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Ashley J. Thomas

Positions

Website: ashleyjthomas.com 

Email: ajthomas@mit.edu

Harvard University        Cambridge, MA

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology        starting 2023

Massachusetts Institute of Technology        Cambridge, MA

Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship        2021-current

Massachusetts Institute of Technology        Cambridge, MA

Postdoctoral Fellow, Brain and Cognitive Sciences        August 2018-2021

Harvard University        Cambridge, MA

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology        August 2018-2021

Education

University of California        Irvine, CA

Ph.D. in Cognitive Sciences, Advisor: Barbara W. Sarnecka        2013–2018

Dissertation: “Winners, Losers, Bullies and Leaders. How infants and children think and feel about social hierarchy.”

University of California        Berkeley, CA

B.A. in Architecture        2004–2008

Thesis: “Poem, Forest, Light”

Grants

NIH National Research Service Award, 2018-2021

Grant Title:How infants use the affiliations of their caregivers to evaluate others.

Grant Number: 1F32HD096829 Co-Mentors Elizabeth Spelke and Rebecca Saxe

NSF, SBE Postdoctoral Fellowship, declined

Grant Title:Finding one’s social circle: How caregivers influence the social evaluations of infants.

Grant Number: 1810526 Co-PIs Elizabeth Spelke and Rebecca Saxe

Publications

  1. Thomas, A.J.,Saxe, R., Spelke, E. (2022) Infants infer potential social partners by observing the interactions of their parent with unknown others. PNAS; publication; OSF page
  2. Thomas, A.J., Sumner, E., Sarnecka, B.W. (2022) Children expect leaders to oust intruders, to refrain from aggression, but do not expect leaders to be generally prosocial. Collabra; preprint; OSF page
  3. Thomas, A.J., Piff, P., Terrizzi, B., Sarnecka, B.W.(2022). Children recognize decision-making structures and prefer groups with less concentrated power. Open Mind; preprint; OSF page
  4. Kominsky, J. F., Lucca, K., Thomas, A. J., Frank, M. C., Hamlin, J. K.(2022). Simplicity and validity in infant research. Cognitive Development, 63, 101213; preprint
  5. Thomas, A.J., Woo, B., Nettle, D., Spelke, E., Saxe, R. (2022) Early concepts of social intimacy: Young humans use saliva sharing as a cue of thick relationships. Science; preprint; OSF page
  6. Thomas, A.J., Sarnecka, B.W. (2019). Infants Choose Those Who Defer in Conflicts. Current Biology, 29.13: 2183-2189.; manuscript; OSF page
  7. Thomas, A.J., Thomsen, L., Abramyan, M., Lukowksi, A., Sarnecka, B.W. (2018). Toddlers Prefer Those Who Win, But Not When They Win by Force. Nature Human Behaviour, 2(9), 662; manuscript; OSF page
  8. Thomas, A.J., Stanford, P.K., Sarnecka, B.W. (2016). No Child Left Alone: Moral Judgments about Parents Affect Estimates of Risk to Children. Collabra, 2(1), 10.; manuscript; OSF page
  9. Thomas, A.J., Sarnecka, B. W. (2015). Exploring the relation between people’s theories of intelligence and beliefs about brain development. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00921; manuscript;

OSF page

Commentaries

  1. Thomas, A.J., Radkani,S., Hung, M., (2022). Non-instrumental actions can communicate roles and relationships, not just rituals. Commentary on Jagiello, R., Heyes, C., Whitehouse, H. (2022). Tradition and Invention: The Bifocal Stance Theory of Cultural Evolution. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1-50.; preprint
  2. Radkani, S, Thomas, A.J.,Saxe. R., (2022). Advantages and limitations of representing groups in terms of recursive utilities. Commentary on Pietraszewski, D. Towards a computational theory of social groups: A finite set of cognitive primitives for representing any and all social groups in the context of conflict. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1-62.; preprint
  3. Stanford, K.P., Thomas, A.J.,Sarnecka, B.W., (2020). Rationalization may improve predictability rather than accuracy. Commentary on Cushman, F. Rationalization is rational, Behavioral and Brain Sciences; manuscript

Publications Under Review

  1. Thomas, A. J. (under review) Cognitive Representations of Social Relationships and their Developmental Origins
  2. O’Connor, C., Relihan, D. P., Thomas, A. J., Ditto, P. H., Stanford, K., Weatherall, J. O. (under review). Moral Judgments Impact Perceived Risks from COVID-19 Exposure. preprint
  3. Relihan, D. P., Thomas, A. J., Ditto, P. H. (under review). Wrong is risky: Moral judgments shape risk perceptions. OSF page
  4. Thomas, A. J. , Bourg, Chris, Saxe, Rebecca (under review) Cognitive Representations of Social Relationships and their Developmental Origins

Popular Press Articles

  1. Stanford, K.P., Sarnecka, B.W., Thomas, A.J. (2016). We’re really bad at judging risk to kids. We’re really good at judging parents.The Washington Post, Post Everything, December 16th, 2016; article

Awards

Associate Dean’s Fellowship, 2017.

Recognizes graduate students who are making excellent progress in their graduate program. It will take the place of a TA fellowship during my dissertation year.

Annual Jean-Claude Falmagne Award, 2017.

Awarded to one advanced graduate student from the Cognitive Science Department, accompanied by

$5000.

Annual Jean-Claude Falmagne Award, runner up, 2016.

Awarded to one advanced graduate student from the Cognitive Science Department, I received the runner-up prize, which was accompanied by $500.

Annual Yellott Scholar Award, 2015.

Given to one graduate student, who has not yet advanced, from the Cognitive Science Department. I received the runner-up prize, which was accompanied by $500.

Experimental Social Science Graduate Student Workshop Program, Research Grant, 2014. Awarded to two students after a workshop where students presented research proposals, $500.

UC Irvine Merit Fellowship, 2013-2018.

This award is granted to students entering the PhD program at the University of California, Irvine, to replace four quarters of TA fellowships.

Events Organized        

Symposium on Early Representations of Caregiver Relationships and Consequences for Social Cognition The Society for Research on Child Development Conference, virtual. 2021.

Developing Theories on Naïve Sociology Pre-Conference Co-Chaired with Elizabeth Enright-Ake at the Cognitive Development Society, Portland, Oregon, 2017.

Symposium on The Powerful and Mighty: How Social Dominance shapes children’s preferences, trust and social inferences. Co-Chaired with Dr. Lotte Thomsen at The Society for Research on Child Development Conference, Austin, TX. 2017.

Invited Talks        

Thomas, A.J. Early ideas about Social Relationships. Cooperation Lab Virtue Project, Boston College

Thomas, A.J. How Infants Navigate their Social Networks Invited by Cog Lunch Seminar Series, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Thomas, A.J. Friendly or Fearsome, Children’s Representations of Social Hierarchy. Invited by the Social Psychology Seminar Series, University of Oslo, Norway.

Thomas, A.J. No Child Left Alone: Moral judgments about parents affect estimates of risk to children.

Invited by the department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of California, Irvine

Conference Presentations        

Thomas, A.J., Saxe, R., Spelke, E.S. (2021). “Infants see the affiliates of their Caregivers as more relevent to themselves” Presented at the Social Cognition Preconference for SPSP.

Presented at 31st Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Boston, MA.

Presented at the Society for Research on Child Development Conference, Baltimore, MA.

Presented at the Symposium on Cognition and Language Development, Los Angeles, CA.

Teaching        

Instructor, graduate seminar at MIT        Fall 2021

(Tools for Robust Science) 20 students

Instructor at University of California, Irvine        Summer 2015, Summer 2016

(Introduction to Psychology) 90 students

Teaching Assistant at University of California, Irvine

Led Discussion sections in: Developmental Psychology, Psychology for Psychology Majors (year-long class), Research Methods,

Service        

Associate Editor: Collabra

Reviewer: Developmental Science, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Royal Society Open Science, Psychological Sciences

Department Climate Committee, Harvard Psychology Department

Community of Practice Saxelab Liaison, MIT

Mentoring        

I have mentored around 30 undergraduate research assistants. Many of whom have been awarded grants through University Research Opportunity Programs and Summer Undergraduate Research Programs at UC Irvine, MIT, and Harvard (total of $20,744.) I have also served as a mentor for PPREP (Prospective Ph.D. RA Event in Psychology) program at Harvard.

Mentees: Luz Donato; Vivian Mitchell; Shixuan Shirley Wang; Sharon Thomsen; Judith Gallardo; Denise Giardina; Adrian Paul Ripa Riberal; Amy Giang; Anna Elizabeth Chavez Garcia; Anne Collinwood Brunson; Elisa Campello de Mello; Gabby Lomeli; Ghadeer Alabas; Joanna Baires Amaya; Judith Gallardo; Julia Elissa Majdali; Justine Skaar; Lucero Elena; Mayra Santos; Jazmin Henderson; Michelle Hung; William Adams; Sara Alansari, Vanessa Kudrnova; Annie Harris; Kristine Hocker; Aiyeden Uzamere; Will Adams, Vanessa Kurdrnova

Theses and Research Projects Supervised With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility? (Elisa Campellow de Mello); A Naïve Understanding of Social Hierarchies: Which Organization do Children Prefer? (Vivian Mitchelle); Toddlers Expectations about Information and Social Hierarchy (Will Adams); Connecting Imitation with Comforting; evidence that infants track relationships instead of traits (Vanessa Kurdrnova)

Training        

Media Interviews and Coverage