Adelheid Kloos

Associate Professor, Director of Children's Cognitive Research Lab
409A Dyer Hall
513-556-5525
adelheid.kloos@uc.edu
http://www.uc.edu/ccrl

Education

Ph.D. in Psychology, Arizona State University , Temple, AZ, 2001.

M.A. in Psychology, Arizona State University, Temple, AZ, 1998.

Exchange Student in Psychology, Arizona State University, Temple, AZ, 1996.

Graduate Studies in Clinical Psychology, Karl-Ulrich University, Tuebingen, Germany, 1995.

B.A. in Psychology, Karl- Ulrich University, Tuebingen, Germany, 1994.

Research Interests

1. Understanding Physical Regularities

Young children often hold mistaken beliefs about physical regularities, such as about how the volume of an object affects how the object sinks in water. What are the sources of such mistakes and how can children overcome them?

Understanding category formation is crucial in finding a method for teaching early science and mathematics skills. But how do children and adults learn about categories? For example, how do they come to understand that cats belong to a different category than dogs, or that “two” is different from “three”? Do categories differ in terms of how they are learned and organized. For example, do differences in a category’s redundancy give rise to distinct types of categories?

Developmental research commonly claims that children and even infants have a causal understanding, in that they understand the difference between cause and effect. However, the extent to which such understanding is present in adults is debated. This research is a step towards a more conservative look at young children's understanding of causality. What type of information is needed for children to distinguish between cause and effects? And how crucial – if at all – is knowledge about causal mechanisms?

Publicity

McMicken Monthly E-News, Meet Heidi Kloos., (2007). McMicken Monthly E-News, UC Researcher Wins National Funding to Explore Why Young Children Are Stumped by Science ., (2007). UC Research, Starting Early on Science: UC researcher Heidi Kloos works to keep children ahead in the global science race by reaching out to our youngest learners., (2008). Other Experience and Professional Memberships

Cognitive Development Society.