Qi Wang
Prof Assoc
2007
HDWeb Bio Page
Current Activities
Current Research Activities
My research interests are at the intersection of cognitive and
social development, focusing on the development of autobiographical
memory. Specifically, my research encompasses developmental, cognitive,
and sociocultural perspectives to explore the mechanisms for the offset
of infantile amnesia and the development of autobiographical memory. I
am particularly interested in the relationship between autobiographical
memory and the self as they develop across the lifecourse and in the
context of culture. Together with my collaborators, I have conducted
studies to examine how cultural self-constructs sustain
autobiographical remembering by affecting information processing at the
level of the individual and by shaping social practices of remembering
between individuals (e.g., sharing memory narratives between parents
and children). These studies illustrate that constructs of the self
differ across cultures as a function of the social orientations,
cultural values, and narrative environments in which children are
raised. In turn, such differences in self-construct have powerful
effects on the structure, content, and long-term accessibility of
autobiographical memories.
We have recently completed a 4-year longitudinal study
(funded by NIH, award# 1 R01 MH64661-01A1) that tested my new theory of
autobiographical memory development. I propose that children's
emotional understanding comprises an important mechanism for the
development of autobiographical memory, both of which are shaped by
early family socialization practices. One hundred and eighty-nine
European American, Chinese immigrant, and native Chinese children and
their mothers participated in this study. Maternal interaction styles
and children's developing emotion knowledge and autobiographical memory
were assessed three times at home, from 36 to 60 months of age. The results have provided support for the hypotheses.
Current research examines cultural effects on the perceptual,
retention, and retrieval processes of remembering; and social-cognitive
factors in the development of autobiographical memory in middle
childhood (funded by NSF award# BCS-0721171).
Biography
Education
Ph.D. 2000 - Harvard University
M.A. 1998 - Harvard University
B.Sc. 1989 - Peking University, China
Administrative Responsibilities
Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD):
Ethnic and Racial Affairs Committee
Spring 2005 - Spring 2009
Cornell University:
Core faculty member of the Cornell East Asian Program
2000 - present
Human
Ecology Diversity
Committee
2005 - present
HD
Undergraduate Studies
Committee
2007 - present
Courses, Websites, Pubs
Courses Taught
HD 120 HD Freshman seminar
HD 230 Cognitive Development
HD 435 Mind, Self, and Emotion: Research Seminar
HD 452 Culture and Human Development
HD 631a Proseminar on Cognitive Development
HD 631b Seminar on Autobiographical Memory
Related Websites
Social Cognition Development Lab
Publications
Wang, Q. (2007). “Remember when you got the big, big bulldozer?”
Mother-child reminiscing over time and across cultures. Social
Cognition, 25, 4, 455-471.
Wang, Q. & Ross, M. (2007).
Culture and memory. In H. Kitayama & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of
Cultural Psychology. New York, NY: Guilford Publications.
Wang,
Q. (2006). Relations of maternal style and child self-concept to
autobiographical memories in Chinese, Chinese immigrant, and European
American 3-year-olds. Child Development, 77, 6, 1799-1814.
Wang, Q. (2006). Culture and the development of self-knowledge. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15, 4, 182-187.
Wang,
Q. (2006). Earliest recollections of self and others in European
American and Taiwanese young adults. Psychological Science, 17, 8,
708-714.
Wang, Q. & Ross, M. (2005). What we remember and
what we tell: The effects of culture and self-priming on memory
representations and narratives. Memory, 13, 6, 594-606.
Wang,
Q. (2004). The emergence of cultural self-construct: Autobiographical
memory and self-description in American and Chinese children.
Developmental Psychology, 40, 1, 3-15.
Wang, Q. (2003). Infantile amnesia reconsidered: A cross-cultural analysis. Memory, 11, 1, 65-80.
Wang,
Q. & Brockmeier, J. (2002). Autobiographical remembering as
cultural practice: Understanding the interplay between memory, self and
culture. Culture & Psychology, 8, 45-64.
Wang, Q. (2001).
Cultural effects on adults' earliest childhood recollection and
self-description: Implications for the relation between memory and the
self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(2), 220-233.
Wang,
Q. & Leichtman, M. D. (2000). Same beginnings, different stories: A
comparison of American and Chinese children's narratives. Child
Development, 71(5), 1329-1346.