Social Cognitive Development Lab
In the Social Cognitive Development Lab, directed by Dr. Annie Riggs, we study how children learn and reason about their social worlds. We are currently focused on children’s understanding of complex social behavior, such as social norms, and children’s perceptions of social groups, such as gender.
Research Projects
Children's Norm Following
How do children feel when they follow social norms and rules? In this study, we ask children to learn the rules to a new game and asses how happy they are when following versus breaking rules. We also ask children to predict whether other people will feel happy when they follow the rules, particularly if the rules align with or diverge from what they want to do. We hope to better understand why young children adhere to social norms (well, most of the time!). This study is designed for 3 to 5 year-old children and takes about 10 minutes to complete. Our lab is collaborating with the Social & Moral Development Lab on this project.
Parent-Child Conversations about Gender
Children rapidly acquire knowledge of gender norms in their first few years of life. They see examples of people following gender norms and of people breaking gender norms. In this study, we are interested in how parents and children talk about these situations in their everyday lives. If a child comes home from school with questions about a peer who does not follow gender norms, what type of conversation ensues? This study is designed for children ages 6 to 8 and a parent, who together come to the lab. The study takes approximately 20 minutes to complete.
Social Norms in Pretend Play
Is it ok or is it not ok to pretend to wear your pajamas to work? Or to pretend to sleep with your shoes on? We are interested in children’s pretend play and how children use pretending to learn about the social world. In particular, we are interested in what 3- to 5-year-old children think about pretending to do things that would be very unusual in the real world, like eating a hamburger for breakfast. This study takes about 15-20 minutes to complete and is being conducted in collaboration with the Social & Moral Development Lab!
Learning New Math Strategies
What types of examples are most effective when students are learning new math strategies? We want to understand how children learn math from different people represented in textbooks. Our lab is working with the Intergroup Cognition Lab to conduct this study.
People
Annie Riggs, PhD
Director of the Social Cognitive Development Lab Annie is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at WWU. She received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016 and her B.A. in psychology and philosophy from the University of California Berkeley in 2009. In her free time she enjoys tennis, yoga, cooking, and exploring the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her family. Also pictured: future participant of the SCD Lab, Eden! As a child, Annie wanted to be a meteorologist and her favorite books were the Boxcar Children and Harry Potter.
Aleea Piel
Research Assistant
Aleea is a senior at Western Washington University, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Disability Justice and Advocacy. When she has free time, Aleea loves any chance to express herself, whether through illustration, writing, heartfelt karaoke, or dancing in Zumba class! She plans to take a break to reflect and work before attending graduate school, with a dream of becoming a Dance Movement Therapist. When she was younger and realer, Aleea aspired to be a grocery store bagger or a barista (which she has since achieved), and her favorite book was The Bake Shop Ghost.
Katrina Jones
Research Assistant
Katrina is a third year at Western Washington University pursuing a Psychology major with a Sociology minor. After college she plans to attend Grad School to pursue a career as a School Psychologist. When she was younger, she wanted to be an astronaut or an astronomer and her favorite books were the Rainbow Magic Fairies book series.
Zoe Weinbeck
Research Assistant
Zoë is a senior at Western Washington University majoring in Psychology with minors in Behavioral Neuroscience and Chemistry. Upon graduating she would like to continue her studies in graduate school. In her free time, she enjoys playing video games, reading, and going for walks. When she was younger, Zoë wanted to be both a police officer and a professional wrestler, and her favorite books were from the Warriors series.
Averie Valverde
Research Assistant
Averie is a junior at Western Washington University majoring in Psychology and Spanish. In her free time, she loves to bake, read, hike, and play tennis. After graduating, she plans to go to graduate school to receive a master's degree to pursue a career in pediatric occupational therapy. When she was little, she wanted to be an archeologist, and her favorite book series was Harry Potter.
Milo Steckler
Research Assistant
Milo is a senior at Western Washington University pursuing two majors, Philosophy and Psychology. He plans on pursuing a master’s degree through Seattle University’s existential phenomenological psychotherapy program. In his free time, Milo enjoys heavy metal music, talking about philosophy, playing videogames, and foraging for wild mushrooms. When he was little, Milo wanted to be a rockstar and his favorite book series was The Demonata by Darren Shan.
Publications
Riggs, A.E. & Fast, A.A. (2025). Happy Normativists: Do children express happiness when following conventional norms? Developmental Science.
Riggs, A.E. & Fast, A.A. (2025). Children's beliefs about the emotional consequences of norm adherence and violation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
Fast, A.A. & Riggs, A.E. (2025). Preschoolers negatively evaluate conventional norm violations in pretend play. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Riggs, A.E. & Gonzalez, A.M. (2024). Similarity or Stereotypes? An investigation of how exemplar gender guides children’s math learning. Developmental Science.
Riggs, A.E., Kinard, D. & Long, M. (2022). Sex Roles. Children’s evaluations of gender non-conforming peers.
McLean, K.C. & Riggs, A.E. (2021). No age differences? No problem. Journal of Infant and Child Development.
Riggs, A.E. (2020). Is or ought? Reactions to violations help children to distinguish norms and regularities. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 194, 104822.
Riggs, A.E. & Long, M. (2020) The Domain Frequency Association: A mental shortcut to guide children’s generalization of norms and preferences. Cognitive Development, 54, 100853.
Riggs, A.E.(2019) Social Statistics: Children use statistical reasoning to guide their inferences about the scope of social behavior. Developmental Psychology.
Riggs, A.E., Alibali, M.W., & Kalish, C.W. (2017). Does it Matter How Molly Does it? Person-Presentation of Strategies and Transfer in Mathematics. Contemporary Educational Psychology.
Riggs, A.E. & Kalish, C.W. (2016). Children’s Evaluations of Rule Violators. Cognitive Development.
Riggs, A.E. & Young, A.G. (2016). Developmental changes in children's normative reasoning across learning contexts and collaborative roles. Developmental Psychology.
Riggs, A.E., Alibali, M.W., & Kalish, C.W. (2015). Leave her out of it: Person-presentation of strategies is harmful for transfer. Cognitive Science. doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12224
Riggs, A.E., Kalish, C.W., & Alibali, M.W. (2014). Property content guides children’s memory for social learning episodes. Cognition, 131 (2), 243-253. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2014.01.004
Riggs, A.E., Kalish, C.W., & Alibali, M.W. (2014). When you’ve seen one, have you seen them all? Children’s memory for general and specific learning episodes. Developmental Psychology, 50(6), 1653-1659. doi: 10.1037/a0036130
Lab Photos
