Sara Baker

Position/Status

University Lecturer

E-mail Address

stb32@cam.ac.uk

Phone

+44 (0)1223 767531

Qualifications
Membership of Professional Bodies/Associations

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Profile

Sara's research interests are based in cognitive science. She studied for her Maîtrise in psychology and cognitive neuroscience at the University of Paris 8 while on placement at the Salpêtrière Hospital's Brain Imaging Unit. Sara then gained her Masters and PhD at the Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science working with preschool children in schools throughout New Jersey. This led on to a three-year ESRC-funded postdoctoral research position within the University of Bristol's Cognitive Development Centre. Since 2007 she has been an invited lecturer at the Royal College of Psychiatrists teaching basic psychology. Sara held a lectureship in Developmental Psychology at the University of Salford for one year before joining the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education as a University Lecturer in October 2011.

Academic Area/Links

Psychology and Education

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Research Topics

The focus of Sara's research is belief formation and belief revision, particularly during the preschool years. Central to her research agenda is the role of impulse control in the formation and expression of beliefs about two core domains of knowledge: the social world (e.g., perspective taking) and physics (e.g., gravity and inertia). 

Prospective Masters and PhD Applications

Sara welcomes queries from prospective Masters and PhD students.

Current Research Projects

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Teaching

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Selected Publications

Baker, S.T., Gjersoe, N.L., Sibielska-Woch, K., Leslie, A.M., and Hood, B. (2011). Inhibitory control interacts with core knowledge in toddlers’ manual search for an occluded object. Developmental Science, 14, 270-279.

Kazanina, N., Baker, S.T., Hood, B., and Seddon, H. (2011).  When throwing is not catching: Children’s understanding of intentionality of transfer verbs. Boston University Conference on Language Development.  Boston: Cascadilla Press.

Baker, S.T., Friedman, O., and Leslie, A.M. (2010). The Opposites task: Using general rules to test cognitive flexibility in preschoolers. Journal of Cognition and Development, 11, 240-254.