Welcome to the CSD Lab!
The Cognitive and Social Development (CSD) Lab at Penn State, directed by Dr. Liben, houses research and teaching activities related to the way that individuals develop over their lifetimes. At the core, our projects are aimed at understanding how developmental progress comes about. We study progress in the cognitive arena — such as how people think about and represent their environments with maps, or in the social arena — such as how individuals develop identities and beliefs about social-group categories such as gender and race.
Lab activities include data collection (with preschoolers through college students), data coding (e.g. paper and pencil spatial tasks; video recordings of parent-child interactions), and meetings to discuss current projects.
We involve parents and children from the community to participate in enjoyable and educational activities and we involve students through the Independent Penn State Studies program, the Work Study program, and the Schreyer Honors College.
In addition, we conduct research that applies developmental psychology to education. We define “education” broadly, including not only education that goes on in school classrooms, but also education that goes on in families and in informal learning environments such as museums.
During any given semester, about a dozen undergraduates and several graduate students make their homes in the lab. The lab is a suite of rooms on the 5th floor of Moore Building at the University Park campus.
Dr. Liben’s Research
Current Projects
Join Our Lab