Developmental Psychology – Evolution & Social Behaviour

What pre-requisites do you look for when evaluating a potential thesis student?

The minimum CA of 8.5.

What information are you going to want from a student who is interested in working in your lab?

Student’s grades will be retried by the ballot system once the balloting process is completed. In addition, I will look for evidence that we have research interests in common, either as a description on the ballot system or in an individual interview.

How do you want to be contacted?

You may contact me by e-mail, however, I may not respond until I evaluate the applications submitted through the ballot.

Evolutionary psychological perspectives on social perceptual development, social cognitive development, theory of mind and autism

Our work at the Rutherford Lab is experimental psychology motivated by evolutionary theory. What are the psychological adaptations shared by all humans that solve the adaptive problems of our ancestral environment? Specifically, we work on the questions of Social Perception and Social Perceptual Development. We study animacy perception, because discriminating what in the world is animate is the first developmental step in social cognition. We study face perception and the perception of emotional facial expressions, and we are exploring the development of categorical perception of emotional expressions. Once we know what social perceptual skills develop in the first years of life, we can develop tests for atypical development. Using eye tracking technology, we are finding very early markers of autism spectrum disorders, including how infants at risk for autism use motion information in animacy perception, the perception of faces, and the perception of emotional facial expressions, and how infants use facial eye gaze to capture attention.

Developmental Psychology – Evolution & Social Behaviour

What pre-requisites do you look for when evaluating a potential thesis student?

The minimum CA of 8.5.

What information are you going to want from a student who is interested in working in your lab?

Student’s grades will be retried by the ballot system once the balloting process is completed. In addition, I will look for evidence that we have research interests in common, either as a description on the ballot system or in an individual interview.

How do you want to be contacted?

You may contact me by e-mail, however, I may not respond until I evaluate the applications submitted through the ballot.

Evolutionary psychological perspectives on social perceptual development, social cognitive development, theory of mind and autism

Our work at the Rutherford Lab is experimental psychology motivated by evolutionary theory. What are the psychological adaptations shared by all humans that solve the adaptive problems of our ancestral environment? Specifically, we work on the questions of Social Perception and Social Perceptual Development. We study animacy perception, because discriminating what in the world is animate is the first developmental step in social cognition. We study face perception and the perception of emotional facial expressions, and we are exploring the development of categorical perception of emotional expressions. Once we know what social perceptual skills develop in the first years of life, we can develop tests for atypical development. Using eye tracking technology, we are finding very early markers of autism spectrum disorders, including how infants at risk for autism use motion information in animacy perception, the perception of faces, and the perception of emotional facial expressions, and how infants use facial eye gaze to capture attention.

Advising Hours

Monday – Friday
10:00am – 12:00pm
1:00pm – 3:00pm

This is subject to change for scheduled appointments and remote days

At this time, we are experiencing high volumes of student emails. E-mails will be answered in the order in which they are received. 

PLEASE DO NOT SEND MULTIPLE EMAILS. Sending multiple messages significantly affects response time and compromises our ability to assist all students. Only inquiries including a student number will be addressed.

PNB Academic Program Advisor: pnbadvis@mcmaster.ca

If you are requesting any of the below, please email the Associate Dean of Science (Academic) Office at science@mcmaster.ca or attend their Virtual Advising Sessions

• Letter of Permission
• Overload Requests
• Program Transfers
• Information about any Level I Gateway program, or other Honours Level programs
• Course Conflict forms

Please be advised: Student course enrolment begins (dates below):

If you are unable to add the course into the shopping cart, that is because the scheduling team is still finalizing the timetable. Please try again once the enrollment starts for your level.

PSYCH COURSE WAIVERS

• PSYCH waiver request form can be found online here
• PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL regarding the status of your waiver, students will be contacted.

+ Waiver requests will be reviewed after:

1. June 28th 2024
2. July 26th, 2024
3. August 28th, 2024

COURSE IS FULL

• Please do not email requesting permission to enroll in a course if it is full. Students are encouraged to monitor Mosaic over the course enrolment period up until the add/drop date – Wednesday September 11th, 2024.
• PNB does not have waiting lists.

RESERVE CAPACITY

• Reserve capacities will be open on August 1st, 2024 for all students

For more information regarding enrolment dates click the following link:  https://registrar.mcmaster.ca/dates-and-deadlines/#tab-10

Advising Hours

Monday – Friday
10:00am – 12:00pm
1:00pm – 3:00pm

This is subject to change for scheduled appointments and remote days

At this time, we are experiencing high volumes of student emails. E-mails will be answered in the order in which they are received. 

PLEASE DO NOT SEND MULTIPLE EMAILS. Sending multiple messages significantly affects response time and compromises our ability to assist all students. Only inquiries including a student number will be addressed.

PNB Academic Program Advisor: pnbadvis@mcmaster.ca

If you are requesting any of the below, please email the Associate Dean of Science (Academic) Office at science@mcmaster.ca or attend their Virtual Advising Sessions

• Letter of Permission
• Overload Requests
• Program Transfers
• Information about any Level I Gateway program, or other Honours Level programs
• Course Conflict forms

Please be advised: Student course enrolment begins (dates below):

If you are unable to add the course into the shopping cart, that is because the scheduling team is still finalizing the timetable. Please try again once the enrollment starts for your level.

PSYCH COURSE WAIVERS

• PSYCH waiver request form can be found online here
• PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL regarding the status of your waiver, students will be contacted.

+ Waiver requests will be reviewed after:

1. June 28th 2024
2. July 26th, 2024
3. August 28th, 2024

COURSE IS FULL

• Please do not email requesting permission to enroll in a course if it is full. Students are encouraged to monitor Mosaic over the course enrolment period up until the add/drop date – Wednesday September 11th, 2024.
• PNB does not have waiting lists.

RESERVE CAPACITY

• Reserve capacities will be open on August 1st, 2024 for all students

For more information regarding enrolment dates click the following link:  https://registrar.mcmaster.ca/dates-and-deadlines/#tab-10

Jennifer Nettleton
Academic Program Advisor
PC 109 – pnbadvis@mcmaster.ca

Please include your student number in all email correspondence

Closed daily for lunch 1:00pm – 2:00pm

Please send student queries and reimbursement requests to pnb@mcmaster.ca

Jennifer Nettleton
Academic Program Advisor
PC 109 – pnbadvis@mcmaster.ca

Please include your student number in all email correspondence

Closed daily for lunch 1:00pm – 2:00pm

Please send student queries and reimbursement requests to pnb@mcmaster.ca