Stephen Ceci
Professor
2008
HD

Web Bio Page

Current Activities

Current Professional Activities
My current professional activities include conducting over a dozen new research projects, with grad students and colleagues, serving on 6 national and international scientific boards, editing a journal, serving on the editorial boards of 7 other journals, co-directing a NSF center at Cornell, supervising a large group of graduate students, and finishing a new book.

Current Research Activities
Conducting multiple experiments on children's testimonial competence; co-writing two books. I am completing two large-scale integrative reviews with colleagues.

Current Extension Activities
Preparing curriculum for  judges to assist them in assessing children's competence; deliver workshops for judges, mental health and law enforcement professionals across the U.S. and Canada; doing translational research for the legal community on child witness issues. Gave all-day presentations at annual meetings of parents and mental health groups.  Video made about my child witness research this year by film crew at Ithaca College which plans to show it nationally.


Biography

Biographical Statement
Currently, with Wendy Williams, I am in the throes of a major project examining sex differences in cognitive performance, which has culminated this year in one authored book, one edited volume, two chapters, and a review article (with Wendy Williams and Susan Barnett). I continue to develop a bio-ecological theory of intelligence; ecological models of cognitive development, including a long-term synthesis of racial/ethnic and SES gaps; children’s testimonial competence; the accuracy of children’s memory; the legal implications of children’s cognitive development; translation of social science research into public policy; public interest research; and professional issues (e.g., peer review, tenure, academic freedom, authorship issues). Concerning the latter, Wendy Williams and I have a target article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences on tenure and academic freedom and a large-scale analysis of authorship issues that is currently in preparation for submission to Science.

I am the author of approx. 350 articles, books, and chapters—many in the premier journals of the field--and I have given hundreds of invited addresses and keynote speeches around the world (Harvard, Cambridge University, Oxford, Yale, Princeton, University of Rome, University of Oslo, Max Plank Institutes in Munich and Berlin).  I have served on the Advisory Board of the National Science Foundation for seven years (the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences), and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Board of Behavioral and Sensory Sciences. My major honors and scientific awards include:
•    In 2000 the American Academy of Forensic Psychology's Lifetime Distinguished Contribution Award,
•    The American Psychological Association's 2002 Lifetime Distinguished Contribution Award for Science and Society, and its 2003 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award for the Application of Psychology (shared with Elizabeth F. Loftus), and
•    In 2005 I received the Association for Psychological Science's highest scientific award, the James McKeen Cattell Award at its annual meeting in L.A.
I have appeared frequently in the national and international media, including: ABC's 20/20 (twice), NBC’s Dateline (twice), ABC’s Nightline, ABC’s Good Morning America, ABC’s Primetime Live (twice), PBS’s Frontline (twice), CBS’s 48 Hours, PBS’s McNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, BBC (three times), CBC's Fifth Estate, and numerous magazines and newspapers including the Wall Street Journal (twice), The New York Times (four times), The  New Yorker (three times), The Washington Post (three times), Time Magazine (twice), Newsweek (twice), The London Times, and Reader's Digest.  I am past president of the Society for General Psychology, and I serve on 8 editorial boards, including Scientific American Mind.



Education

Ph.D 1978 - University. of Exeter, England - Developmental Psychology

M.A. 1975 - University of Pennsylvania - Developmental Psychology

B.A. 1973 - University of Delaware - General Psychology



Administrative Responsibilities
I edit the journal, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, published by the American Psychological Society. I co-direct the NSF center: Cornell Institute for Research on Children (CIRC). I lead a large lab (chair 7 doctoral stduents and numerous undergraduate research assistants, and its meetings ra attended by 3-5 faculty as well.

Courses, Websites, Pubs

Courses Taught
Taught HD 2330, Spring, 08 (39 students)
Taught HD 6110, Fall,, 08 (6 grad students)
Taught HD 4230, Fall, 08 (9 students)
Gave two guest lectures during Fall 08 in HD 1150, and PSYCH 1010.


Related Websites

Cornell Institute for Research on Children




Selected Publications
Ceci, S.J., Papierno, P.B., & Kulkofsky, S.C. (2007). Representational constraints on children's suggestibility. Psychological Science, 18, 503-509.

Ceci, S.J., Williams, W. M., & Mueller-Johnson, K. (2006). Is tenure justified? An experimental
study of faculty beliefs about tenure, promotion, and academic freedom . Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 29, 1-39.

Ceci, S.J. & Papierno, P.B. (2005). The rhetoric and reality of gap-closing: When the “have-nots” gain, but the “haves” gain even more. American Psychologist, 60, 149-160.

Ceci, S. J., Williams, W. M., & Barnett, S. M. (2009). The underrepresentation of women in science: Sociocultural and biological considerations. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 172-210.

Ceci, S. J. & Williams, W.M. (2009; February 12).  Untouchable science: Defeating Lysinkoism.  Nature.

Brainerd, C. J., Reyna, V. F., & Ceci, S. J. (2008). Developmental Reversals in False Memory:
A Review of Data and Theory. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 334-375.

Brainerd, C., Reyna, V.F., Ceci, S.J., & Holliday, R.E. (2008). Developmental reversals in false memory: Reply to Ghetti (2008) and Howe (2008) Psychological Bulletin, 134, xxx-xxx.

Ceci, S. J. & Williams, W. M. (2007). Why aren't more women  in science? Top researchers  debate the evidence. Washington, DC: APA Books.

Bruck, M. & Ceci, S. J. (2004). Forensic developmental psychology: Unveiling four common misconceptions. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13, 229-232.

Ceci, S.J. (2003). Lifetime Contribution Award: Cast in six ponds and you’ll reel in something: looking back on 25 years of research. American Psychologist, 58(11).

Kanaya, T., Scullin, M. & Ceci, S. J. (2003). The Flynn Effect and U.S. Policies. The Impact of Rising IQ Scores on American Society. American Psychologist, Vol. 58, No. 10, 778-790.

London, K., Bruck. M., Wright, D. B., & Ceci, S. J. (in press). Review of the contemporary literature on how children report sexual abuse to others: Findings, methodological issues, and implications for forensic interviewers. Memory.

Kanaya, T. & Ceci, S. J. (2008). How much is one IQ point worth? Perspectives in Child Development, 1, 62-63.

Kanaya, T. & Ceci, S. J. (2008).  Are All IQ Scores Created Equal? The Differential Costs of IQ Cutoff Scores for At-Risk Children. Perspectives in Child Development, 1, 52-56.

Klemfuss, J.Z., Ceci, S.J., & Bruck, M. (in press). Normative Memory Development and the Child Witness. In Kuehnle, K. & M. Connell (Eds.), Child Sexual Abuse Allegations. NY: Wiley.

Barnett, S. M. & Ceci, S. J. (2002). When and Where do we apply what we learn? A taxonomy for far transfer. Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 128(4), 612-637.

Ceci, S. J., Bruck, M., Kulkfsky, S. C., Klemfuss, J. Z., & Sweeney, C. (2008). Unwarranted Assumptions About Children’s Testimonial Accuracy. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology.

Ceci, S. J. (1996). On Intelligence: A bio-ecological treatise on intellectual development. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Ceci, S.J. & Bruck. (in press). Do IRBs pass the minimal harm test?  Perspectives in Psychological Science.

Ceci, S. J. & Williams, W.M. (in press). The mathematics of sex: how biology and society conspire to limit talented women and girls.  NY: Oxford University Press.

Rindermann, H. & Ceci, S. J. (in press). Educational policy and country outcomes
in international cognitive competence studies.  Perspectives in Psychological Science.

Ceci, S. J. & Konstantopoulos, S. (2009, Jan. 30). It’s not all about class size. The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Ceci, S. J. & Bruck, M. [1995]. Jeopardy in the courtroom: The scientific analysis of children’s testimony. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. (Winner of the 2000 William James Book Award by APA)

Bronfenbrenner, U. & Ceci, S. J. (1994). Nature-nurture in developmental perspective: A bioecological theory. Psychological Review, 101, 568-586.

Ceci, S. J., Loftus, E. F., Leichtman, M., & Bruck, M. (1994). The possible role of source misattributions in the creation of false beliefs among preschoolers. International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis. 42, 304-320.

Ceci, S. J. & Bruck, M. (1993). The suggestibility of children's recollections: An historical review and synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 403-439.