CURRICULUM VITAE
Robert Bruce Thompson
Department of Psychology
University of Southern Maine
96 Falmouth Street, Science Building 536
Tel: 207.780.4739 Email: bthompso@usm.maine.edu
Education: University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland, UK
MA Psychology, July 1989
MA Art History, July 1989 (Joint Honours)
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Ph.D. Psychology, January 1997
Developmental Psychology (language and social development)
Teaching Experience:
Present appointment
Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine. Present teaching includes Life-Span Development, Infancy and Childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood and Aging, and Social-Linguistic Development.
September 2000-
May 2001
Lecturer in Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Faculty appointment in Developmental Psychology. Teaching included courses in life-span development, infant/child cognition, developmental psycholinguistics and social development. Responsibilities also included honors thesis supervision and thesis committee membership.
August 1998-May 2000:
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Appointment (two-year, renewable) consisted of undergraduate teaching in human development (lifespan), developmental linguistics, social development and general psychology. Teaching responsibilities also included supervision of Honors Research Program students. Laboratory teaching includes supervision of student field research in social development and psycholinguistics.
September 1996-
May, 1998
Lecturer - Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts. Teaching consisted of lecturing in developmental psychology, social psychology, general psychology and research methods. Responsibilities included development of course curricula and supervision of teaching fellows and teaching assistants.
Autumn Semester-1997
Lecturer - The Eliot Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts. Teaching consisted of lecturing in developmental linguistics to students at the undergraduate and graduate level and supervising student field research.
October 1995-June 1996
Lecturer - Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. Teaching consisted of 1st and 3rd year social psychology lectures. Responsibilities for both courses included the curriculum design, setting and marking of assessment projects and participating with the board of examiners on development of degree examinations.
March 1993-June 1996
Lecturer - Department of Psychology and Sociology, Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland. Responsibilities consisted of developing and teaching 12 week modules in psychology for a wide range of degree subjects in the social sciences. Modules included perception, social psychology, intelligence and personality. Teaching included organizing and supervising independent study projects.
October 1992-May 1996
Laboratory Instructor - Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. Responsibilities included small-group teaching of introductory statistics for the social sciences, use of statistical software (SPSS, Statview and Minitab) and the teaching of introductory experimental design.
October, 1993-
October, 1995
Computing Instructor - Computing Services, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. Responsibilities included teaching computing skills, use of internet resources and instruction in the use of quantitative analysis tools and graphic modeling software.
Research Activity:
Interests: Language acquisition and social development. Specific interests include gender and SES differences in pragmatic development and communicative competence, particularly in problem-solving contexts. A related interest is teacher evaluation of children's competence and self-reliance within problem-solving contexts. Wider interests include the philosophy of language and social cognition.
Current:
Activities: Current work is focused on studies investigating children’s language and social-cognitive development. These include studies on the development of preschoolers’ theory-of-mind and it’s role in help-eliciting and collaborative speech, as well as other social behavior.
Another set of studies is exploring the role of socio-economic status in the development of children’s’ problem-solving discourse and cognitive development.
Past Research Appointments
Summer, 2001
NIH Research Fellow, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts.
National Research Service Award fellowship (NRSA) consisted of NIH funded research in developmental psychology (language and social development).
September 1995-
Research Associate - M.A.N. Accessible Resource Based Learning Exemplars
October, 1997 Project (MARBLE). Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland.
A grant from the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) supported this study to pilot network-based (internet) collaborative teaching resources for psychology. Primary aims of the study were to assess the efficacy of world-wide-web psychology teaching materials. This included instruction in statistical design and analysis, down-loadable data sets and the use of on-line course material and interactive tutorials. Specific responsibilities consisted of writing grant proposals for individual sub-sections of the project, supervising research assistants, developing and integrating social science data-sets into HTML files, creation of instructive links between local and international internet sites, and the final assessment (qualitative and quantitative) of student use.
October 1991-
September 1992
Administrative/Research Assistant - Harvard Medical School at the Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Worked in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Responsibilities included preparation of research materials, residency training program curriculum materials and all administrative preparations for periodic training program audits.
Grants & Awards:
Harvard University/Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, 2002 (US$9,505.00) Henry Murray Research Center grant for language and social development research.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Research Service Award (NRSA), 2001 (US$ 86,000). A research grant funded through the National Institute for Health and Human Development (NICHD) (Summer 2001, prior to accepting USM appointment).
Gettysburg College Research and Professional Development Grant, 1998-2000 (US$ 1,595). A research grant supporting a series of studies investigating the development factors affecting preschool children’s problem-solving discourse. This grant also supports a current study exploring affects of help-eliciting speech on teacher evaluations of problem-solving competence. Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA.
Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) grant for research in education, 1995 - 1996 (US$ 17,000). A government grant awarded for research in applied psychology. Funding was awarded as part of the M.A.N. Accessible Resource Based Learning Exemplars Project (MARBLE), an initiative to pilot the delivery of interactive psychology course material on the world wide web.
The Vans Dunlop Scholarship Award, 1996 (US$ 3,000). A merit scholarship to support doctoral research in the behavioral sciences. The University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Overseas Research Student Award (ORSA), 1995 - 1996 (US$ 1,500) for doctoral research in experimental psychology. The University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Drever Trust Award, 1994 - 1996 (US$ 1,500). The University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
John Smith International Student Scholarship Award - 1986 - 1989 (US$ 5,700). The University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
Publications: (refereed)
Thompson, R. B., & Thornton, B. (2007). Exploring Theory-of-Mind as a Social-Cognitive Developmental Mechanism for Social Loafing in Children. Journal of Social Psychology.
Thompson, R. B., & Williams†, D. (2006). Exploring diversity within "poverty:" The role of education and emotional well-being in mothers' metacognitive questions to children. Research in Human Development, 3, 191-209.
Thompson, R. B., & Arsenault, S†., & Williams†, D. (2006) The effects of preschool girls' and boys' help-seeking on adult evaluations of dyadic problem-solving. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 25, 146 – 166.
Thompson, R. B., & Williams†, D. (2005) Socializing advanced thought: Exploring the effects of poverty on mothers' metacognitive questions to their children. Southern Maine Review, 1, 274-287.
Gleason, J. B., & Thompson, R. B. (2002). Review of The CHILDES Project, Vol 1, Tools for Analyzing Talk Transcription Format and Programs. Vol. 2: Tools for Analyzing Talk The Databases. Brian MacWhinney. Contemporary Psychology, 47, 391-394.
Thompson, R. B., & Tenenbaum, H. (2002). Review of Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport Through Talk Across Cultures H. Spencer-Oatey (Ed.). London, England and New York, NY: Continuum Press (2000). Journal of Language and Social Psychology.
Thompson, R. B., & Gleason, J. B., (2001) Review of Language Death, David Crystal. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Journal of Applied Psycholinguistics.
Thompson, R. B., & Moore, K. (2000). Collaborative speech in dyadic problem-solving: Evidence for preschool gender differences in pragmatic development. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 19, 248-255.
Thompson, R. B., (1999). Gender Differences in Preschoolers’ Help-Eliciting Communication. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 160, 357-368.
Publications: (proceedings, reports and book chapters)
Marshall, I., Thompson, R. B., Moore, K., & Cuttle, M. (1997) The Feasibility and Efficacy of Computer Network Teaching in Psychology: Report to the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, Edinburgh University, Scotland.
Thompson, R. B. (1995). Children's Problem-Solving Language: Evidence for Early Pragmatic Competence, Proceedings of the Conference on Children and Social Competence, University of Surrey, Guilford, England.
Thompson, R. B. (1994). Gender Differences in Communication: Possible Consequences for the Learning Process, in Group and Interactive Learning. H. Foot, C. Howe, A. Anderson, A. Tolmie, D. Warden, (eds.) Computational Mechanics Publications, Boston and Southampton.
† USM Undergraduate Student
Manuscripts in preparation or under revision:
Thompson, R. B. & McCall, D. Gender in the Zone of Proximal Development: A microgenetic analysis of girls' and boys' help-seeking during a challenging task.
Thompson, R. B., & Williams†, D. Exploring diversity within "poverty:" The role of education and emotional well-being in mothers' metacognitive questions to children.
Williams†, D., & Thompson, R. B. Gendered Lenses: Adult gender role and child gender impacts subjective interpretation of help-seeking and problem-solving competence.
Thompson, R. B., & Arsenault†, S., & Tenenbaum, H. Gender differences in the use of collaborative speech among parents and adolescents.
Conference & Professional Presentations: (Refereed)
Bastide, M., & Thompson, R. B. (2007). Using extrinsic reinforcement to increase student-teacher interactions in an L2 classroom. Paper presented to the annual conference of the Association for Psychological Sciences. Washington, DC.
Thompson, R. B. & McCall, D. (May 2006). Pragmatics of problem-solving: Microgenetic analyses reveal gender differences in preschool help-seeking. Poster paper presented to the Association for Psychological Sciences annual conference, New York, NY.
Thompson, R. B. & Williams†, D. (May, 2006). Building a predictive model for metacognitive language among low SES mother-child dyads. Poster paper presented to the Association for Psychological Sciences annual conference, New York, NY.
Williams, D. & Thompson, R. B. (April 2006) Gendered Lenses: The role of adult sex-role identity and child gender in the interpretation of help-seeking and collaborative speech. Poster paper presented to the Thinking Matters Research Conference, University of Southern Maine, Portland ME.
Thompson, R. B., & Williams†, D. (April, 2005). Metacognitive questions to children: Exploring diversity within "low-SES" mother-child dyads. Paper presented to the Society for Research in Child Development biennial conference, Atlanta, GA.
Thompson, R. B., & Williams†, D. (April, 2005). Social Loafing and Social Compensation in Preschoolers: Further Exploration of the Role of Theory-of-Mind in Collaborative Effort. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development biennial conference, Atlanta, GA.
Thompson, R. B., Shepard, J†., Thornton, B. (2003, November) Social Loafing and the theory-of-mind: Diminished individual effort in a group as a developmental function of the ability to reason about other's beliefs and intensions. Paper presented to the International Conference on Statistics, Combinatorics and Related Areas.
Thompson, R. B., & Thornton, B. (2003, April). Social loafing in preschoolers: Exploring theory-of-mind as a mechanism for change in collaborative effort. Poster paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development biennial conference, Tampa, FL.
Thompson, R. B. (2003, April). From social welfare to psycholinguistics: Revisiting video data from 265 low income families to explore the development of preschoolers problem-solving discourse. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development biennial conference, Tampa, FL.
McCall, D., & Thompson, R. B. (2003, April). Picture-driven vs. piece-driven strategies in the completion of jigsaw puzzles: Implications for early visual memory and problem-solving. Poster paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development biennial conference, Tampa, FL.
† USM Undergraduate Student
Thompson, R. B., & Thornton, B., Hallet†, A., Carter†, J. (2003, April) Social Loafing, Paper presented to the Maine Psychological Association Annual Conference, Waterville, ME.
Thompson, R. B., & Arsenault†, S., & Tenenbaum, H. (2003, April) Gender differences in the use of collaborative speech among parents and adolescents. Paper presented to the Maine Psychological Association Annual Conference, Waterville, ME.
Thompson, R. B., & Carter, J†. (2003, April) Low SES mother-child discourse during problem-solving. Paper presented to the Maine Psychological Association Annual Conference, Waterville, ME.
Thompson, R. B., & Arsenault, S†. (2002, October). The effects of preschoolers’ verbal and non-verbal help-seeking communication on teachers’ evaluation of problem-solving. Paper presented to the New England Psychological Association annual conference, Nashua, NH.
Thompson, R. B. (2002, July). Age and Gender Effects in Preschoolers’ Collaborative Speech. Paper presented to the 9th Congress International Association for the Study of Child Language, Madison, WI.
Arsenault, S†., & Thompson, R. B. (2002, May) Body Image, Sexual Identity and Family Support as Predictors of Women’s Attitudes Towards Breast-Feeding. Paper presented to the Maine Psychological Association Annual Conference, Waterville, ME.
Thompson, R. B., & Tenenbaum, H. (2002). Science talk: Gender differences in parent-child scientific discourse. Poster paper presented to the annual conference of the Society for Research on Adolescence, New Orleans, LA.
Thompson, R. B. (2001, April). Double standards: The effects of preschool girls and boys' help-seeking language on teachers' evaluations of dyadic problem-solving. Poster paper presented to the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN.
McCall, D., & Thompson, R. B. (2001, April). Preschoolers’ problem-solving strategies: Variations in skill with jigsaw puzzles. Poster paper presented to the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN.
Thompson, R. B. (2000, June/July). Gender and age effects in preschoolers' collaborative speech: Implications for early pragmatic development. Paper presented to the 7th International Conference on Language and Social Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK.
Thompson, R. B., & Moore, K. (1999, June) Preschoolers' help-eliciting language: A replication and exploration of experimenter-gender effects. Paper presented to the annual conference of the American Psychological Society, Denver, CO.
Thompson, R. B. (1998, October) Preschoolers’ Problem-Solving Communication: Gender Differences in the Use of Help-Seeking and its Relationship with Task Performance. Paper presented to the New England Psychological Association Annual Conference. University of Rhode Island, Providence, RI.
Wechsler, S., & Thompson, R. B. (1998, December). Children’s friendship cognitions: The development of self-monitoring and empathy. Paper presentation to the annual American Association for Educational Research. Palm Springs, Florida.
Thompson, R. B., & Moore, K. (1995, September) Children's Problem-Solving Communication: Child Gender Effects, Adult Gender Effects and Their Possible Interaction, Paper presented to the British Psychological Society Annual Developmental Psychology Conference, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland.
Thompson, R. B. (1994, September) Gender Differences in Problem-Solving and Teacher Evaluation of Competence. Paper presented to the Annual Conference on Group and Interactive Learning, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland.
† USM Undergraduate Student
Thompson, R. B. (1993, April) Children's Communication Style in the Problem-Solving Setting, Paper presented to the Gender and Education in Scotland Conference, Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Conference & Professional Presentations: (invited/non-refereed)
Thompson, R. B., & Thornton, B. (2004, July). Mind reading games: The development of children's metacognitive thinking and its effects on collaborative behavior. Paper presented to the 2004 USM Summer Seminar Series.
Thompson, R. B., & Williams†, D. (2004, May). Developmental patterns in elicitation of mental state reasoning in preschool children: The effects of poverty and low education. Invited presentation to the Harvard-Radcliffe Henry Murray Research Center, Cambridge, MA.
Williams†, D., & Thompson, R. B. (2004, April) Socializing advanced thought: Parental use of metacognitive questions to preschool children and the effects of class, age and gender. Paper to be presented to the USM Thinking Matters Annual Conference, Portland, ME
Klippert†, D., & Thompson, R. B. (2003, April). Social pressures negatively impact urban schools and teachers: Mentors and schools--who really gets the benefit?" USM-Mentoring program report. Poster paper presented to the annual USM Thinking Matters Research Conference.
Thompson, R. B., & Carter†, J. (2003, April) Exploring the problem-solving discourse of low SES mother-child dyads Low SES. Poster paper presented to the annual USM Thinking Matters Research Conference.
Thompson, R. B., & Arsenault†, S. (2003, April) Collaborative speech among adolescents and parents: Gender differences in technology talk. Poster paper presented to the annual USM Thinking Matters Research Conference.
Thompson, R. B., & Dugas†, S. (2003, April) Theory-of-mind as a developmental mechanism in diminished collaborative effort in children. Poster paper presented to the annual USM Thinking Matters Research Conference.
Thompson, R. B. (2003, February). Preschool language and social development: A review of current work. Presentation to the Profs in Print series, University of Southern Maine.
Thompson, R. B., & Arsenault†, S. (2002, October) Gender in the zone of proximal development: Teacher bias in the evaluation preschool problem-solving. Invited presentation to the Human Development Colloquium Series, Boston University, Boston, MA.
Thompson, R. B. (1999, October) Collaborative speech as a feature of early metapragmatic awareness in preschool children. Invited presentation to the Educational Development Center, Watertown, Massachusetts.
Thompson, R. B. (1999, April) The Development of Preschool Problem-Solving Discourse: Class and Gender Differences and Their Implications for Pedagogical Theory and Practice. Invited presentation to the Educational Development Center, Watertown, Massachusetts.
Thompson, R. B. (1996, October) Help-Seeking and Social Motivation: Theoretical Implications for Subjective Evaluation in the Classroom. Colloquium paper presented to the Moray House Teacher Training College Developmental Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Thompson, R. B. (1996, February) Methodological Issues in the Study of Preschool Language: Coding, Contexualization and the Problems of Interpretation. Invited paper presented to the Department of Education Colloquium Series, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
† USM Undergraduate Student
Professional American Psychological Association - Division 7 - Developmental
Membership: Association for Psychological Sciences – Developmental
Society for Research in Child Development