkiefer.bsky.social
New paper out in Child Development (@srcdorg.bsky.social) with Dave Sobel (@candmlab.bsky.social)! ✨ We investigated how 5- to 7-year-old children decide to take on easy versus hard tasks while pursuing a goal. doi.org/10.1093/chid...
Children's decision to challenge themselves on a novel task relates to their metacognitive monitoring of their ability
Abstract. We examined potential processes by which children decide to make hard as opposed to easy choices to accomplish a goal. Five- to 7-year olds (N =
doi.org
March 4, 2026 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
drlauraelenbaas.bsky.social
The first generation to grow up with AI deserves healthy social relationships. I'm pleased to be a part of this international, interdisciplinary Research Fellowship childhoodandailab.org/our-fellows-... with the #ChildhoodAndAILab from #AIChildSafety.org.
Childhood and AI Lab welcome page
February 10, 2026 at 2:38 PM
jessicas.bsky.social
Big news on #SaferInternetDay: I’ve been elected as a Research Fellow with the AIChildSafety.org Childhood & AI Lab.

Grateful to John Zoltner and the Lab for creating space for this kind of work.
🔗 lnkd.in/ggm6bgtv

#AIChildSafety #ChildhoodAndAI #ResponsibleAI #DevSci
February 10, 2026 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
joshuaconfer.bsky.social
Why do otherwise rational people disagree about the same evidence? Our new paper finds that group membership is a deeply rooted influence on how we form beliefs, leading even preschoolers to bias their evidential standards and form inaccurate beliefs.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
February 5, 2026 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
julia-a-leonard.bsky.social
💥New paper alert! Dyadic Decisions About Effort: How Caregivers Shape Young Children’s Persistence (with @reutshachnai.bsky.social)

One of my favorites! If you’re curious about what we’ve been up to in @leonardlearnlab.bsky.social, take a look!
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
February 3, 2026 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
fernandosanchezh.bsky.social
We propose that 2-year-olds show emerging sensitivity to disadvantageous outcomes, but only 4-year-olds' costly responses to unfairness reflect true disadvantageous inequity aversion.

Read more at:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The emergence of disadvantageous inequity aversion between 2–4 years
When and how children begin responding to inequitable resource distributions, particularly those that put them at a disadvantage, remains unclear. Acr…
www.sciencedirect.com
January 26, 2026 at 9:27 PM
jessicas.bsky.social
New lab paper with Dave Sobel @candmlab.bsky.social and led by the remarkable @radovanovic.bsky.social and @jaeminhwang.bsky.social. Infants expect equality not only in resource distributions but also resource collections.
radovanovic.bsky.social Mia Radovanovic @radovanovic.bsky.social · Jan 21
Out in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social with @jaeminhwang.bsky.social, David Sobel (@candmlab.bsky.social), and @jessicas.bsky.social! Most studies of infants’ fairness expectations focus on resource distribution, but in everyday life, we engage in many different kinds of resource exchanges.
Figure shows the methods used in the paper's experiments. In the left column are the methods for Exp 1 (Collection) and in the right are the methods for Exp 2 (Distribution). In each video, three women sit at a table. One sits in the middle, serving as a collector/distributor, and two sit in the foreground with plates. During familiarization trials, resources were collected from or distributed to their plates with an occluder on the screen hiding the outcomes. During test trials, the same videos were played but with the outcomes shown such that infants either viewed an equal collection/distribution or an unequal collection/distribution.
January 21, 2026 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
radovanovic.bsky.social
Out in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social with @jaeminhwang.bsky.social, David Sobel (@candmlab.bsky.social), and @jessicas.bsky.social! Most studies of infants’ fairness expectations focus on resource distribution, but in everyday life, we engage in many different kinds of resource exchanges.
Figure shows the methods used in the paper's experiments. In the left column are the methods for Exp 1 (Collection) and in the right are the methods for Exp 2 (Distribution). In each video, three women sit at a table. One sits in the middle, serving as a collector/distributor, and two sit in the foreground with plates. During familiarization trials, resources were collected from or distributed to their plates with an occluder on the screen hiding the outcomes. During test trials, the same videos were played but with the outcomes shown such that infants either viewed an equal collection/distribution or an unequal collection/distribution.
January 21, 2026 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
drlarisa.bsky.social
This paper about inferences that kids draw on the basis of parental incarceration is now published! Pretty version here: psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-.... Link to full text & summary in thread below.
🧪 #PsychSciSky #SocialPsyc #DevPsyc @socphilpsych.bsky.social
January 12, 2026 at 7:19 PM
jessicas.bsky.social
Is it wrong that I'm trying to use AI to try to come up with AI proof assignments for my students? (pls say no, or better yet, give me some suggestions!).
December 30, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
umiamipsych.bsky.social
Congrats, Dr. @tiffany6390.bsky.social! 👏

news.miami.edu/stories/2025...
Big ideas in 180 seconds
The 10th Annual Three Minute Thesis Competition showcased graduate students across the University of Miami presenting research in fields ranging from medicine and computer engineering to literature an...
news.miami.edu
November 14, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
Are you a US-based PhD student WITHOUT summer funding who is interested in adolescent development, trans youth, and/or gender? Reach out to me about applying to join my lab in Summer 2026 for the VIPS program! psych.princeton.edu/diversity/vi...
Visiting Internship for Ph.D. Students (VIPS) Program
The VIPS program is an initiative of the DEI committee of the Department of Psychology at Princeton University. VIPS will support up to 4 Ph.D. students who are full-time students at other universitie...
psych.princeton.edu
October 31, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
dirkbwalther.bsky.social
Who's afraid of AI?

toronto2025.ai
October 16, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
janderz8.bsky.social
Hi #canadian researchers - please sign this petition to help ensure funding isn’t cut to tri council agencies (NSERC, SSHRC, and CIHR). We’re looking at potential 15% cuts to ALL federal spending including grants win.newmode.net/canadianasso...
New/Mode | Make your voice impossible to ignore
win.newmode.net
September 18, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Reposted by Jessica Sommerville
addyct.bsky.social
two figurines on a white background. one side is labeled Labubu, with your typically furry Labubu figure. the other side is Lakiki, and it's fur has been photoshopped to be spiky.
September 30, 2025 at 2:20 PM