Research

EARLY SOCIAL EVALUATION AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR

Examines how infants and young children evaluate others’ actions and engage in prosocial behavior, using behavioral, physiological, and neural measures.

Tan, E., Van de Vondervoort, J. W., Dhaliwal, J., Aknin, L. B., & Hamlin, J. K. (2026). Toddlers are happier giving to others than to themselves. Developmental Science, 29(3), e70171. 📄

Tan, E., & Hamlin, J. K. (2024). Toddlers’ affective responses to sociomoral scenes: Insights from physiological measures. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 237, 105757. 📄

Tan, E., & Hamlin, J. K. (2022). Infants’ neural responses to helping and hindering scenarios. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 54, 101095. 📄

Tan, E., & Hamlin, J. K. (2022). Mechanisms of social evaluation in infancy: A preregistered exploration of infants’ eye-movement and pupillary responses to prosocial and antisocial events. Infancy, 27(2), 255-276. 📄

EARLY BRAIN ACTIVITY AND COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING

Examines how early brain activity is associated with cognitive development and predicts later cognitive outcomes.

Tan, E., Troller-Renfree, S. V., Morales, S., Buzzell, G. A., McSweeney, M., Antúnez, M., & Fox, N. A. (2024). Theta activity and cognitive functioning: Integrating evidence from resting-state and task-related developmental electroencephalography (EEG) research. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 67, 101404. 📄

Tan, E., Tang, A., Debnath, R., Humphreys, K. L., Zeanah, C. H., Nelson, C. A., & Fox, N. A. (2023). Resting brain activity in early childhood predicts IQ at 18 years. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 63, 101287. 📄

EARLY INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL CONTEXTS AND DEVELOPMENTAL OUTCOMES

Examines early individual differences in socioemotional functioning and their links to developmental outcomes.

Tan, E., Zeytinoglu, S., Morales, S., Buzzell, G. A., Almas, A. N., Degnan, K. A., Chronis-Tuscano, A., Henderson, H., Pine, D. S., & Fox, N. A. (2023). Social versus non-social behavioral inhibition: Differential prediction from early childhood of long-term psychosocial outcomes. Developmental Science, e13427. 📄

Tan, E., Mikami, A. Y., Luzhanska, A., & Hamlin, J. K. (2021). The homogeneity and heterogeneity of moral functioning in preschool. Child Development, 92(3), 959-975. 📄

Tan, E., Mikami, A. Y., & Hamlin, J. K. (2018). Do infant sociomoral evaluation and action studies predict preschool social and behavioral adjustment? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 176, 39-54. 📄