LOUIS J. MOSES

Associate Professor

Department of Psychology

University of Oregon

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My research explores children’s developing appreciation of mental states like belief, desire, and intention. I am particularly interested in how developments in executive function (e.g., inhibitory control, working memory) affect the emergence and expression of children’s theories of mind. Most of my work centers on developments in the preschool period but I have also examined the early foundations of an understanding of mind in infancy and the onset of constructivist theories of mind later in childhood.

SELECTED PAPERS

Moses, L.J., & Flavell, J.H. (1990).  Inferring false beliefs from actions and reactions. Child Development, 61, 929-945.  [Reprinted in J.S. DeLoache (1994) (Ed.),  Current Readings In Child Development (2nd Ed.).  Boston: Allyn and Bacon.] [pdf]

 

Flavell, J.H., Flavell, E.R., Green, F.L., & Moses, L.J. (1990).  Young children's understanding of fact beliefs versus value beliefs. Child Development, 61, 915-928. [pdf]

 

Moses, L.J., & Chandler, M.J. (1992).  Traveler's guide to children's theories of mind. Psychological Inquiry, 3, 286-301. [pdf]

 

Moses, L.J. (1993).  Young children's understanding of belief constraints on intention. Cognitive Development, 8, 1-25. [pdf]

 

Baldwin, D.A., & Moses, L.J.  (1994).  Early understanding of referential intent and focus of attention:  Evidence from language and emotion.  In C. Lewis & P. Mitchell (Eds.),  Children's early understanding of mind: Origins and development (pp. 133-156).   Hove, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

Baldwin, D.A., & Moses, L.J.  (1994).  The mindreading engine: Evaluating the evidence for modularity.  Current Psychology of Cognition, 13, 553-560. [pdf]

 

Moses, L.J. (1994).  Foreword.  In S. Parker, R. Mitchell, & M. Boccia (Eds.), Self awareness in animals and humans: Developmental Perspectives (pp. x-xvi).  New York:  Cambridge University Press.

 

Baldwin, D.A., & Moses, L.J.  (1996).  The ontogeny of social information gathering.  Child Development, 67, 1915-1939. [pdf]

 

Carlson, S.M., Moses, L.J., & Hix, H.  (1998).  The role of inhibitory processes in young children’s difficulties with deception and false belief. Child Development, 69, 672-691. [pdf]

 

Moses, L.J., & Baird, J.A. (1999). Metacognition.  In R.A. Wilson & F.C. Keil (Eds.), The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences (pp. 533-535).  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

 

Moses, L.J., Coon, J.A., & Wusinich, N. (2000).  Young children’s understanding of desire formation. Developmental Psychology, 36, 77-90. [pdf]

 

Baird, J.A. & Moses, L.J. (2001). Do preschoolers appreciate that identical actions may be motivated by different intentions? Journal of Cognition and Development, 2, 413-448. [pdf]

 

Baldwin, D.A. & Moses, L.J. (2001).  Links between social understanding and early word learning: Challenges to current accounts.  Social Development, 10, 309-329. [pdf]

 

Carlson, S.M. & Moses, L.J. (2001). Individual differences in inhibitory control and children's theory of mind.  Child Development, 72, 1032-1053. [pdf]

 

Malle, B.F., Moses, L.J., & Baldwin, D.A. (Eds.) (2001). Intentions and intentionality: Foundations of social cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

 

Malle, B.F., Moses, L.J., & Baldwin, D.A. (2001). Introduction: The significance of intentionality. In B.F. Malle, L.J. Moses, & D.A. Baldwin (Eds.), Intentions and intentionality: Foundations of social cognition (pp. 1-24). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

 

Moses, L.J. (2001). Executive accounts of theory of mind development.  Child Development, 3, 688-690. [pdf]

 

Moses, L.J. (2001). Some thoughts on ascribing complex intentional concepts to young children. In B.F. Malle, L.J. Moses, & D.A. Baldwin (Eds.), Intentions and intentionality: Foundations of social cognition (pp.69-83). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

 

Moses, L.J., Baldwin, D.A., Rosicky, J & Tidball, G. (2001).  Evidence for referential understanding in the emotions domain at 12 and 18 months. Child Development, 3, 718-735. [pdf]

 

Carlson, S.M., Moses, L.J., & Breton, C. (2002). How specific is the relation between executive function and theory of mind? Contributions of inhibitory control and working memory.  Infant and Child Development, 11, 73-92. [pdf]

 

Pears, K.C. & Moses, L.J. (2003).  Demographics, parenting, and theory of mind in three- and four-year-olds.  Social Development, 12, 1-20. [pdf]

 

Carlson, S.M., Moses, L. J., & Claxton, L. J. (2004). Individual differences in executive functioning and theory of mind: An investigation of inhibitory control and planning ability.  Journal of Experimental Child Psychology , 87, 299-319. [pdf]

 

Moses, L.J., & Carlson, S.M. (2004). Self regulation and children’s theories of mind.In C. Lightfoot, C. Lalonde, & M.J. Chandler (Eds.), Changing conceptions of psychological life (pp. 127-147). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

Moses, L J.(2005). Executive functioning and children’s theories of mind. In B. F. Malle & Sara D. Hodges (Eds.), Other Minds: How humans bridge the divide between self and others. Guilford Press.

 

Moses, L. J., & Baldwin, D. A. (2005). What can the study of cognitive development reveal about children’s ability to appreciate and cope with advertising. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 24, 186-201. [pdf]

 

Moses, L. J., Carlson, S. M., & Sabbagh, M. A. (2005). On the specificity of the relation between executive function and children’s theories of mind. In W. Schneider, R. Schumann-Hengsteler, B. Sodian (Eds.), Young Children’s Cognitive Development: Interrelationships among executive functioning, working memory, verbal ability, and theory of mind (pp. 131-146). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

Sabbagh, M. A., Moses, L. J., & Shiverick, S. (2006). Executive functioning and preschoolers’ understanding of false beliefs, false photographs, and false signs. Child Development, 77, 1034-1049. [pdf]

 

Sabbagh, M. A., Xu, F., Carlson, S. M., Moses, L. J., & Lee, K. (2006). The development of executive functioning and theory of mind: A comparison of Chinese and U.S. preschoolers. Psychological Science, 17, 74-81. [pdf]

 

Moses, L.J. & Tahiroglu, D. (in press). Clarifying the relation between executive function and children’s theories of mind. In J. Carpendale, G. Iarocci, U. Müller, B. Sokol, & A. Young (Eds)., Self- and Social-Regulation: Exploring the Relations between Social Interaction, Social Cognition, and the Development of Executive Functions. Oxford University Press.

 

 

 

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moses@uoregon.edu