2011: Genevieve DeBernardis
University of Nevada, Reno
Genevieve's line of research stems from her master's thesis, which focused on examining the capacity of persons to predict novel behavior of other persons. The results of this study showed that the degree of relational intimacy (i.e., type of shared history) was an especially important factor in the development of this capacity. The duration of the relationship (i.e., length of shared history) was also important, though to a lesser extent. Genevieve has also examined the acquisition of perspective taking in typically developing preschool-aged children. She believes that if the role of these factors could be verified, procedures could be developed to establish this repertoire in very young children, enhancing their social development with life-long benefits. Furthermore, a better understanding of this phenomenon could lead to training techniques suited to persons showing perspective-taking deficits or who had previously been unable to learn this skill.
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