Academy Fellow

Virginia Slaughter is Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia, where she founded the Early Cognitive Development Centre. Her research focuses on social and cognitive development in infants and young children, with particular emphasis on social behaviour in infancy, theory-of-mind development and the acquisition of peer interaction skills. Key appointments of the last 10 years: Head, School of Psychology at the University of Queensland; Deputy Head, School of Psychology at the University of Queensland; Associate Editor, Child Development; Associate Editor, British Journal of Developmental Psychology; Editorial Board, Cognitive Development; Editorial Board, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

2013 – present: Professor and Head of School, School of Psychology, UQ

2010 – 2012: Professor, School of Psychology, UQ

2007 – 2009: Associate Professor & Deputy Head of School, School of Psychology, UQ

Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences;

Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science;

Australian Award for University Teaching in the category Teaching Large First Year Classes;

University of Queensland Foundation Research Excellence Award;

Australian Psychological Society Early Career Research Excellence Award

Oostenbroek, J., Suddendorf, T., Nielsen, M., Redshaw, J., Kennedy, S., Davis, J., Clark, S., & Slaughter, V. (2016). Comprehensive longitudinal study challenges the existence of neonatal imitation in humans. Current Biology, 26, 1334–1338.

Slaughter, V., Imuta, K., Peterson, C., & Henry, J. (2015). Meta-analysis of theory of mind and peer popularity in the preschool and early school years. Child Development, 86, 1159–1174

Slaughter, V., & Perez-Zapata, D. (2014). Cultural variations in the development of mindreading. Child Development Perspectives, 8, 237–241.

Peterson, C., Slaughter, V., & Brownell, C. (2015). Children with autism spectrum disorders are skilled at reading emotion body language. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 139, 35-50.

Slaughter, V. & Ong. S. S. (2014). Social behaviours increase more when children with ASD are imitated by their mothers versus an unfamiliar adult. Autism Research, 7, 582–589.