2-015 - A Tribute to Annette Karmiloff-Smith

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Annette Karmiloff-Smith passed away in late December 2016. She was one of the most influential and inspiration developmental psychologists of her generation. Having initially trained as a translator she switched in to developmental psychology after a chance meeting with Piaget in Geneva. Annette was instrumental in arguing that studying development was essential to understand the shape of the adult cognition. In the second half of her career, she turned her attention to understanding atypical development in a range of developmental disorders (most notably Wiliams Syndrome and Down Syndrome). Most recently she tried to elucidate the complex interactions between genetics and experience that constrain behavioral development. Annette was also an inspirational woman, scientist and mentor to generations of developmental psychologists. Finally, Annette was fundamentally committed to the broader dissemination of key scientific findings and to this end often appeared in the media and authored a number of extremely successful books aimed at helping a lay audience understand the changes taking place in their developing child. In this symposium, friends, colleagues and former students will look back at her professional as well as personal contributions the field of child development sharing personal and professional observation on her monumental impact.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Denis Mareschal, Birkbeck College

Individual Presentations

• The Karmiloff-Smith Phenomenon: Sui Generis - Presenting Author: April Benasich, Rutgers University

• Mentoring the next generation scientists: Lessons learned from my personal experience as a mentee of Dr. Annette Karmiloff-Smith - Presenting Author: Kang Lee, University of Toronto

• Development itself is key to understanding ... Attention - Presenting Author: Gaia Scerif, St. Andrews College, Oxford University; Dima Amso, Brown University; Rachel Wu, University of California, Riverside

• Relative Clauses in a Piagetian Framework - Presenting Author: Susan Goldin-Meadow, University of Chicago; Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London